Social reform is making another twitter scourge in efforts to change social policy, this time in the hard pressed conservative backdrop of Saudi Arabian society.

The movement is called Women2Drive on twitter and it is making quite the grass root stir amongst Saudi women who, by law, are not allowed to drive and must hire a male chauffer or find a male relative to drive them.  Sick and tired of what many women view as an unnecessary social injustice, a few brave women with foreign drivers permits took to the roads and filmed their protest on youtube for a call to more action.

In Saudi society, conservative men have viewed driving as a hazard to women with one cleric going as far to say that the position women are put in while driving could damage their ovaries.

The breaking of the ban is not considered to be a full out protest since it does not involved gatherings, rallies or procession of cars. Protest are inherently illegal in Saudi Arabia.

Women2Drive has resulted so far in five women posting youtube videos of themselves driving and with the campaign gaining leverage, the Saudi government reacted by setting up check points and increasing traffic patrols. Meanwhile, the official website of the campaign was hacked and displayed a background of image of an ominous red lighting bolt stating “Reason for the hacking: I am against women driving in the land of the two holy shrines.”

Both the upgrades in traffic patrols and the website hacking in my opinion serve to boaster the legitimacy of the movement and give the movement more wide spread notoriety. That argument is also reflected in that fact that three women in the Shoura Council, which advises the government on policy said the Transportation Ministry should consider letting women drive just this month.

Here, I think social change through cyberspace tools may once again be possible if carefully done, since the objective is specific and the concession is a relatively small one compared to other problems which people could choose to protest over. Even some Saudi newspapers have allowed editorials to be published that were  pro-women driving which says that this particular issue is a salient national issue that can not only be challenged by an independent movement, but by forces that have more creditability inside Saudi Arabian culture.

Meanwhile other activists have taken to YOUTUBE with a more  humorous approach, the key video being called “No Woman, No Drive.”