Saudi women held 6 days for driving

Two Saudi women activists have been detained for nearly a week for defying the kingdom’s ban on women driving, family members and an activist said yesterday.

The women, who were arrested after driving into Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates, are supporters of a grassroots campaign launched in October last year against the ban. The two women have a combined Twitter following of more than 355,000. Loujain al-Hathloul, 25, set out to defy the kingdom’s ban on women driving by crossing into her country from the neighboring UAE, where she has a driver’s licence.

—Agencies