In the Wall Street Journal, Sohrab Amari interviews Manal al-Sharif, the young Saudi woman who dared to drive - and to defy the threats and intimidation by which the no-driving rule is enforced.
The campaign started with a Facebook page urging Saudi women to drive on a designated day, June 17, 2011. At first the page created great enthusiasm among activists. But then critics began injecting fear on and off the page. "The opponents were saying that 'there are wolves in the street, and they will rape you if you drive,' " Ms. Sharif recalls. "There needed to be one person who could break that wall, to make the others understand that 'it's OK, you can drive in the street. No one will rape you.' "