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Saudi Arabia

One Year Later, Saudi Women Relaunch Campaign For Right To Drive

L'ORIENT-LE JOUR(Lebanon)

RIYADH – "We just want to enjoy the right to drive, like all women in the world..."

This request is clear, and it is set to be made -- once again -- directly to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. One year after the launching of a campaign entitled "Women 2 Drive," Saudi Arabia women presented a new online petition this week to claim the right to drive.

Although the Koran does not forbid women from driving, Saudi Arabia has based their ban on a fatwa from powerful conservative religious leaders. Saudi Arabia, an ultraconservative Islamic kingdom, is the only country in the world that forbids women from driving.

In the petition, women are also asking for "the opening of driving schools for women only, as well as the right for them to get driver licenses." In addition, they thank King Abdullah for giving them the right to vote, from 2015 onwards, while being careful to add that they don't want to "infringe any prevailing laws."

The movement started in May 2011, after Manal al-Chérif was kept in prison for 10 days for adding a video on Youtube in which she was driving (see below), the Lebanese newspaper L'Orient-Le Jour reports. Icon of "Women 2 Drive," Manal al-Chérif already signed the petition that should be handed to the King on June 17.

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eyes on the U.S.

A Foreign Eye On America's Stunning Drop In Life Expectancy

Over the past two years, the United States has lost more than two years of life expectancy, wiping out 26 years of progress. French daily Les Echos investigates the myriad of causes, which are mostly resulting in the premature deaths of young people.

Image of a person holding the national flag of the United States in front of a grave.

A person holding the national flag of the United States in front of a grave.

Hortense Goulard


On May 6, a gunman opened fire in a Texas supermarket, killing eight people, including several children, before being shot dead by police. Particularly bloody, this episode is not uncommon in the U.S.: it is the 22nd mass killing (resulting in the death of more than four people) this year.

Gun deaths are one reason why life expectancy is falling in the U.S. But it's not the only one. Last December, the American authorities confirmed that life expectancy at birth had fallen significantly in just two years: from 78.8 years in 2019, it would be just 76.1 years in 2021.

The country has thus dropped to a level not reached since 1996. This is equivalent to erasing 26 years of progress.Life expectancy has declined in other parts of the world as a result of the pandemic, but the U.S. remains the developed country with the steepest decline — and the only one where this trend has not been reversed with the advent of vaccines. Most shocking of all: this decline is linked above all to an increase in violent deaths among the youngest members of the population.

Five-year-olds living in the U.S. have a one in 25 chance of dying before their 40th birthday, according to calculations by The Financial Times. For other developed countries, including France, this rate is closer to one in 100. Meanwhile, the life expectancy of a 75-year-old American differs little from that of other OECD countries.

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