Saudi Activists Rev Up Women's Right-to-Drive Campaign

Activists in Saudi Arabia are revving up a right-to-drive campaign using social media in the world's only country that bans women from getting behind the wheel, a campaigner said on Thursday.

An online petition asking the Saudi government to "lift the ban on women driving" has attracted more than 2,400 signatures ahead of the campaign's culmination on October 26.

Activists are also encouraging to women to post pictures of themselves driving using a Twitter hashtag, as well as on Instagram and YouTube.

"We are trying to do something to refresh this demand" that women be allowed to drive, one activist, Nasima al-Sada, told Agence France Presse.

"It doesn't stop," she said of the national campaign.

"We are asking the ladies to sit behind the wheel and take action" on October 26 "or any day", Sada said from the kingdom's Eastern Province.

Last year, activists also focused their demands on October 26 -- which they call a "symbolic" date as part of efforts to press for women's right to drive.

At least 16 Saudi women were fined for taking the wheel on October 26 last year.

Forced to cover from head to toe, Saudi women still need permission from a male guardian to work and marry.