Saudi woman films man harassing her while driving, leads to his arrest

Saudi women finally hit the kingdom's roads on June 24, the historic day when the country officially granted them their right to drive. 

While the historic milestone has been a huge positive leap for Saudi women, it hasn't been all good news. 

Since the ban lift on women driving took effect, several harassment cases targeting female drivers have been reported. However, Saudi women are refusing to stay silent about them, heroically exposing their harassers and holding them accountable. 

One of these women is Dr. Samar Khan, a Saudi woman who was harassed by a male driver while driving her car on one of the kingdom's highways over the weekend. 

In a now-viral Twitter thread, Khan explains why she filmed the harassment incident and refused to let her harasser go before teaching him a lesson. 

"As I was driving my car today, I was harassed by a young man on The King's highway. The man kept on chasing after my car, going right and left in the three lanes ahead of us! When he realized we were filming him, he sped away. He put my life and my family's life in danger and also risked the lives of those driving around us. I reported him to the kingdom's authorities." 

In a series of tweets, Khan added that after she reported the matter to police, they identified and detained the harasser. 

She later decided to drop charges against him after his family pleaded his case. However, Khan refused to leave the police department before she asked the 20-year-old to apologize and vow to respect women. 

Explaining why she decided to share her story, the college dean wrote: 

"Case in point: To every woman out there, don't remain silent when it comes to your rights! Police were beyond responsive to my case and all the reporting procedures only took a few hours. Even if the harasser didn't get punished over this because I forwent my rights in the case (for the reasons I explained in the thread) I still taught him a lesson he'll never forget."

Khan said she didn't post footage of the incident online because it would have been illegal to do so. 

"If this story is true - even though I doubt that it is - this doesn't count as sexual harassment under the first edict in the anti-sexual harassment law!"  

"Thank you. You triumphed for yourself and for all women."

"This is the best thing ever! This is a lesson he'll never forget!"

"You shouldn't have let go of your rights in the case, let him rot in jail to learn a real lesson." 

Just last week, a Saudi woman identified as Salma Al Sharif was reportedly threatened and harassed by a group of young men for practicing her basic right to drive.

After she shared her story with local media, saying that several men demanded she stop driving because it was "against the will of God," her harassers set her car on fire.

They were later arrested by police and will now face legal consequences. 

Prior to the kingdom's official ban lift, a video of a female Saudi motorist being harassed on one of the kingdom's highways also went viral on Twitter. 

In it, a group of men filmed themselves as they verbally harassed the woman and her friends after they spotted them driving by. 

The incident led many to call on authorities to finalize the anti-harassment law which has since been passed by the kingdom's officials.