Reading Susana Galan’s piece on the Women2Drive resistance movement, I cannot help but think of Pascal Menoret’s meditation on youth resistance movements in Joyriding in Riyadh: Oil, Urbanism and Road Revolt.

Menoret’s book documents the development of ‘joyriding’, a phenomenon of dangerous driving on highways in Riyadh, among Saudi male youth. He traces its origins to the urbanism that restructured Saudi spatial arrangements and its communities, while consolidating the power of the ruling elite. Through his ethnographic work, Menoret highlights that joyriding arises from the youth’s disenchantment with their lives and their inability to self-actualize. Using multiple lenses including class and gender, Menoret provides a kaleidoscopic image of these groups and the ways in which they attempt to activate the Saudi streets through their life-risking activities.

How do these networks of men and their fatalistic driving habits relate to Women2Drive?

In our class, we have often spoken of the importance of transnational solidarity movements. This is an extremely important strategy to further advocate for causes. However, it should not come at the expense of neglecting the possibilities for local solidarity networks. This is where Joyriding and Women2Drive come together.

It is worth noting two of Galan’s points: Firstly, she highlights that women who take part or lead the Women2Drive movement are often of a higher class, who are trying to create a dialogue with transnational audiences (Galan, 178) Secondly, she mentions that there are men who have expressed their support for women’s driving (Ibid., 178)

What these two points illustrate is the potential for solidarity connections between these two groups. Firstly, the women2drive’s attempt to create dialogue with Western audiences may be seen as an imperialist move that can detract from its potency. Secondly, as Galan mentions, the guardianship system structures society such that women would need the approval of men for a number of activities. Yet, if there are men willing to push for women’s right to drive, there is clearly a space for both Saudi men and women to collaborate to further this cause.

This is where the youth Joyriding circuits can be useful. As inherently anti-regime groups, there seems to be parallels between the Women2Drive and joyriding movement in their desires to dismantle and reclaim some of the prohibitions produced by the regime and its stringent rules.

This is not to say that such a solidarity movement will be easy, but rather that it offers an exciting opportunity for both groups. The difference of course between these groups is that the joyriders work against the government for no clear purpose, whereas the Women2Drive movement is directed towards a specific concern. In that sense, Women2Drive seems more likely to work with the rules to achieve its goals, as Galan points. However, these groups do not necessarily have two work together, but rather bolster each other and be part of each other’s agendas and strategies to reform the regime.