This week in class, we watched a video and did readings about the group of 60 or more Saudi women who “dared to drive” in 2013 — despite the kingdom-wide ban on female drivers. This was the story of the Women2Drive Campaign. Our discussion was certainly poignant, though I’m not certain I agree with all claims made, delving into the complexities of  this woman’s representation of the Muslim female experience, its role in potentially harmful Western narratives, and TED’s commercialization of multifaceted global issues. (Interesting to note, was the very next recommended video “Dare to Educate Afghan Girls.” Hmm.)

However, I think a huge aspect of the discussion we missed out on was the fact that a protest occurred at all. It needs to be recognized that, for a number of reasons, Saudi Arabia has a history of very little to no culture of public demonstration or protest. Scholars have marked many reasons for this phenomena, especially in the wake of an Arab Spring that largely never…sprung….in the Gulf countries. (Of course, there was a largely inconsequential uprising in Bahrain that spilled into minor protests in the Eastern Province, but nowhere near the regime-threatening power witnessed in Egypt, Syria, Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen.) Prime factors identified in this lack of prominent public opposition have included King Abdullah’s relative popularity, the appeal of idle oil wealth, lack of US pressure towards “democratization,” and lack of oppositional leadership within the kingdom. And although a “Day of Rage” was organized via Facebook for March 2011 in Riyadh, only one protester dared to defy a KSA-wide ban on public demonstrations, and was quickly arrested.

Interestingly to me, is the fact that this lack of traditional protests (i.e. large amounts of people marching in the streets, picket signs, organized chants, etc.) certainly does not indicate a lack of public opposition moreover. I think, when observing nations like Saudi Arabia, that it is important to consider nontraditional forms of protest. For example, one may look to social media as a huge indicator of public opposition. For example, formerly incarcerated “treasonous” Saudi cleric and activist Salman Al Odah has become a hugely influential public figure. With over 12 million Twitter followers, his influence and appeal to a large Saudi subpopulation cannot be denied. And although he now operates as a “supporter of the Saud regime,” all of this public attention was amounted during his time speaking against the regime.

In the same vein of Twitter as public opinion assessment, the tags #SaudiCorruption and #PoliticalPrisoners have gone through intermittent periods of trending since 2012. And remarkably, there has been no evident efforts to veil the public’s political opinions online, so long as they are not taking to the streets.

I believe that the Women2Drive Campaign witnessed in Saudi should be considered in this same protest genre as twitter protesting. The true power of the action is contained not in its being witnessed publicly, but rather in the online documentation of the action. These women weren’t witnessed driving around, but their virtual statement conveys their message of protest. In this way, although they were technically “taking to the streets,” their protest is one of online presence, not traditional protest. It is important to recognize that this type of online organizing (often referred to as hashtag activism or slacktivism) is not as ineffective as it may often be portrayed. Rather, it simply has a different intention (to gauge and rally public opinion behind a cause) and a different time frame (often building momentum over time as opposed to in one day of action). But it is hardly inconsequential. In fact, just this past fall, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal spoke out in support of the Women2Drive Campaign, and public voiced his opinion that the regime should highly consider a shift towards equal driving laws. Slowly but surely, different forms of protest culture can take effect, and it is imperative to realize that protest does not look the same from community to community.