Rights group: Saudi columnist who expressed support for ending women's driving ban held
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Human Rights Watch says a Saudi schoolteacher who supported ending his country's ban on women driving has been detained.
The New York-based organization said Tuesday, citing activists, that Tariq al-Mubarak was summoned by police investigators on Sunday and taken into custody.
In a column published in the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat the day of his arrest, al-Mubarak says extremists are intimidating people from exercising their rights. He says freedoms "are not instilled in our culture, nor our interpretation of religion."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Over 60 women claimed to have gotten behind the wheel Saturday to oppose the ban. The campaign sparked protest by the kingdom's ultraconservative religious establishment.