Islam and Women Videos: Manal al-Sharif, Arrested by Saudi Arabia for Driving

Al Jazeera English's report on the campaign to end the ban on women drivers in Saudi Arabia

UPDATE 1220 GMT: Manal al-Sharif has reportedly been sentenced to five days in prison for bypassing rules and regulations, driving a car within the city, enabling a journalist to interview her while driving a car, deliberately disseminating the incident to the media, inciting Saudi women to drive cars, and turning public opinion against the regulations.

Al-Sharif's lawyer has not confirmed the sentence.

Human rights activist Waleed Abu Alkhair, has posted a petition to King Abdullah on al-Sharif's behalf.

This weekend, Saudi authorities detained Manal al-Sharif, who  launched a campaign against the driving ban on women with a video of herself behind the wheel.

The Facebook page, "Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself", urged officials to lift the ban, while the YouTube footage showed al-Sharif on a test drive in the eastern city of Khobar.

"This is a volunteer campaign to help the girls of this country," al-Sharif said in the video. "At least for times of emergency, God forbid. What if whoever is driving them gets a heart attack?"

Al-Sharif was reportedly released after hours in detention, but she was taken from her home at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, and her brother was also arrested. Her original Facebook page has been removed --- a replacement has been set up by activists --- and at least one of the videos of her test drive is now "Private". Fortunately, we found a duplicate:

And there's more. In 2008, al-Sharif was profiled in a 30-minute edition of "Saudi Women", praised for becoming the first female to earn an Advanced Certificate in Computer Security. This is the first of three parts: