A Woman punished over car driving in Saudi Arabia before embargo lift

- A Woman punished over car driving in Saudi Arabia before embargo lift

- The police have punished a woman captured driving a car, a  representative on Monday, caution on lack of compliance with, embargo on female drivers due to be lifted next June.

The police have punished a woman captured driving a car, a representative said on Monday, with law enforcers caution on lack of compliance with embargo on female drivers due to be lifted next June.

The woman was requested to a station and booked for flouting traffic laws after she was visible in a video driving out of a luxury hotel in the capital Riyadh.

"We call on all Saudi citizens to respect the law and wait until the embargo on women driving formally ends," the police representative told us".

He did not state the gravity of the punishment, but added that the woman captured leaving the Ritz Carlton hotel had not been arrested. 

He said the landlord of the car was separately booked for lack of compliance on traffic law.

Last month, Saudi Arabia made a historic decision to allow women to obtain driving permits under a royal decree to take effect in June, sparking euphoria and disbelief among activists who long fought the embargo.

The Gulf kingdom was the only country in the world to have embargo on women taking the wheel, the embargo seen globally as a symbol of suppression.

But many women fear they are still easy prey for conservatives in a nation where male "guardians" - typically their fathers, husbands or brothers - have arbitrary authority to take decisions on their behalf.

The latest development comes just weeks after Saudi authorities arrested a man for allegedly threatening to attack women drivers following the royal decree.

The ministry said on Twitter that police in the kingdom's Eastern Province had arrested the suspect, who was not identified, and referred him to the public prosecutor.

"I swear to God, any woman whose car breaks down - I will burn her and her car," said a man wearing a traditional white robe who was captured in a short video distributed online earlier in the week.

Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.

Saudi media, including the Arabic-language Okaz newspaper, quoted the Eastern Province's police representative, saying the man in custody was in his 20s and that the arrest had been ordered by its governor.