Saudi Arabia on Tuesday announced that women will be allowed to drive for the first time in the ultra-conservative kingdom, fulfilling a key demand of women's rights activists who faced detention for defying the ban.
The kingdom, which announced the change on Tuesday, was the only the country in the world to bar women from driving and for years had garnered negative publicity internationally for detaining women who defied the ban.
Women's rights activists since the 1990s have been pushing for the right to drive, saying it represents their larger struggle for equal rights under the law.
The state-run Saudi Press Agency and state TV reported the news late Tuesday evening, saying a royal order was issued for both men and women to be issued drivers' licenses.
Women, however, will not be allowed to obtain licenses immediately. A committee will be formed to look into how to implement the new order, which is slated to come into effect in June 2018.
A spokesperson for the State Department in Washington, a key ally of the Saudi regime, welcomed the move as a "great step in the right direction".
Women in Saudi Arabia have long had to rely on male relatives to get to work, run errands and simply move around.
They are bound by law to wear long robes and a headscarf and require the consent of a male guardian for most legal actions.
King Salman and his young son and heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, have tested the waters though, allowing women into the country's main stadium in the capital, Riyadh, for national day celebrations this month.
Recent improvements for women included granting them the right to vote and run in elections for the first time in late 2015.
These an other modernizing reforms have sparked tensions with influential clerics upon whose support the ruling family relies.
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