Here’s Why People Are Taking Issue With This Vogue Cover Featuring A Saudi Princess Driving A Car

Vogue Arabia is facing backlash after featuring a Saudi princess in the driver seat of a car on their cover.

The controversial move comes after 11 women’s rights activists were detained in Saudi Arabia last month for being at the forefront of a campaign to end the gendered driving ban.

The issue celebrating the “trailblazing women of Saudi Arabia” is in anticipation of the Kingdom’s June 24 removal of the ban on women drivers.

The cover shows the Princess Hayfa bint Abdullah al-Saud in the driver’s seat of a convertible wearing leather gloves, high heels and a loose headscarf above the headline “Driving Force”.

“This month, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is putting women in the driving seat — and so are we,” Vogue said in its announcement of the cover. The Princess spoke to Vogue about her support for the proposed change:

In our country, there are some conservatives who fear change. For many, it’s all they have known. Personally, I support these changes with great enthusiasm.

However, social media users and campaigners blasted the magazine cover as being tone deaf towards the campaigners that were detained.

After @VogueAlArabiya thought it’d make sense to feature HRH in June 2018 issue on “trailblazing women of #Saudi Arabia” & their driving, Saudi women have taken to Twitter to object & replaced her image with 3 of arrested activists labeled as “traitors”: Aziza, Loujain, & Eman. pic.twitter.com/SOZA28YS72

— Nora Abdulkarim نورة الدعيجي (@Ana3rabeya) May 31, 2018

Is Vogue Arabia celebrating the wrong Saudi women?

While the Saudi women who campaigned for the driving ban could face the death penalty, this Saudi Princess is on the magazine cover and being celebrated as "trailblazing" https://t.co/hsfW4dYdrJ

— Osha Mahmoud (@Osha001) May 31, 2018

A princess on the cover of Vogue Arabia to celebrate lifting the ban while the women driving activists are in jail for treason https://t.co/I1uqgpjlbr

— 🇵🇸هالة الدوسري (@Hala_Aldosari) May 31, 2018

I'm laughing so hard that my irony glands are about to burst. A Saudi princess is on the cover of @VogueArabia to celebrate women finally being allowed to drive. Yet, her family is currently jailing the pioneering women that actually fought for that right. https://t.co/2dLXes4v5N

— Biejan Poor Toulabi (@btoulabi) May 31, 2018

It has been reported by Amnesty International that 4 of the 11 women detained have now been released. Until the lifting of the ban, only men were allowed licences and women who drove in public risked being arrested and fined.

Because of this strict law, many families had to pay to employ private drivers to help transport female relatives. The ban on driving is only one example of the many areas of life where women in Saudi Arabia have their human rights denied. Women are still unable to travel, engage in paid work or higher education, or marry without the permission of a male guardian.

• vogue