No special requirements for female drivers, says interior ministry

There will be no special requirements for women driving in Saudi Arabia other than carrying a valid driving license, said Mansour Al Turki, spokesman of the Kingdom’s Ministry of Interior, quoted by the Center of International Communication on its official Twitter account.

The Kingdom is developing new traffic laws that will be applied equally to both males and female drivers, Brigadier Mohamed Al Bassami, a ministry spokesman said during a press conference announcing the launch of the new system.

The regulations are being updated in response to a high number of fatalities from accidents, the interior ministry said at the conference.

Over 7,000 people have died from accidents so far this year in the Kingdom, of which 30 percent were youth aged between 18 and 30.

About 70 percent of the accidents took place outside the cities while 30 percent occurred inside the cities, the ministry said.

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman in September issued a historic decree allowing women in the country to drive for the first time.