DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — A Saudi woman detained for defying the ultraconservative kingdom’s ban on female drivers was released yesterday after growing international pressure for her freedom, a rights activist said.
Manal al-Sherif, 32, became the center of a growing Internet campaign that also drew attention to plans for a June 17 rally calling for a mass driving protest to challenge the restriction.
Waleed Aboul Khair, the Saudi activist, credited Sherif’s release on “pressure from inside and outside’’ Saudi Arabia, which follows an austere brand of Islam known as Wahhabism that is enforced by morality police.
