FOR the first time ever, a group of women in the only country that bans female drivers has formed a committee to lobby for the right to get in the driver's seat.

They plan to petition Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah in the next few days.

Members of the Committee of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars say they want to have their petition delivered to the king by Sunday, Saudi Arabia's national day.

"We would like to remind officials that this is, as many have said, a social and not religious or political issue," said Fowziyyah al Oyouni, a founding member of the committee. "And since it is a social issue, we have the right to lobby for it."

The government is not likely to respond to the plea because the issue is so sensitive and divisive. But al Oyouni said the petition will at least highlight what many Saudi men and women consider as a "stolen right".

The driving ban applies to all women, Saudi and foreign, and forces families to hire live-in drivers.

Women whose families cannot afford £200 a month for a driver rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.

The last time the question of women drivers was raised was two years ago, when Mohammed al Zulfa, a member of the unelected Consultative Council, asked his colleagues to merely think about studying the possibility of allowing women over the age of 35 or 40 to be allowed to drive unchaperoned on city streets but accompanied by a male guardian on highways. His suggestion touched off a fierce controversy that included calls for his removal from the council and stripping him of Saudi citizenship as well as accusations that he was encouraging women to commit the double sins of discarding their veils and mixing with men.-AP