My very special and first thanks go to my husband, Rafael, who, when I had lost all hope, believed that this book should be finished and seen by the world. Without his belief in me, I would have given up a long time ago. The second person I’d like to thank is Wajeha al Huwaider for putting herself at risk to document my driving in public so that it could be posted on YouTube. You are the most courageous Saudi woman I have ever met.
After my speech at the Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) in May 2012, someone in the audience asked me: “When are we going to read your book?” I was taken aback by the question; I wasn’t sure if it was a joke or meant seriously. I thought, “Why would anyone want to read my story?” To give that speech, I had to quit a job that I had held for a decade. Ten minutes before I stepped on stage, I learned that by quitting, I had forfeited the financing for my house. I was jobless, homeless, and broke. I was overwhelmed to be in Oslo and to have won the first Václav Havel Award for Creative Dissent. I didn’t even know the meaning of the word dissent and didn’t understand why everyone was calling me an “activist.” I was just a mother who worked as Information Security Consultant and was inspired by the Arab Spring to start a movement to gain a basic right: the right of mobility, for the women in my country. I owe the idea of writing this book to the woman who asked me that question, even though I don’t know her name. And my thanks to Thor Halvorssen, Alex Gladstien, and Christian Paul of OFF for giving me a podium to speak.
This book would not have come to life without the insights, patience, persistence, and guidance of my wonderful, caring agents, Peter and Amy Bernstein. Peter and Amy have been amazing champions, supporting and sustaining this project. I originally wanted the book to tell the story of Women2Drive, but after looking at a sample chapter, Peter and Amy gently but firmly told me that the book needed a personal story, that it should tell my life story. Coming from a private culture where houses are built with small, covered windows and high walls, I thought it was crazy to share the details of my life. In California, Persis Karim agreed with Peter and Amy. Her proposal led Priscilla Painton at Simon & Schuster to offer me a book contract. I’m grateful that Priscilla believed my story was worthy of a book. Without each of these people I would never have been willing to share my world, even though I do not yet know what impact publishing this book will have on my life back home.
I am deeply indebted to Lyric Winik, who agreed to be my fifth collaborator in three years, when I had all but given up the hope of finding the right writer. Lyric took more than one thousand pages of transcriptions of my interviews with previous collaborators, as well as videos and speeches and lengthy, rough chapters, and then conducted more interviews, read books and countless supplementary materials, and worked tirelessly to transform a badly organized manuscript and materials into a well-organized and finely polished book. I’m deeply in your debt for your care, professionalism, and dedication.
At Simon & Schuster, I am grateful to the wonderful insights and support from my editor, Priscilla Painton. She had always believed passionately and unwaveringly in this book. My thanks to Megan Hogan for her very careful work on the manuscript and very thoughtful questions. I am grateful as well for the support of publisher Jonathan Karp, for his very kind words and excellent advice on a title. My thanks to the entire talented team at Simon & Schuster, who have worked so hard on behalf of this book, especially Al Madocs, the production editor; Lewelin Polanco, the designer; Alison Forner, who did the cover; Beth Maglione, the production manager; and Kristen Lemire and Amanda Mulholland in managing editorial, as well as Erin Reback and Nicole McArdle in publicity and marketing, respectively.
My deep appreciation goes to Hannah Campbell, my talented translator, who captured and maintained my voice when translating my Arabic manuscript to English. Your work, dedication, and attention to detail, along with your feedback, kept me going.
Very special thanks are due my family and my friends. For my mother, Mama, for all the times you gave up the chicken thigh, your favorite part of the chicken, for me and my brother; for how you ate the leftovers of the lunch that you had spent the whole morning cooking for us. For the dresses you sewed for us, for saving bits of money the whole year so that you could take your children to spend the summer in Egypt; for the times that you shut the kitchen door in my sister’s and my faces and told us to spend our time learning physics and math instead of cooking. For all those suitors whom you rejected so we could finish our college educations, for all the things you gave up, the new clothes that you didn’t buy so that you could sew new clothes for us to wear on Eid or take us to the Funfair. For that precious pearl necklace your favorite brother gave you, which you sold to pay our house expenses, for that, and for all the other things we took for granted, forgive us, thank you, and may you rest in peace.
For my father, who never had a father, but tried his best to be a father, for coming home every night, for never forgetting my school allowance or my favorite magazine every Wednesday, for taking me to buy my favorite books every summer, for the times you let me score a goal while playing soccer when were kids. For trusting me to work away from home and to marry the man I chose. Thank you.
For my brother, Muhammad, who is always proud to have me as his sister, thank you for giving me your car keys and sitting next to me on the day that I drove, for getting me out of jail, for being my driver, my mahram, and my biggest fan. Thank you.
For Bahiya Almansour, the girl who started the Facebook event Women2Drive and inspired a movement, for Eman Alnafjan, Najla Hariri, Huda, Eman, Ameenah, Hidayah, Ahmed, Muneerah, Shakir, Talal, and all my first supporters.