
 
 Saudi activist Loujain Hathloul as she drove toward the Saudi border in December 2014. (Loujain Hathloul/AP) 
 
 She was jailed for 10 weeks for driving. But Saudi officials will let her run. 
 
 In a surprise reversal Wednesday, Saudi Arabia lifted its election block on activist-slash-candidate Loujain Hathloul, who gained fame last year by live-streaming her defiance of the kingdom’s ban driving for women. 
 
 The decision clears the way for Hathloul’s name to be on Saturday’s ballot in Riyadh as part of nationwide races for municipal council seats – the first elections in the ultraconservative kingdom to allow women to compete and vote. More than 900 women are among the nearly 7,000 candidates. 
 
 Until late Wednesday, Hathloul was blackballed along with some other prominent women activists – including two human rights campaigners. For weeks, Hathloul had pushed back, seeking some leverage to get officials to reconsider the ban. 
 
 She gave interviews to anyone who would listen. She used connections within the ruling system to lobby for a review of the ban. 
 
 “Basically, I annoyed them,” she said. “I guess it worked. It’s amazing news.” 
 
 Saudi officials have given no public explanations at the rollback -- just as they made no formal disclosures on the reasons for keeping some candidates off the election lists. 
 
 But what likely tipped the scales was a relentless social media blitz by Hathloul’s supporters. Saudi rulers have long conceded ground to online critics – giving them ample room to grouse, network and muse. Crackdowns come when it crosses over into what authorities perceive as challenges to the state or status quo – meaning the ruling family and the powerful religious establishment that has a hand in all key decisions. 
 
 [If you keep saying Saudi Arabia is like ISIS, you might get sued] 
 
 This week, however, all of Saudi officialdom is looking to make a good impression with the world’s media shifting its attention to the elections. It's unclear whether the ban will remain in place for the two other women rights activists. 
 
 “After I was banned, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t ignored,” said Hathloul. “This means, of course, making some noise.” 
 
 She’s no stranger to that. In late 2014, Hathloul got in a car in the United Arab Emirates and drove toward Saudi Arabia with a video camera and her UAE driver’s license. Part of the trip was live-streamed onto the Web. 
 
 She was arrested by Saudi border officials and spent 73 days in jail, making her for a time among the best-known Saudi activists. 
 
 A year earlier, her husband-to-be, a well-known Saudi satirist named Farhad Albutairi, helped produce one of his memorable videos: “No Woman, No Drive” to the tune of the Bob Marley classic “No Woman, No Cry.” 
 
 Hathloul said her initial motivation to run for a council seat was simply to boost the number of women taking part. After the ban, she now wonders if she could pull off a win. 
 
 “The goal has changed,” she said. “I want to make a point. It’s a personal thing now. The municipal councils have nothing to do with the driving ban. The councils are just about fixing up the community. The driving ban is another fight. It's definitely not forgotten.” ||||| A female activist who was jailed for 10 weeks for violating Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving is running for office after a surprise U-turn by the government. 
 
 Loujain al-Hathloul made international headlines last year, when she filmed herself driving from the United Arab Emirates to the Saudi Arabian border in protest against the restrictions on women drivers. 
 
 Police forced her to wait in the car overnight after confiscating her passport. She and a friend who drove supplies to her from Dubai, Maysaa al-Amoudi, were arrest after being ordered to cross the border in their vehicles. 
 
 They were referred to a Saudi terrorism court because of their posts on social media and jailed for 10 weeks and have not stopped their campaign to overturn rules forbidding women from driving and stipulating that they must be accompanied by male chaperones. 
 
 Ms al-Hathloul announced her intention to run for a seat on the local council in Riyadh earlier this year but was swiftly blacklisted among several other women by Saudi authorities. 
 
 But the move was reversed on Wednesday following an appeal, clearing the way for her name to be on Saturday’s ballot in the city. 
 
 Ms al-Hathloul told the Washington Post she lobbied against the ban and conducted media interviews and a social media campaign to put pressure on the government. 
 
 My appeal has been accepted, I'm back on the candidates' list. I'm back in the game! pic.twitter.com/poJ68NOUvt — لجين هذلول الهذلول (@LoujainHathloul) December 9, 2015 
 
 “Basically, I annoyed them,” she said. “I guess it worked. It’s amazing news… The municipal councils have nothing to do with the driving ban. 
 
 “The councils are just about fixing up the community. The driving ban is another fight.” 
 
 Her husband, a Saudi satirist named Fahad Albutairi, helped produce a viral video called “No Woman, No Drive” taking a light-hearted look at the law to the tune of a famous Bob Marley song. 
 
 Women will be running for office and voting for the first time after being granted limited rights in 2011 by the late King Abdullah – there are thought to be more than 900 women are among the nearly 7,000 candidates.
– What a difference a year makes. In 2014, activist Loujain al-Hathloul was arrested for purposefully violating Saudi Arabia's law against women driving, the Washington Post reports. This weekend, Saudis will be able to cast a vote for her. Al-Hathloul received international fame when she live-streamed herself behind the wheel. After her arrest, she was forced to wait in her car overnight before being sentenced in a Saudi terrorism court, according to the Independent. She spent 73 days in jail. Saturday marks the first time women will be able to vote and run for office in Saudi Arabia, the Post reports. Al-Hathloul threw her hat into the ring for municipal council, but Saudi officials banned her from running. No explanation was given. Those same officials reversed that decision Wednesday—again no explanation was given—and al-Hathloul will appear on the ballot, the Independent reports. According to the Post, al-Hathloul credits her constant interviews and lobbying for the government's turnaround. "Basically, I annoyed them," she says. "I guess it worked." Al-Hathloul says she was originally running just to boost the number of female candidates—more than 900 of the nearly 7,000 candidates on Saturday's ballot are women—but then the government tried to stop her. "The goal has changed," she says. "I want to make a point. It's a personal thing now." While not under the purview of a municipal council member, al-Hathloul is still dedicated to repealing Saudi Arabia's ban on female drivers, the Independent reports.