The decision comes amid rising international pressure over this long-overdue change of archaic laws. The royal decree was read out live on state television.

Saudi Arabia is the last country in the world to allow women to drive. For decades, it has seen women driving as an infringement of its strict laws.

The announcement was met with much jubilation across the world. Men and women alike welcomed the decision wholeheartedly.

“This is amazing,” said Fawzia Al Bakhr, a Saudi university professor, who had been campaigning for the right to drive for almost two decades. “We have been waiting for a very long time,” she said over the phone. 

Saudi Arabia is governed by strict Sharia laws that do not allow for the mingling of men and women, and other such freedoms.