Manal al-Sharif, organizer in the Saudi Right-to-Drive campaign, was arrested on Sunday after posting a video of herself driving, while urging women to take part in a “drive-in” protest on June the 17th. Since then, the event’s Facebook page has been deleted, and a fake Sharif Twitter account has claimed that the campaign was off.

Eman al Nafjan, the Saudi blogger who discovered the fake account, wrote:

“Someone pretending to be her tweeted that she has repented once she realized that the call to lift the ban is an Iranian and atheist conspiracy that will lead society to moral decadence.”

The NYT speculates that al-Sharif’s arrest is meant as a warning to other would-be protesters, as the usual punishment for ‘disturbing public order and inciting public opinion’ does not involve jail time. Other Saudi bloggers have been taking steps to cover the governments suppression, re-uploading the deleted video (above) and repeating the call for participation on the June 17 movement.

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[Source: NYT]