Saudi Women Behind the Wheels: Analysis of the Saudis' Twitter Discourse Towards the Women Driving Decree

This study examined the Saudi Twitter responses and shared narratives towards the 2017 women driving decree, a major social reform introduced by the government reform plan, Vision 2030. The study used the theoretical frameworks of Networked Framing theory (Meraz & Papacharissi, 2013), connective action (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012; 2013) to explore the nature of interaction among the Saudis networked publics. Furthermore, Intersectionality (Davis, 2008; McCall, 2005) was used to tease out the intersection of different social structures, cultural, religious, and economic factors that influenced the discourse of women driving. The study employed a mixed-method approach that combined quantitative semantic and social network analyses (SNA) with qualitative discourse analysis. Twitter was an effective tool for mediating Saudi public opinion. The Saudi population seemed to be actively and acutely engaging in using hashtags to preserve their traditions, social values and support their positions. The active use of Twitter led to the emergence of several publics across the network. The Saudi public sphere proved to be a product of political, social, cultural, and religious factors. Saudi society disclosed its vulnerability and willingness to change in response to the new socio-cultural reforms in the country.