DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A Saudi woman defiantly drove through the nation’s capital Friday while others brazenly cruised by police patrols in the first forays of a campaign that hopes to ignite a road rebellion against the male-only driving rules in the ultraconservative kingdom.

It was a rare grass-roots challenge to the Western-backed Saudi monarchy as it tries to ride out the Arab world’s wave of change, and a lesson in how the uprisings are taking root in different ways. In this case, the driver’s seat was turned into a powerful platform for women’s rights in a country where wives and daughters have almost no political voice.

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A Saudi Arabian woman drives a car Friday in Riyadh in a campaign to defy the monarchy’s male-only driving rules. About 40 women took part. No arrests were reported, but one woman was ticketed for driving without a license. The Associated Press

“We’ve seen that change is possible,” said Maha al-Qahtani, a computer specialist at Saudi’s Ministry of Education. She said she drove for 45 minutes around the capital, Riyadh, with her husband in the passenger seat. “This is Saudi women saying, ‘This is our time to make a change.’ “

About 40 women took part in Friday’s show of defiance. No arrests or incidents of violence were reported, though al-Qahtani was later ticketed for driving without a license.

But the demonstration could bring difficult choices for the Saudi regime, which has so far has escaped major unrest. Officials could either order a crackdown on the women or give way to the demands at the risk of angering clerics and other conservative groups.

It also could encourage wider reform bids by Saudi women, who are not allowed to vote and must obtain permission from a male guardian to travel or take a job.

Saudi Arabia is the only country that bans women from driving. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers, and those who cannot afford the $300 to $400 a month for a driver must rely on male relatives to drive them to work, school, shopping or the doctor.

A similar effort more than two decades ago faltered. In November 1990, when U.S. troops were deployed to Saudi Arabia before the invasion to oust Iraqi troops from Kuwait, about 50 women got behind the wheel and drove family cars. They were jailed for one day, had their passports confiscated and lost their jobs.

The official start of the latest campaign follows the 10-day detention last month of 32-year-old Manal al-Sherif after she posted video of herself driving. She was released after reportedly signing a pledge that she would not drive again or speak publicly.

Her case, however, sparked an outcry from international rights groups and brought direct appeals to Saudi’s rulers to lift the driving ban.

On Friday, activists said security forces mostly stood by in an apparent effort to avoid clashes or international backlash. Eman al-Nafjan, a prominent Saudi-based blogger, said some women drove directly in front of police units, which made no attempts to intervene. Women participating in the campaign also flooded a senior traffic police officer with text messages saying: “Saudi women demand to drive.”

Al-Qahtani went out for another spin shortly before sundown, partly to encourage more women. Realizing she was taking a risk, she packed a change of clothes with her. Sure enough, a traffic officer stopped her and her husband on the highway.

After an order to hand over the keys and a conversation on the side with her husband, the officer decided to give her a ticket for driving without a license.

“When I had my ticket, I felt like I did something. I made them understand that we need our right,” she said. “I feel great. … It is a good sign.”

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