The protest hit home for graduate student Hamoud Alnughaymishi, who is from Rio, Saudi Arabia. About 243 students enrolled in fall 2012 were from Saudi Arabia.

The protests follow years of work by Saudi women to fight certain government policies and demand equal rights.

Alnughaymishi said society is moving toward women driving, but worries the media has skewed the situation. He said people have to try to understand the society needs to take its time on the issue.

“The King and the government are not against women driving itself — the government is against the way people are demanding the way of driving,” Alnughaymishi said.

Supply chain management junior Montazar Alessa, who also is an international student from Saudi Arabia, said he thinks this push for women driving will be good for the society.

Alessa said public transportation is almost nonexistent in his hometown of Al Ahsa. Alessa said his sister works as a nurse and has to pay about six hundred riyals out of her salary to pay for a bus to take her to work every day. He said a trip that would normally take about 20 minutes in a car takes about an hour due to multiple stops.

“Society wants to push forward, and with more women working, we need women to be driving,” he said.

History professor Emine Evered, who teaches courses about women in the Middle East and Islam, said the whole world is watching, and said Saudi women’s tactics are a creative approach to the problem.

The need for international support has fueled the women’s use of social media and attempts at worldwide publicity, Evered said.

“If the government goes after them, then the whole world will talk about it,” Evered said.