"This is already the largest women's rights movement in Saudi history and no one here knows what will happen next, but a big company like Subaru pulling out could help change our country forever," the women's group said.

There were no reported arrests among the more than 50 women who drove on June 17.

Husband's Pledge

Maha al-Qahtani said she was pulled over by police when she went for her second spin on that day. She said the officers who stopped her demanded that her husband, Mohammed al-Qahtani, who was with her, sign a pledge saying he wouldn't let her drive. He then drove the car and signed the pledge the next day at a police station, she said.

Al-Qahtani, 37, said she was given a ticket stating she didn't have a Saudi license, an offense carrying a fine of 100 riyals ($27). Hers was issued in the U.S.

"When I posted this on Twitter, people wrote to congratulate me," she said in an interview from Riyadh today. "Getting a ticket means I'm recognized as a driver."

Al-Sharif, a 32-year-old computer-security consultant who has helped organize the women's efforts to lift the ban, was arrested in the city of al-Khobar, in Eastern Province, after she drove on more than one occasion and urged other women to drive in a video she posted on YouTube, according to Amnesty International. She was forced to sign a pledge that she wouldn't drive again and was released 10 days later, Amnesty said.

European Union Support

"The EU supports people who stand up for their right to equal treatment, wherever they are," the Office of the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Ashton, said in an e-mailed statement today. "The Saudi women who are taking to the road are exercising their right to demand that equality. They are courageous and have the High Representative's support."

In addition to Clinton's support for a lifting of the driving ban, several members of the U.S. Congress, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Representative Tammy Baldwin, have backed the campaign.

The last time a group of women in Saudi Arabia publicly defied the driving ban was Nov. 6, 1990, when U.S. troops massed in the kingdom to prepare for a war that would expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. They were spurred by images of female U.S. soldiers driving in the desert and stories of Kuwaiti women driving their children to safety.

Saudi Arabia enforces restrictions interpreted from the Wahhabi version of Sunni Islam. Some Saudis, including Sheikh Mohammed al-Nujaimi, a cleric, say the driving ban prevents the spread of vice.