U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has voiced support for women activists in the U.S. ally of Saudi Arabia following repeated calls for her public backing. Saudi women have recently challenged the nation’s ban on women driving by circulating accounts and pictures online of themselves behind the wheel.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: “This is not about the United States. It is about the women of Saudi Arabia. And what these women are doing is brave, and what they are seeking is right, but the effort belongs to them. I am moved by it, and I support them, but I want to underscore the fact that this is not coming from outside of their country. This is the women themselves seeking to be recognized. And we have raised this issue at the highest level of the Saudi government.”

Resistance to the Saudi law was inspired in part by the recent arrest of two Saudi women who defied the ban.