By Stephen Kalin and Sarah Dadouch RIYADH (Reuters) - Women in Saudi Arabia hit the roads on Sunday, ushering in the end of the world's last ban on female drivers, long seen as an emblem of women's repression in the deeply conservative Muslim kingdom. "Yesterday we sat there," she added, pointing to the back. Â-Â-Â- The ban's end, ordered last September by King Salman, is part of sweeping reforms pushed by his powerful son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in a bid to transform the economy of the world's top oil exporter and open up its cloistered society. It is only a matter of time for the society to accept it, generally," said Samira al-Ghamdi, a 47-year-old psychologist from Jeddah, as she drove herself to work. Â-Â-Â- The lifting of the prohibition, which for years drew international condemnation and comparisons to the Taliban in Afghanistan, was welcomed by Western allies as proof of a new progressive trend in Saudi Arabia. Â-Â-Â- But it has been accompanied by a crackdown on dissent, including against some of the very activists who previously campaigned against the ban.



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