RIYADH – Saudi Arabia has arrested at least five people, mostly women whopreviously agitated for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom’s maleguardianship system, rights activists said on Friday.

Last year’s decision to end a decades-old ban on women driving cars, set tocome into effect next month, has been hailed as proof of a new progressivetrend in the deeply conservative Muslim country under reform-minded CrownPrince Mohammed bin Salman.

But it has also been accompanied by an apparent crackdown on dissentagainst critics, ranging from Islamist clerics to some of the very womenwho campaigned for years to end the ban.

One of the rights activists, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymityfor fear of reprisals, said the latest arrests were tied to advocacy forwomen driving: “They detained them because they do not want them topublicly claim success.”

Government spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Women will be allowed to drive starting on June 24. The authorities haveopened driving schools in preparation, instituted new regulations and hiredwomen traffic police.

Activists and analysts say, however, that the government is keen to avoidrewarding activism, which is forbidden in the absolute monarchy, and seemsdetermined not to antagonize sensitivities of religious conservativesopposed to modernisation.

Women who previously participated in protests against the ban told Reuterslast year that two dozen activists had received phone calls instructingthem not to comment on the decree.

Some of those arrested this week spoke out about the ban after thedecision, though it was not clear what specifically led to their arrest norwhat charges, if any, had been made against them.

Dozens of clerics seen by the government as dabbling in politics weredetained in September, a move that appears to have paved the way forlifting the driving ban.

Ending the ban is part of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 reform programme aimedat diversifying the economy away from oil and opening up Saudis’ cloisteredlifestyles.

Prince Mohammed, 32, is the face of that change. Many young Saudis regardhis recent ascent to power as proof their generation is taking a centralplace in running a country whose patriarchal traditions have for decadesmade power the province of the old and blocked women’s progress.