In a letter posted on Twitter Tuesday, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said it is "high time" that Saudi women be allowed to drive.

He said preventing women from driving is similar to the objections some had about women receiving education in Saudi Arabia half a century ago.

"Preventing a woman from driving a car is today an issue of rights similar to the one that forbade her from receiving an education or having an independent identity," he said. "They are all unjust acts by a traditional society, far more restrictive than what is lawfully allowed by the precepts of religion."