Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that it would allow women to drive for the first time in the country’s history, ending a longstanding policy that has become a global symbol of the oppression of women, marking a significant expansion of women’s rights in the only the country that barred them from getting behind the wheel.

Saudi history offers many examples of the punishment of women for driving. In 1990, 50 women were arrested for driving and lost their passports and their jobs. In 2011 a woman was sentenced to 10 lashes for driving.  Also as  recently as late 2014, two Saudi women were detained for more than two months for defying the ban on driving when one of them attempted to cross the Saudi border.

Prior to the change many believed it was inappropriate in Saudi culture for women to drive, or that male drivers would not know how to handle having women in cars next to them.

Others argued that allowing women to drive would lead to promiscuity and the collapse of the Saudi family. Others claimed that driving harmed women’s ovaries, without any evidence to support this statement.

On its official Twitter account on Tuesday, the Saudi Foreign ministry announced that a royal decree has been issued that will allow women in the country to drive.

A committee has been formed to implement the ruling and it will present recommendations within 30 days. Then the government will have until June 24, 2018 to implement the new decree.

“This is the right time to do the right thing,” Prince Khaled bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Washington and the king’s son, told reporters in the U.S. Women will be allowed to obtain licenses without the permission of a male relative.

In the same interview, he said Tuesday that letting women drive is a “huge step forward” and that “society is ready.”