Saudi Arabia, a country where women finally got allowed, albeit partially, to ride bicycles and motorcycles only this year and were to vote and be voted for in 2011, has allowed the publication in local newspapers of a highly controversial advertorial that called for the criminalisation of domestic violence among its female population.

The fact the advertorial, the country's first anti-domestic abuse ad, got publicised no less in national newspapers on April 17 and 18, 2013 was already a triumph on its own.

The advertorial showed a full-page picture of a woman dressed in a burqa with a clearly visible black eye. Underneath ran a caption that read "Some things can't be covered." It also listed phone numbers for local domestic abuse shelters.

Part of a campaign titled 'No More Abuse,' the advertorial sought to support a pending legislation that seeks to criminalise domestic abuse in the Muslim kingdom.

It was Memac Ogilvy, a Riyadh-based agency that concocted the concept of the advert. However, coining it was less difficult than actually searching a means on how to release it to the public's awareness. The agency approached the King Khalid Foundation which was supportive of the concept but nonetheless didn't know if it should delve into it.

Until no less than the foundation's director, Saudi Princess HRH Banderi A.R. Al Faisal, gave the go signal.

"My media and PR team were a bit nervous going into this, saying, 'Are you sure you want to do this?'" she was quoted by CNN. "I didn't understand why. I don't understand what is so controversial. Who will say, 'Yes, it's ok for women to be beaten up'?"

Saudi Arabia has no laws that protect domestic violence victims or even spousal rape. In fact, women, despite this age of rapidly-changing technology and global warming, still have to get the permission of their male guardians to work or travel abroad and even to undergo surgery.

"For several years, domestic abuse was sort of the elephant in the room. There was nowhere for a woman to go if she was abused because a system wasn't set up to handle that," HRH Al Faisal said.

Most recent figures according to a State Department's human rights report estimate 16 to 50 per cent of Saudi wives suffer from domestic violence or some kind of spousal abuse. Both rape and domestic violence "may be seriously underreported," according to the State Department report.