HEELS ON WHEELS
Women zip around streets soon after ban is lifted at midnight playing music
Samar Al-Moqren drives her car through Riyadh’s streets for the first time just after midnight, when the law allowing women to drive took effect in Riyadh early on Sunday. Saudi Arabia will allow women to drive ending the world’s only ban on female motorists, a historic reform marred by what rights groups call an expanding crackdown on activists.
Riyadh, June 24: Saudi women celebrated taking the wheel for the first time in decades on Sunday as the kingdom overturned the world’s only ban on female motorists, a historic reform expected to usher in a new era of social mobility.
The much-trumpeted move is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to modernise the conservative petrostate — but it has been dented by the jailing of female activists who long opposed the driving ban.
Women in Riyadh and other cities began zipping around streets bathed in amber light soon after the ban was lifted at midnight, with some blasting music from behind the wheel.
“I feel free like a bird,” said talkshow host and writer Samar Almogren as she cruised across the capital. TV presenter Sabika al-Dosari called it “a historic moment for every Saudi woman” before driving a sedan across the border to the kingdom of Bahrain.
The lifting of the ban, long a glaring symbol of repression, is expected to be transformative for many women, freeing them from dependence on private chauffeurs or male relatives.
Euphoria was mixed with disbelief as women across the kingdom flooded social media with videos of their maiden car rides, with a heavy presence of policemen, some of whom distributed flowers to the first-time drivers.
“This is a great achievement,” billionaire Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal said as his daughter Reem drove a family SUV, with his granddaughters applauding from the back seat.
“Now women have their freedom,” he added in a video posted on Twitter.
Many Saudi women ebulliently declared plans online to drive for coffee or ice cream, a mundane experience elsewhere in the world, but a dazzling novelty in the desert kingdom.
THE LIFTING of the ban, long a glaring symbol of repression, is expected to be transformative for women IT WILL free them from dependence on private chauffeurs or male relatives