Saudi Arabia issues its first driving licenses to women

Saudi lifts its decades-long ban on female drivers

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia yesterday began issuing its first driving licenses to women in decades, authorities said, just weeks before the historic lifting of the conservative kingdom’s ban on female motorists. Ten Saudi women swapped their foreign licenses for Saudi ones in multiple cities, including the capital Riyadh, as the kingdom prepares to end its ban on June 24.

The move, which follows a government crackdown on women activists, is part of a much-publicized liberalization drive launched by powerful Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman as he seeks to modernize the petro-state. “Ten Saudi women made history on Monday when they were issued driving licenses,” said the Information Ministry’s Centre for International Communication (CIC).” Expectations are that next week an additional 2,000 women will join the ranks of licensed drivers in the kingdom.”

The official Saudi Press Agency said the swap came after women applicants were made to undergo a “practical test”, but it did not offer details. “It’s a dream come true that I am about to drive in the kingdom,” Rema Jawdat, one of the women to receive a license, was quoted as saying by the CIC. “Driving to me represents having a choice-the choice of independent movement. Now we have that option,” added Jawdat, an official at the Ministry Of Economy and Planning who has previous driving experience in Lebanon and Switzerland.

In preparation for the lifting of the ban, Saudi Arabia last week passed a landmark law to criminalize sexual harassment, introducing a prison term of up to five years and a maximum penalty of 300,000 riyals ($80,000). Saudi Arabia, the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive, has long faced global criticism for what is seen as oppression of women. But Prince Mohammed, who recently undertook a global tour aimed at reshaping his kingdom’s austere image, has sought to break with long-held restrictions on women. The self-styled reformer has also ended a decades-long ban on cinemas, allowed mixed-gender concerts and clipped the powers of the long-feared religious police.

Saudi Arabia’s first cinema in more than 35 years opened on April 18 in Riyadh, the capital after agreeing with AMC Entertainment Holdings to open up to 40 theatres over the next five years. Movie theatres are not be segregated by gender like most other public places in the deeply conservative Muslim kingdom, and the first screening was Marvel’s superhero movie “Black Panther,” a source said.

Saudi Arabia had some cinemas in the 1970s but its powerful clerics closed them, reflecting rising Islamist influence throughout the Arab region at the time. In 2017, the government said it would lift the ban as part of ambitious economic and social reforms pushed by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. He visited the United States - seeking investments to help broaden the economy and lessen its dependence on oil.

Saudi Arabians are avid consumers of Western media and culture. Despite the cinema ban, Hollywood films and recent television series are widely watched at home and discussed. AMC’s first cinema will be located in the King Abdullah Financial District in a building originally intended to be a symphony concert hall, AMC Chief Executive Adam Aron said in an interview. The main theatre will have about 500 leather seats, orchestra and balcony levels and marble bathrooms, he said. Three more screens will be added by mid-summer. “We think it’s going to be the prettiest movie theatre in the world,” Aron said. “It’s a dramatic building.”

To serve a population of more than 32 million, most of whom are under the age of 30, Saudi Arabia wants to set up around 350 cinemas with over 2,500 screens by 2030, which it hopes will attract nearly $1 billion in annual ticket sales. “The restoration of cinemas will ... help boost the local economy by increasing household spending on entertainment while supporting job creation in the Kingdom,” Culture and Information Minister Awwad Alawwad said in a statement.—