Saudi women take to the roads
Lifting of female driving ban part of reforms to open up conservative kingdom
RIYADH: Women in Saudi Arabia took to the roads at midnight yesterday, ushering in the end of the world’s last ban on female drivers, long seen as an emblem of women’s repression in the deeply conservative Muslim kingdom.
“It feels weird, I am so happy ... I’m just too proud to be doing this right now,” said 23-yearold Majdooleen al-Ateeq as she cruised across Riyadh for the first time in her black Lexus.
The lifting of the ban, ordered last September by King Salman, is part of sweeping reforms pushed by his powerful young son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in a bid to transform the economy of the world’s top oil exporter and open up its cloistered society.
Women drove up and down a main road in the eastern city of Khobar and cheered as police looked on.
“We are ready, and it will totally change our life,” said Samira al- Ghamdi, a 47-year- old psychologist from Jeddah, one of the first women to be issued a licence.
It feels weird, I am so happy ... I’m just too proud to be doing this right now. Majdooleen al-Ateeq
The lifting of the ban, which for years drew international condemnation and comparisons to the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan, has been welcomed by Western allies as proof of a new progressive trend in Saudi Arabia.
But it has been accompanied by a crackdown on dissent, including against some of the very activists who previously campaigned against the ban.
They now sit in jail as their peers take to the road legally for the first time.
Women with foreign drivers’ licences only began converting them earlier this month, so the number of new drivers remains low.
Others are training at new state-run schools, with 3 million women expected to drive by 2020.
Some still face resistance from conservative relatives, and many accustomed to private drivers say they are reluctant to take on the country’s busy highways.
“I definitely won’t like to drive,” said Fayza al- Shammary, a 22year-old saleswoman.
“I like to be a princess with someone opening the car door for me and driving me anywhere.”
Concerns that women drivers will face abuse in a country where strict segregation rules usually prevent women from interacting with unrelated men prompted a new anti- harassment law last month.
The Interior Ministry plans to hire women traffic police for the first time, but it is unclear when they will be deployed.
The public security directorate reported no unusual incidents one hour after the ban ended.
Riyadh resident Amr al-Ardi said the women in his family would wait to see how the system works before they start driving.
The decision to lift the ban in the tightly controlled kingdom – where once-forbidden cinemas and concerts have also returned – is expected to boost the economy, with industries from car sales to insurance set to reap returns.
The change should save families billions of dollars on chauffeurs while encouraging more women into the workforce and raising productivity, if only modestly at first.
Auto companies have produced theatrical ads marking the ban’s end, while private parking garages designated ‘ladies’ areas with pink signage.
Many Saudis celebrated on social media, but some reactions were derisive or expressed concern about social impacts.
One Twitter user said he would not allow his wife to take the wheel: “If she wants to drive she can go to her father and God willing she will drive lorries. Decisions like this depend on personal freedom # SheíWon’tíDrive.”
Much of the kingdom’s overwhelmingly young population supports Prince Mohammed’s reforms, but many Saudis fear their speed could provoke a backlash from religious conservatives once seen as dominant.
Activists and diplomats have speculated that the arrests of more than a dozen women’s rights advocates over the past month were aimed at appeasing conservative elements or at sending a message to activists not to push demands too far.
The crown prince’s modernisation efforts have won praise at home and abroad, but he has also provoked unease with an anti- corruption purge last year, when scores of royals and top businessmen were detained at the Ritz- Carlton Hotel in Riyadh.
Most were freed after reaching settlements with the government.
Billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an early advocate of women driving who was detained at the Ritz for three months, tweeted a video of his daughter driving.
“Saudi Arabia has just entered the 21st century. Thanks to King Salman for this achievement,” he said to his granddaughters in the back seat in the video.
Even with the end of the driving ban, Saudi Arabia remains one of the most restrictive countries for women, who need permission from legally mandated male guardians for important decisions such as foreign travel and marriage.
Amnesty International said lifting the ban was ‘a small step in the right direction’, but called for an end to other practices that discriminate against women.
Activists have already begun campaigning to end the guardianship system, which has been chipped away at slowly over the years.
Prince Mohammed declared in an interview earlier this year that he believes men and women are equal. But veteran Saudi activist Hala Aldosari says women remain second- class citizens and criticised the crown prince’s ‘piecemeal approach’ as serving the interests of the elite at the expense of women from more restrictive families. — Reuters
RIYADH: After Fawzia al-Bakr drove through the streets of Riyadh in 1990 to challenge a ban on women driving in the conservative kingdom, she lost her job, received death threats and had to move house.
Twenty- eight years later, at the stroke of midnight yesterday, her niece stepped into a black Lexus, rolled down the windows and smiled at the feel of the warm breeze as she drove legally for the first time in Saudi Arabia.
“It looks way different from the backseat. I’m just so happy, my eyes are just like everywhere. I’m not used to this,” said Majdooleen al-Ateeq, 23.
The recent US college graduate was on her way to class last September when she learned that King Salman had ordered an end to the ban, which has long been seen as an emblem of women’s repression.
“I had to call my family in Riyadh to ask them if this was true,” she said.
“All I could think about is: I can do my own stuff, I don’t have to ask for anyone to take me around.”
The ban, once justified on a variety of religious and cultural pretexts, forced women to rely on male relatives for transportation or spend large sums on chauffeurs.
It became a prime target of activists seeking to end discriminatory practices which curtail women’s role in public life and makes them the legal wards of male ‘guardians’.
The first public demonstration came on Nov 6, 1990, when 47 women drove around central Riyadh for nearly an hour until they were detained by the religious police. Among them were Ateeq’s aunt, Bakr, and her mother.
“I’m envious of her, to be honest. It’s so natural for her to drive and get her insurance and everything, whereas it was extremely difficult for us,” Bakr said yesterday when her niece drove to visit her.
“I’m thrilled. I am so happy that our society and our leaders reached this point where we’re driving. We’re so natural, just like any other woman around the world.”
Bakr plans to start driving on Nov 6 to commemorate her historic stand.
Not all her fellow activists may have that option. The authorities arrested more than a dozen of them over the past month on charges of suspicious contact with foreign enemies, and state-backed media branded them traitors.
Among the detainees were three women who participated in the 1990 protest.
They have since been released, but other prominent rights campaigners like Eman alNafjan, Loujain al- Hathloul, and Aziza al-Yousef remain in prison.
Activists and diplomats have speculated that the arrests were aimed at sending a message not to push demands too far or at appeasing conservative elements opposed to the reform agenda.
Other women may not get behind the wheel anytime soon either because of resistance from conservative relatives.
Ateeq, however, was ready. She shipped her car home from California earlier this year, and took it out for a spin to visit her father’s home in the early hours of Sunday.
“He’s never seen me drive before,” she said.
“He just knew I drove in California, and now it’s going to be his first time to see his daughter driving.” — Reuters