Speed bump on the road to change

Feminism takes a backseat as condescension fuels social media debate

Saudi women tackling onslaught of sexism as they navigate their new-found freedom.

Riyadh: Long relegated to the back seat, Saudi women celebrated taking the wheel for the first time this week in a much-awaited rite of passage, but one crucial hurdle remains – the attitude of men.

Social media is awash with videos of women behind the wheel and men in the passenger seat, a role reversal that was unimaginable in the conservative petrostate until a royal decree last September ended a decades-long women driving ban.

A woman driver is such a novelty across the gender- segregated Muslim kingdom that when the decree took effect on Sunday, it prompted jubilation, disbelief – and reactions akin perhaps to those evoked by the first woman doctor in the 19th century.

“Look, a woman driver!” appeared to be a common refrain among male onlookers in Riyadh as women embraced a freedom long denied to them.

Now many are quietly bracing for a battle of the sexes on the streets.

The driving reform has been widely hailed by young Saudis and no overt incidents of harassment were publicly reported in the first two days since the ban was lifted, but many are wary of pervasive sexism from male drivers despite warnings from authorities.

“I advise men to stay home to avoid being killed by women drivers!” said one Saudi Twitter user, echoing a torrent of similar comments predicting a surge of accidents because of female motorists.

And then there are the condescending mansplainers.

Some social media users have advised women to “avoid putting on make-up” while driving.

Fuelling the sexist ridicule, Saudi media splashed images of the inauguration of a gleaming new holding cell for women traffic violators.

Many women have responded with defiance.

“Social media is flooded with messages ridiculing women and underestimating their ability to drive,” columnist Wafa al-Rasheed wrote this month in Okaz, a Saudi daily.

“We will drive and we will drive better than you, men.”

Some 120,000 women have applied for licences but the fear of harassment is so widespread that many women are keeping away from the streets, testing reactions in a society torn between conserva- tism and social change engineered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

For many women, real opposition lies at home – after decades of preaching by arch-conservatives that allowing female motorists would promote gender mixing and promiscuity.

“You will not drive my mother. You will not drive my sister. You will not drive my future wife,” said a Twitter user using the hashtag “She will not drive”.

Rights groups say the driving reform is mere tokenism until the kingdom dismantles its much-criticised system of male “guardians” – fathers, husbands or other relatives, who can exercise arbitrary authority to make decisions for women. — AFP