Hitting the road

Some eminently qualified drivers will be missing from the queue today when Saudi Arabia starts handing out licences to women. Aziza al-Yousef, one of the most prominent figures in the women’s driving campaign, had vowed to be the first in line for her licence. Instead, she and several fellow campaigners will mark the milestone from prison, having been rounded up in a crackdown last month and charged with conspiring against the state with foreign parties. Thousands of Saudi women are expected to get behind the wheel as the kingdom lifts its ban in a move portrayed as a significant part of an ambitious reform programme under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The government has organised a carnival to mark the occasion, including women-only road safety sessions in go-kart parks, and an allfemale force of ‘‘accident inspectors’’. Most of the women receiving their licences today already have a foreign licence.