Green light given to women
● Widespread celebrations – some fears – as ban in Saudi Arabia is lifted
Women in Saudi Arabia celebrated taking the wheel for the first time in decades yesterday as the kingdom overturned the world’s only ban on women motorists, in a historic reform.
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 two women 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,” talk show host and writer Samar Almogren said as she cruised across the capital.
TV presenter Sabika alDosari called it a historic moment for every Saudi woman, before driving a sedan across the border to 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 and disbelief mixed as women across the kingdom flooded social media with videos of their maiden car rides, while some policemen among the large number out on the streets distributed roses to the first-time drivers.
But many women are keeping away, testing reactions in a society torn between tradition and social change – and bracing for a possible backlash from hardliners who have said allowing women drivers would promote promiscuity and sin.
Meanwhile, Renault stole a march on their Formula One rivals yesterday when they gave a Saudi Arabian woman a chance to mark a special day by driving one of their cars ahead of yesterday’s French Grand Prix.
Aseel Al-Hamad, the first woman member of her national motorsport federation, took the wheel of the car in which Kimi Raikkonen won the 2012 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
She was part of a Renault “passion parade” hours ahead of the first French Grand Prix in a decade and the first to be held at the Le Castellet circuit for 28 years.
Aseel, who is a member of the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission, is a keen driver and motorsport enthusiast who took part in a training day on June 5 at the circuit.