Saudi women in driver’s seat as longstanding ban is lifted
RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA — Saudi women steered their way through busy city streets on Sunday, driving to work, running errands and relishing a new era in which they are allowed to drive and no longer need to rely on men to move around.
A longstanding ban on women driving was lifted at midnight, ushering in a historic moment for women who have been at the mercy of their husbands, fathers, brothers and drivers for transportation. The ban had rele- gated women to the backseat, restricting when they could meet friends, where they could spend time and how they could plan out their day.
“It feels beautiful. It was a dream for us so when it happens in reality, I am between belief and disbelief— between a feeling of joy and astonishment,” said Mabkhoutah al-Mari as she pulled up to order a drive-thru coffee on her drive to work.
The 27-year-old mother of two is a driving instructor for women and already had a driver’s license from the U.S., where she’d spent time in Tennessee studying. But on this morning, she drove freely in her hometown of Riyadh for the first time.
For most of her life al-Mari relied on drivers hired by her family, and she and her sisters had to coordinate drop- offs and pick-ups.
“Now, thanks to God, I can plan out my own sched- ule and my errands and my daughters’ errands,” al-Mari said.
Before she got in the car to drive Sunday morning, her older brother sent her off with a kiss on the forehead and a wave. His support, as her male guardian, is key.
Although women do not need male permission to obtain a driver’s license, the culture still dictates that fathers, husbands and broth- ers have final say. A woman’s male guardian must give his approval before she can marry or travel.
For nearly three decades, outspoken Saudi women and men had called for women to have the right to drive as a symbol of other changes they said were needed in the deeply conservative kingdom.
While there was never explicitly a law against women driving in Saudi Arabia, a ban was enforced by police and licenses were not issued to women. The ban had been a stain on the country’s reputation and hindered women’s ability to contribute to the economy.
In 1990, during the first driving campaign, women who drove in Riyadh lost their jobs and were barred from traveling abroad, even As she drove through the as women in other conserva- streets of Riyadh, Ammal Fartive Muslim countries drove ahat, a mother of two, said freely. Even their husbands the right to drive is more than faced punishment. just a top-down decision.
Ultraconservatives in Saudi “It’s like they say the ocean Arabia had warned against is made of little drops of water women driving, saying it and that’s exactly how I feel would lead to sin and expose today. It’s the efforts of everywomen to harassment. Ahead one, little drops of sweat,” of lifting the driving ban, the Farahat said. kingdom passed a law against Not all women are driving sexual harassment with up at once, though. The majorto five years in prison for the ity of women in Saudi Aramost severe cases. bia still don’t have licenses.
Since King Salman Many haven’t had a chance announced women would to take the gender-segrebe allowed to drive, Saudi gated driving courses that clerics have changed their were first offered to women tone. On Sunday, the coun- only three months ago. try’s senior council of clerThe Interior Ministry says ics said women driving was there are four driving schools religiously permissible and in for women in the country, the interests of the country. with two more licensed to
With unequivocal state- start soon. The ministry backed support for the declined to disclose how change, more Saudis are many women had received openly embracing the move licenses so far, saying the proas long overdue. cess is still in the early stages.
“I’m speechless. I’m so The limited number of excited it’s actually happen- women’s driving schools has ing,” said Hessah al-Ajaji, who led to a wait-list of several drove her family’s Lexus in months, and there are still the capital, Riyadh, at the many cities without courses. stroke of midnight when the The classes also cost several ban came to an end. hundred dollars, far more
As for male drivers on the than what men currently pay. road, “they were really supSome women simply preportive and cheering and fer to wait and see how the smiling,” she said. situation on the streets pans
The most emphatic supout and how male drivers porters of women’s right to react before they jump in drive, however, have been the driver’s seat. Others are silenced. Three of the women comfortable being driven who’d taken part in the 1990 by chauffeurs or their husprotest and several others bands and see no need to who campaigned years later drive themselves. for the right to drive were But there are a handful of arrested last month. women eagerly awaiting the
Some have been tempo- end of another roadblock: rarily released. When women can drive
Three of those still motorcycles. detained— Aziza al-Yousef, At the Bikers Skills InstiLoujain al-Hathloul and Eman tute, General Manager Wael al-Nafjan— are seen as icons bin Huraib says more than 80 of the women’s rights move- women have registered to ment in Saudi Arabia. The take the course and five have government has accused completed it since he opened them of national security it up to females three months crimes, including working ago. The women practice ridwith “foreign entities” to ing in a closed circuit on the harm the interests of the outskirts of the capital. kingdom. “We all know that culture
Their stunning arrest has does change with time,” he cast a pall on the social open- said. “It has nothing to do ings being pushed by 32-year- with the religion. We all will old Crown Prince Moham- stick to our beliefs and this is med bin Salman, who is seen something that is not negoas the force behind reforms tiable ... however, what we reshaping the kingdom. want is to have a normal life.”