USA TODAY International Edition
Saudi Arabian women take the wheel
Some who fought for the right are still imprisoned
JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia – The sound of revving engines filled roadways and parking lots at shopping malls early Sunday as this desert kingdom became the world’s last country to lift its ban on women driving.
“As an independent woman, driving is one of the main aspects of my life that’s been missing,” said Shefa Mohamed Aldwelah, 26, as she prepared to take to the road in her car.
She admitted she was afraid of driving for the first time, as is every other first-time licensed driver around the world. But getting behind the wheel means “I will be able to open the door to new horizons.”
Parking spaces were painted pink before the historic move. Car companies such as Ford and gasoline retailer Shell launched advertising campaigns that featured female drivers who are now potential customers.
“Our sisterly women drivers, we wish you continued safety,” flashed roadside digital signs operated by the Saudi government’s Department of Motor Vehicles. Police officers handed out roses to women entering highway ramps at midnight.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman lifted the ban as part of a package of changes designed to loosen the rigid rules governing the Muslim country’s society and economy. The king’s son and successor, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, spearheaded the changes amid unstable oil prices that threaten to destabilize the country’s political order.
Lifting the driving ban might already be paying dividends.
“We are already seeing more women in our showroom,” said Maram al Hazar, a manager at Al Jazirah Vehicles, a Ford dealership in Riyadh. “Many of them say that they are on waiting lists for driver’s education classes that are already booked for the first half of 2018.”
Saudi women have sought the right to drive for years.
“I’ve waited long enough, and now, to know that my daughter-in-law and granddaughters will have a normal life, I feel at peace,” said Layla Moussa, 67, who has three granddaughters.
“I didn’t think it would happen in my lifetime,” she said.
Civil rights activists noted that Saudis who fought to overturn the ban remain imprisoned for challenging it.
“There can be no real celebration on June 24 while the women who campaigned for the right to drive and their supporters remain behind bars,” Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement. Human Rights Watch said Saudi authorities arrested and detained a handful of men and women who campaigned for women’s rights and to end the driving ban.
Many Saudi women were elated about the practical benefits of being able to drive.
“It’s going to make things much, much easier – going to work, dropping the kids off to school and just having the choice to go out whenever we want to,” said Nada Farsi, a dental school instructor at King Abdulaziz University and mother of two.
“Before, we’d have to wait for the Uber driver if it was too hot to walk. It could take up to an hour to wait,” she said. “Now a 10-minute drive is exactly that: a 10-minute drive.”
“I’ve waited long enough, and now, to know that my daughter-in-law and granddaughters will have a normal life, I feel at peace.”
Layla Moussa A 67-year-old Saudi Arabian woman