Saudi women rev up bikes as end to driving ban nears

Even a year ago, it would have been hard to imagine – Saudi women clad in skinny jeans and HarleyDavidson T-shirts, revving motorbikes at a Riyadh sports circuit. But ahead of the historic lifting of a decades-long ban on female drivers on June 24, women gather weekly at the privately owned Bikers Skills Institute, to learn how to ride bikes.

"Biking has been a passion ever since I was a kid," said 31-year-old Noura, who declined to give her real name as she weighs public reactions in the ultra-conservative Islamic kingdom.

Overturning the world's only ban on female drivers, long a symbol of repression against women, is the most striking reform yet launched by powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. But it has been overshadowed by a wave of arrests of female activists - including veteran campaigners who long resisted the ban.

None of the women at the floodlit motoring circuit wanted to talk about the crackdown, a deeply sensitive issue, focusing instead on securing a basic freedom long denied to them. "I grew up watching my family riding bikes," Noura told AFP as she mounted a Yamaha Virago.

"Now I hope... to have enough skills to ride on the street." Next to her, revving a Suzuki, sat Leen Tinawi, a 19-year-old Saudi-born Jordanian.

For both women, biking is not just an adrenalin-fuelled passion, but also a form of empowerment. "I can summarise the whole experience of riding a bike in one word -- freedom," Tinawi said.

Both bikers follow their Ukrainian instructor, 39year-old Elena Bukaryeva, who rides a Harley-Davidson. Most days the circuit is the domain of drag racers and bike enthusiasts -all men. But since offering courses to women in February on the basics of bike riding, four female enthusiasts have enrolled, most of them Saudis, Bukaryeva said.