Just a year ago driving was illegal for women in Saudi Arabia.
Sabeeha al-Fakher, from the eastern Saudi city of Qatif, never believed the kingdom would legalise driving for women during her lifetime.
Overturning the world’s only ban on female drivers has potentially put thousands of women behind the wheel in the most visible symbol of the conservative kingdom’s modernisation drive. Her husband, who passed away a decade ago, secretly taught her how to drive during trips to neighbouring Bahrain in the 1990s, despite the risk of infuriating family patriarchs.
But as authorities detained several veteran women’s rights campaigners in the weeks before the ban was lifted, it became clear that the reform drive would not include greater political freedoms. Only a handful of driving schools for women have cropped up in Saudi cities, where applicants have rushed to learn to drive cars and even Harley-Davidson motorbikes – scenes unimaginable until recently.Social media is rife with memes of traffic pileups blamed on women drivers, along with condescending messages advising women to “avoid wearing makeup” while driving.
Since then local media has reported at least five more arson attacks on women’s cars in several cities.Many women also face opposition from family members, in a country where women are often only as free as their “guardians” – husbands, fathers and other male relatives – allow.That is not the case for driving licenses, but it is unclear what legal recourse women have if guardians physically prevent them from taking the wheel.
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