‘Uncaged’ Saudi women savour new freedom one year after end of driving ban
- But other restrictions on women, including travelling or studying at home, still require permission from men
Buckling up in the pearl-silver car, Sabeeha al-Fakher takes the wheel and relegates her son to the passenger seat, a role reversal the 68-year-old Saudi widow never imagined would be possible in her lifetime.
Until June 24 last year, the act would have been a crime in Saudi Arabia, where hardliners have preached for decades that allowing women to drive – among other things – would promote gender mixing and promiscuity.
Overturning the world’s only ban on female drivers potentially put thousands of women behind the wheel in the ultraconservative kingdom’s attempt to reform and modernise.
“I still don’t believe it,” she Fakhe, zipping past younger drivers in her native eastern city of Qatif.
Her husband, who died a decade ago, secretly taught her how to drive during trips to Bahrain in the 1990s, despite the risk of infuriating family patriarchs.