Their right to drive

women

Saudi women have been allowed to drive after a decree from the Saudi King. You! takes a look...

T­he new women drivers of Saudi will probably be in the news for some time now. But there was a phenomenal woman who was the first woman to drive a car - Bertha Benz. Bertha Benz was born in 1849 whose birth was recorded in the family bible as: ‘Unfortunately only a girl again’.

Triggered by this entry Bertha proved to her family that it was fortunate to have ‘a girl again’. After a long struggle, her husband Carl Benz the inventor of the automobile managed to get his patent registered for the motor car. When they realized that people were reluctant to embrace this new innovative means of transport, Bertha took long-distance journey to prove to the world how efficient the car was as a form of transport.

She and her husband, Carl, were the force behind one of the world’s most sought after brand of cars - the Mercedes Benz.

Bertha may have been only trying to prove to the world that her husband’s invention was a good thing but she also unknowingly paved the path for future women drivers. But who knew that the women of the future in many parts of the world would continue to struggle to get this right.

And so, it is a big achievement for the women of Saudi Arabia that now they will get to drive finally. After 27 years of lobbying by Saudi Arabian activists has finally given them a chance to live the life of Bertha Benza following King Salman bin Abdulaziz’s decree that now allows women of the country to drive.

According to Reuters, “In the first protest against the driving ban, in 1990, 47 women drove around central Riyadh for nearly an hour until they were detained by the religious police, then fired from their jobs and barred from travelling.” There were consequences for these women but it seems they had sparked something that has finally given the women the right to drive.

Strangely, response to women finally getting to drive has been muted in Saudi Arabia. Both men and women seem to be quiet on this matter. Fine the men may not find anything exciting in this, and may consider women drivers to be a menace like in many other countries. But the women are also not rejoicing for achieving what has been a difficult goal to achieve.

It remains to be seen how this right to drive shapes the opinion of the people of Saudi Arabia, but it has sent a happy wave across the world. People are seeing this as a change in the dynamics of the society of the Kingdom - whether this is a good thing or not remains to be seen.

In a time when women are flying both commercial and fighter planes, for many it seems strange that there are women - living in a country where technology is playing an important role in shaping the landscape of the cities - who have not yet sat behind the wheel of a car.

According to Arab News, following the Royal directive, the Princess Nourah Bin Abdulrahman University announced that it would establish a driving school for women. Naturally a large number of women will not know how to drive and this will open opportunities for experienced drivers to become driving instructors. Of course, this is bad news for the foreign employed drivers who drove these ladies around. Maybe they will be hired by the driving school.

And now that Saudi women are going to be driving, some car companies are realizing the potential of these new and rich customers. As expected there are news reports on at least one websites of an Arab newspaper that right after the Royal orders, several major car makers are focussing on these customers.

We all remember the customised  Ferrari 458 Spider wrapped with gold vinyl which was worth £200,000 ONLY, owned by Iraqi former world kickboxing champ Riyadh Al-Azzawi. We must brace ourselves because the future will bring similar delicious news of how major car brands bend their creativity to cater to the different demands of their rich clients.

And since diamond is a gal’s best friend - so they say - we hope to see a 24 karat (or more?) super car made on the request of some eccentric but tasteful lady. Or maybe a ruby red sports car made of real rubies.

And as we wait for more exciting news from these new drivers, we will also be hearing many jokes and memes made about the bad driving skills of the ‘woman driver’ supported by videos. It is as if the worst drivers are all women - it is not. Some men are equally or worse than most women drivers who can wrap circles around anyone.

Of course, we all know that men invented and perfected road rage. Road rage probably appeared as the first car ploughed down a road, and even though there must have been a small number of cars or none at all, the driver was probably vented his emotions by waving his fist at the coach driver, bicyclist or the horse rider.

This is not saying that women are not inflicted with road rage. Sit with any women behind the wheel in a city like London, Lahore, Karachi etc. and you will see the most prim and proper women spouting abuses at other drivers that would put their mothers to shame. And those who don’t know many words befitting the rage they are feeling; these women use hand gestures or use their cars horns blasting the eardrums of those around.

And then we all know that women and not men always know the directions and if they don’t they’ll ask...something men have not mastered. And there is no chance that they ever will ask directions because a man never gets lost. Yup, we believe them.

Saudi women may have taken decades to begin to drive. But the one sure thing is that they will not take as long to catch up with these essential traits of good drivers. It is yet to see how road rage will evolve there.