Overturning the world’s only ban on female drivers has freed many Saudi women from their dependence on private chauffeurs and male relatives.

Buckling up in a pearl-silver Lexus, 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, 2018, the act would have been considered a crime in Saudi Arabia, where hardliners have preached for decades that allowing women to drive would promote gender mixing and promiscuity.

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.

Among them is Ms. Fakher, a mother-of-five who never thought she would see the reform, which ushered in a new era of freedom and mobility for women. “I still don’t believe it,” she said, zipping past younger drivers in her native eastern city of Qatif.

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.

The reform has freed many Saudi women from their dependence on private chauffeurs and male relatives.

“We feel like (we were) in a cage before,” said Munirah al-Sinani, a 72-year-old mother of four, driving in the nearby city of Dhahran with her husband in the passenger seat. “Open the cage. We fly, we go wherever.”

Munirah al-Sinani, a 72-year-old Saudi woman, accompanied by her husband, is pictured in her car in the eastern Saudi city of Dhahran on June 11, 2019. | Photo Credit: AFP

Arson attacks

The move was part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s much-trumpeted reform drive aimed at overhauling the conservative petro-state, long criticised over its treatment of women.

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.

However, with the kingdom tightening its purse strings amid low oil prices, their new-found mobility allows women to join a labour market chronically short of female workers.

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Some 3 million women could receive licences and start driving by 2020, according to consultancy firm PwC.

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.

But in a society steeped in conservatism, many say they have endured sexism and aggression.

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.

More alarmingly, arsonists “opposed to female drivers” torched a woman’s car near the holy city of Mecca in July 2018, Saudi media reported. The woman had reportedly started driving to save money — she had been spending much of her salary on hiring a driver. Since then local media has reported at least five more arson attacks on women’s cars in several cities.

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Opposition from ‘guardians’

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. Women need a guardian’s permission to study, get married or even renew passports.

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.

Ms. Fakher recalled asking two conservative Qatif families: “Why are you stopping the girls?” She was accused of “interference” and told that their fathers were hellbent on preventing their daughters from driving. The women appeared to have no say in the matter.

The crackdown on female activists that preceded the reform sparked a torrent of global criticism and cast a spotlight on the kingdom’s human rights record. The government put the women on trial in March 2019 amid claims that some were tortured and sexually harassed by interrogators. Saudi authorities deny the charge. Most of the women were veterans of the campaign for the right to drive, including some who took part in the kingdom’s first driving protest in 1990. The women were charged with speaking to international journalists, diplomats, and human rights organisations. Eight have since been temporarily released, but still face trial.

Observers said the crackdown aimed to send a clear signal that the state is the sole agent of change. Still, many Saudis say decades of fearless activism played a role in ending the ban. “They paved the way for us,” said Ms. Fakher.

Saudi Arabia’s ‘guardianship’ system

Education

Saudi Arabia’s so-called guardianship system places the legal and personal affairs of women in the hands of their fathers, brothers, husbands and even sons. Women require the formal permission of their closest male relative to enrol in classes at home or to leave the country for classes abroad. In July 2017, Saudi Arabia’s Education Ministry announced girls’ schools would begin to offer physical education classes for the first time, providing they conform with Islamic law. The Ministry did not specify whether girls would need permission from their guardians to take part. Saudi Arabia has several women-only universities.

Employment

Restrictions the guardianship system has long imposed on women’s employment have been loosened as Saudi Arabia tries to wean itself from its dependence on oil. Crown Prince Mohammed, named heir to the throne in June 2017, has promoted an economic plan known as “Vision 2030”, which aims to boost the female quota in the workplace from 22% to 30% by 2030. King Salman, his father, has signed decrees allowing women to apply online for their own business licences. The Saudi police force now also employs female officers.

Travel, driving

Women still require a male guardian’s permission to renew their passports and leave the country. But on June 24, 2018, women took the driver’s seat for the first time in the kingdom’s history. While the end of the driving ban was largely welcomed, it did not signal an opening up of political freedoms. Several women’s rights activists, including veterans campaigners for the right to drive, were detained just weeks earlier and later put on trial on a host of charges including speaking to foreign journalists.

Personal status

Under the guardianship system, women of all ages require the consent of their male guardian to get married. A man may divorce his wife without her consent. In January 2019, the Saudi Justice Ministry said courts were required to notify women by text message that their marriages had been terminated, a measure apparently aimed at ending cases of men getting a divorce without informing their partners.

Public spaces

In January 2018, women were allowed into a special section in select sports stadiums for the first time. They had previously been banned from attending sporting events. Saudi Arabia has also reined in its infamous morality police, who for decades had patrolled the streets on the lookout for women with uncovered hair or bright nail polish. Some women in the capital, Riyadh, and other cities now appear in public without headscarves.