Women across Saudi Arabia greeted the lifting on Sunday of a longstanding ban against women drivers in a variety of ways.
Hundreds who already have their license took to the streets for their inaugural drives. One showered every intersection she passed with rose petals.
Another took her dad for a ride to make up for all the times he had taken her somewhere. Ohoud Al Arifi logged into her Uber drivers app, and waited for a fare.
Both the ride-hailing app and its main competitor in the Middle East, Careem, have embraced the opportunities opening up with the lifting of the ban. Uber has just opened a dedicated women’s “Greenlight Hub” in Riyadh to register, train and support new drivers, while Careem has already trained 2000 women in anticipation of them being able to get licenses.
Saudi women who have a driver’s license from abroad have been able to convert them to Saudi licenses for the past month, though the pace has been slow. New drivers must take a 30-hour driver’s ed course before they can take their driving tests.
Saudi women check a car at an automobile stand in the Saudi Red Sea resort of Jeddah on October 5, 2017 AMER HILABI/AFP/Getty… For Careem co-founder and chief people officer Abdulla Elyas, bringing on Saudi women drivers isn’t just a business opportunity, it’s a commitment to changing lives.
When you give women an income opportunity, it’s as transformational as you can get. It’s also a way to fundamentally change society, and the industry. It’s very rare to see a woman driving a taxi, and there is no reason for that. The industry needs to wake up, he says.
Dressed in a cream abaya and matching headscarf, Farahat confesses that after so many years being denied the right to drive in her home country, her brain is having a hard time catching up with the new Saudi Arabia. “I want to wave at every car passing by, and say, ‘hey look at me,’ but then at the same time I’m like, ok, don’t make eye contact, we don’t want any attention, we don’t want the police to look at us.” She laughs nervously.
Farahat, who also earned her driving license in California, is eager to see what the reaction of her male passengers will be. Careem prides itself on its personal service, and captainahs, just like captains, are expected to open doors and help with suitcases. I think that may be where men might have some issues, she laughs. They might feel embarrassed letting a woman help them out with their luggage.
She already has a job as a marketing consultant but decided to join Careem, in part, because the visibility would be a platform for societal change. I wanted to be a role model, to show the rest of Saudi Arabia that there is nothing a Saudi woman can’t do.