Dhahran, June 19(TNS): Saudi women are allowed to drive for the first time from June 24 as the longstanding ban finally lifts in the kingdom.
Last September, King Salman decreed an end to the world’s only ban on women drivers, maintained for decades by Saudi Arabia’s deeply conservative establishment.
But it is his son, 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is the face of the wider social revolution.
Many young Saudis regard his ascent to power as proof that their generation is finally getting a share of control over a country whose patriarchal traditions have for decades made power the province of old men.
June 24 will be a historic day for Amira Abdulgader who is an employ at a state oil firm in Aramco and has recently learned driving from a company offering to teach female employes and their families.
“It will be a life changing experience for me, I will be able to control my own journey and steer my own trip with freedom” she said.
“We need the car to do our daily activities. We are working, we are mothers, we have a lot of social networking, we need to go out,so we need transport,” she added.
Amira said that she only wants to share this historic moment with her mother and no one else,”I will take my mother for a long drive and she is the only one I want to be sitting beside me on the day of freedom for Saudi Women to finally drive.”
