Female bikers lay claim to city’s streets

The city saw two major political parties’ rallies on Sunday but while the former were coming to a close, a group of women on bikes was gearing up for their own rally at the Teen Talwar.

The riders included older women who had been riding for a while now, but had settled down to not riding openly on roads.

Organised by Super Power, which has also previously organised such activities for women interested in riding the vehicle, the rally came after around six to eight months training duration.

Starting off at Teen Talwar, the riders stopped at Do Talwar to be greeted by Assistant Superintendent of Police Shehla Qureshi who encouraged the women and asked them to take to the streets without paying heed to notions set by the society. “We need to start viewing the streets as genderless. If a boy or a man can be taught how to ride a motorbike, I don’t understand why a woman would be unable to learn the same skill?”

She also said that women shouldn’t hesitate in coming out on roads, and if someone does try to bother them in any way, the officials would be cooperative in helping them, the ASP added.

Mehwish Ikhlaq who has been riding heavy bikes for a while now helped women learn how to ride and take them to the roads later.

“I have been riding this bike since August last year and I didn’t take a lot of time to learn because I knew how to ride a bicycle,” said another rider Sakina Hussain. Wearing a chador, Sakina was at ease on the bike and told that her family was slightly sceptical about it but now everyone was used to seeing her on the vehicle.

A resident of Saddar, Sakina said that riding a bike had given her a lot of independence as she could travel according to her ease. “Be it taking children to have fun or look after some work, I don’t have to rely on other modes of transportation,” she added.

Another rider, Hina Khan, who has been riding for the past two decades, told that earlier she used to ride covertly but due to an increasing number of women riders in the city, she now feels confident in riding on the main roads. As far as men are concerned, Hina feels that if anyone tries to get in her away, she doesn’t mince words in calling them out. “Only yesterday someone was trying to take my picture and I went up to them to remind them about privacy,” she said.

Looking at women surrounding her on bikes, Mehwish seemed very pleased and hoped that more would join them and normalise the use of the vehicle.

Moving on from Do Talwar to the Sea View road, the women didn’t whizz pass others rather kept their paces slow to remain together. Even though there were some men who tried to overtake them on purpose, there were others who supported them.

Till a few months ago, an image of a woman riding a bike would seldom pop up on social media but rallying out on roads these riders have proved that the streets belong to them and they’re here to stay.