‘Look, a woman driver!’: Saudis tackle onslaught of sexism

RIYADH: Long relegated to the back seat, Saudi women celebrated taking the wheel for the first time this week in a much-awaited rite of passage, but one crucial hurdle remains — the attitude of men.

Social media is awash with videos of women behind the wheel and men in the passenger seat, a role reversal that was unimaginable in the kingdom until a royal decree last September ended a decades-long women driving ban.

A woman driver is such a novelty across the gender-segregated Muslim kingdom that when the decree took effect on Sunday, it prompted jubilation, disbelief — and reactions akin perhaps to those evoked by the first woman doctor in the 19th century. “Look, a woman driver!” appeared to be a common refrain among male onlookers in Riyadh as women embraced a freedom long denied to them. Now many are quietly bracing for a battle of the sexes on Saudi streets.

“I advise men to stay home to avoid being killed by women drivers!” said one Saudi Twitter user, echoing a torrent of similar comments predicting a surge of accidents because of female motorists. Often accompanying such comments are images of fiery car crashes and traffic pileups. And then there are the condescending mansplainers.

Some social media users have advised women to “avoid putting on makeup” while driving. Others have predicted pink coloured cars and parking lots for women. Fuelling the sexist ridicule, as women drivers hit the roads for the first time on Sunday, Saudi media splashed images of the inauguration of a gleaming new holding cell for women traffic violators.

Many women have responded with defiance. “Social media is flooded with messages ridiculing women and underestimating their ability to drive,” columnist Wafa al-Rasheed wrote this month in Okaz, a Saudi daily.