Friday, January 22, 2016

Woman Driver!

Normally this would be a sexist statement of frustration, but this time is different ... this is Saudi Arabia! As many people know, women driving in Saudi is not a common occurrence; some think that it is actually against the law. While this belief isn't quite correct, the culture is such that it generally maintains the same result.

It was just after 6:00 am on the first foggy morning in at least a year. We could hardly see 3 meters in front of us, but my boss was not deterred from driving a little faster than I would have felt comfortable doing on my own. We quickly came upon a car that was driving super slow, obviously driven by someone who either was just learning or couldn't see very well. As we passed them, I glanced over to see who was in the car (yes, I am nosy). The contents gave me a bit of a shock.

Woman driver! Behind the wheel was a teenage girl in a white hijab carefully steering the car with, presumably, her father in the seat next to her and two others in the back seat. I don't know if they were taking advantage of the weather which would allow them to not be seen, or if this is something this particular family was used to doing for whatever reason, but I found the dissonance to be quite in line with many of my other experiences here. 

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