Most people around the world consider parallel parking as the most difficult task during tests to obtain a driver’s license. If you pass the parallel parking test, you are done and you will get your license. Till this day, I always hope to parallel park when no one is watching. I always need few adjustments to finally park my car.
A few years ago during a visit to Dhahran’s Saudi Aramco compound, I parked my car along the curbside in what is called parallel parking. Even though the car I had was equipped with the reverse parking sensor alarm, it took me more than one adjustment to park the car properly. At that very moment I saw a young Saudi lady who parked her older model car, which apparently had no reverse guiding camera sensor or sound alarm, but she parked her car as if parking cars was her full-time job. In short, it was clear that she was a much better driver than me. Of course, I know this is not big news or story, but let’s be honest and frank that talking about women driving in Saudi Arabia is always big news. As a matter of fact, many occasions it is international news. There are parts of the Kingdom where women can drive — one of them is the premise of Saudi Aramco.
I remember writing an article on a similar issue that was published on Jan. 19, 2013. It was titled “Lady, may I see your driving license please?” And in my humble opinion we might be hearing this question from Saudi traffic police very soon.
At this stage, many Saudi women know how to drive and many of them have driving licenses. Many people outside the Kingdom know that women are not allowed to drive but there are hundreds of thousands of private drivers for most of Saudi families in the Kingdom. There are homes that don’t have drivers and many of them have women who need to drive out of necessity not just for the sake of driving. In other words, we have to think very seriously about this issue that has no religious obstacle. The ban on women driving is just a cultural thing.
Nowadays there are many women who work at many places and drivers are not always available. For example, female doctors’ working hours are very unpredictable. They don’t have the time to wait for a driver. And it true that the decision to allow women drive in the Kingdom will be a drastic change in the behavior of our society but it is time to move to this step. And it can be done in different phases in different parts of the Kingdom depending on the different cultural preferences and lifestyles.
Maybe allowing women to drive could be a way to change the driving habits in the Kingdom. Our streets and highways are wide and modern but we have the highest highway fatalities in the world because of our bad driving habits. Our hospitals are losing big chunks of their allocated funds on patients’ care due to the extended treatments of the injured motorists — severely injured motorists occupy one third of the hospital beds in the ICU wards. And may be putting women on the road would be an experience that will enhance the good behavior of motorists.
Oh, one more thing before we go. It is true that we will for the first one or two years see or hear about sad incidents that would be attributed to women drivers and driving but it is a road that we will have to take. And as far as I know, if women are allowed to drive, automobile sale would soar in the first few years. Women always have better taste in choosing the color, style and make of cars than men. It is a fact. Women own many cars sold in Saudi Arabia. Their name is on the title but all they need now is a license. Lets us watch them do parallel parking. Women always have style in the way they drive, park and the way they keep their cars clean. Let give them a chance and let’s see.
