Female empowerment: Women in Saudi Arabia teach each other how to drive for free

Engines heat up and ignitions are one turn away, as women in Saudi Arabia gear up to take on the roads. However, one hurdle remains; the training.

Women in Saudi Arabia will be legally permitted to drive from this year in June, with the condition that they complete the mandated hours of training.

Aspiring women drivers whose husbands or male relatives have accompanied them on the roads need to get 30 hours, while women with no prior experience need to get 90 hours of certified experience.



The average cost of driving lessons is around 60 riyals per hour which amounts to 5,300 riyals in total for a learner with no experience.

The excitement, anticipation and restrictions have tightened the sisterhood around KSA's prospective women drivers, where 32-year-old Hanaa Aldhafery started a movement where women teach each other how to drive free of cost.



Hanaa's movement has the hashtag #مستعده_ادرب (which translates to #iam_ready_to_train_you).

She tweeted: "Are there any volunteers who are ready to train others to drive for free? (And the training will be after Ramadan because we don’t want any trouble with the law and the training will be in parking lots away from crowded places) If the answer is yes write the name of your city in the #مستعده_ادرب"

Hanaa's tweet got a positive response from men and women in Saudi Arabia as they retweet after her, “#iam_ready_to_train_you and yes and a thousand times yes with the women tribe,” wrote one woman in Arabic, “I’m ready to train in Riyadh,” wrote another, also in Arabic.

This article originally appeared in Harper'sBazaarArabia.