The route to empowerment

Biker Moin Khan takes on the challenge of training women to ride motor bikes.

LAHORE:

Twenty-five-year-old biker Moin Khan burst onto the scene in June 10, 2011 when he embraced the challenge of riding his bike from the United States to Pakistan. Having been on the road for nearly six months and after travelling 20,000 miles to Pakistan, he recently came back to his hometown Lahore, where he was greeted by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif at a ceremony held at the Expo Centre in his honour. After making headlines with his simple yet effective plan ‘A Different Agenda’, he is back in the limelight with a groundbreaking new initiative — to train Pakistani women to become bikers. The Express Tribune spoke to Khan about being on the road, empowering women and testing his new programme on his sister.

While in conversation with Khan, the first thing that comes across is his warm and infectious manner. Not only does he carry a knapsack full of intriguing travel stories, his fun and humorous persona make him an engaging conversationalist. This was clearly evident from the number of people who kept crowding around him at the restaurant where the interview was taking place in order to hear some of his tales.

Regarding his travels, he reveals, “I have over 300 gigabytes (GBs) of footage from my trip.” Since Khan hates writing, there isn’t much of a chance that he’ll pen any of those experiences on to paper anytime soon. On the topic of things he despises, Khan confesses that he detests touring. “I hate travelling. It’s not one of my passions. However, meeting new people is.”

That may very well be the reason that Khan is not one to beam cheesily in front of the Eiffel Tower for a Facebook profile picture. During his travels, the biker deliberately avoided famous locales and preferred sticking to the road and gas stations. “I steered clear of all the popular tourist spots and searched for interesting people instead. For instance, some of the beggars in Rome had some remarkable stories to share,” Khan says.

He plans to utilise some of the friendships he formed along his journeys in a meaningful, tangible way. For instance, he plans to invite his fellow bikers from around the world to ride with him from the northern tip to the southern end of Pakistan.

Additionally, his next agenda includes training women to become bikers. “Despite women being respected more in Pakistan, they don’t have as much freedom as they should,” notes Khan. Although bikes are a popular mode of transport for women in India and some Muslim nations like Malaysia, one rarely comes across solo female motorcyclists on the roads in Pakistan.

“If I manage to teach women how to ride a bike, 52 per cent of our population gets freedom and mobility. It also boosts the popularity of biking-related industries which produce biking gear including shoes, helmets etcetera,” says the motorcyclist.

For now, the plan is to teach five willing and daring women from any strata or age to ride across the country. “It’s open to aunties, daadi maas, sasu maas,” smiles Khan. The only requirement is that they must know how to drive a manual car. One of the first girls chosen out of the five women is Khan’s sister; “I’d rather try this out on my own sister before I test it out on anyone else’s sister.”

Although Khan’s plan is still at a nascent stage, it bears immense hope for a radical social transformation which may empower women. When asked if the biker is prepared for the turmoil that may ensue, he says, “I realise that people will oppose us at first. However, a certain political rally that took place recently stirred up a lot of positivity in the air. People are trying to change mindsets and this desire for change will pave the way for some seemingly outrageous initiatives like mine.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 6^th, 2012.