8 March 2005
Afghan women get behind wheels
- By Farydoon Poya
Herat (Afghanistan), March 7: Sitting behind the steering wheel of her red 4x4 Toyota, Ms Sina Shireen gets a kick out of being one of the first women in this western Afghan city to throw off her burqa and learn how to drive.
The diminutive 22-year-old may be hard to see behind the tinted windows of the massive car but three years ago she had to be completely shrouded in an all-encompassing blue burqa even to leave the house.
"The most joyful moments of my life are when I'm driving - I love it," Ms Shireen says, the excitement visible on her face as she finally gets to do what the country's male motorists take for granted. High school student Ms Shireen is taking part at the first ever driving course in Herat, Afghanistan's most prosperous city, which was launched in early February by the traffic department, under the auspices of the new governor.
Until September last year, Herat was under the thumb of Mr Ismael Khan, a military strongman whose views of women were only marginally more liberal than those of the fundamentalist Islamic Taliban.
Under Mr Khan's hardline rule, women were just about allowed to attend school but the motoring lessons by an Afghan non-governmental organisation proved unacceptable.
"The women's driving course was opened last year but we got order at the time from former governor to shut it down," said Mr Basir Bigzad, one of the organisers in Herat traffic department. "The course was closed three days after it was opened," he added. (AFP)