Five years ago, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia announced, during a royal decree read live on state TV, that women were finally allowed to drive. The New York Times, in its Sept 26, 2017 edition, described this landmark ruling as “ending a longstanding policy that has become a global symbol of the oppression of women in the ultraconservative kingdom.”
It added that this change in the law would take effect in June 2018. “The decision highlights the damage that the ban on women driving has done to the kingdom’s international reputation and its hopes for a public relations benefit from the reform. Saudi leaders also hope the new policy will help the economy by increasing women’s participation in the workplace. Many working Saudi women spend much of their salaries on drivers or must be driven to work by male relatives,” the New York Times wrote.
This new decree was a complete turnaround from what was at the time a prevailing hostile culture against women who were caught behind the wheel. In September 2011, Saudi woman Shaima Ghassaniya was sentenced to 10 lashes for driving without the Saudi government’s permission. Later on, various news outlets would update that the sentence had been overturned. Saudi woman activist Najalaa Harriri was also detained after being caught driving her children to school and repeatedly defying the driving ban.
This strict Saudi rule hit close to home. At around the time that Shaima and Najalaa were caught and sentenced, my brother and his wife were living in the kingdom. He was an aircraft engineer assigned to his employer’s Saudi office for eight years, while his wife and three kids coped with Saudi Arabia’s ultraconservative religious edicts. Among the most difficult laws they had to comply with was the one forbidding women to drive. My sister-in-law couldn’t use the car to take her children to school, do her errands and buy goods from the store.
No doubt, this situation was replicated in countless other Saudi households where the patriarch went off to work, leaving the wife and kids to face difficult, daily choices. One of the solutions was to allow children barely able to see over the dashboard to drive.
My brother confirmed this: “Yes, children as young as 12 drive on Saudi roads.” Though he quickly clarified that it was against the law to do so, he also said that the punishment for these erring youngsters was lighter than that meted to women caught driving. And, though, it could be said that these youngsters probably did it for the sheer pleasure and excitement of driving, it can also be argued that these acts were borne out of necessity.
After eight years of my brother’s family balancing precariously on that cultural and religious tightrope, they finally (and thankfully!) moved to Australia, where the vast open spaces are matched only by the wide personal freedoms accorded to all genders. And, of course, Down Under, my sis-in-law can drive all she wants.
Since 2018, those five years haven’t come soon enough for Saudi Arabia to catch up on what it’s been missing, as far as women drivers go. I just recently got the news from our fellow motoring journalist, Alvin Uy, that Saudi Arabia is now represented in the Women’s World Car of the Year (WWCOTY) in the person of Layan Damanhouri, a journalist in the Al-Bilad Newspaper.
The Philippines has also been recently represented when Gen Tiu was invited to become a member of its global panel of motoring female journalists.
WWCOTY holds the distinction of being the only international car awarding body composed exclusively of women motoring journalists. Created by New Zealand motoring journalist, Sandy Myhre, in 2009, WWCOTY currently has 66 judges from 48 countries. Myhre remains its honorary president, with Marta García as its executive president.
WWCOTY explains that it aims to recognize the best cars of the year and to give a voice to women in the automotive world. The voting criteria are based on the same principles that guide any driver when choosing a car. The jurors do not select a “woman’s car” because cars are not gender specific. Aspects such as safety, quality, price, design, ease of driving, benefits and environmental footprint, among others, are considered when casting the votes.
“However, beyond choosing the best cars of the year, our goal is also to give visibility to women in the automotive world and to contribute to making women’s voices heard on all continents because mobility for a woman means access to many personal and professional possibilities,” WWCOTY also stated.
The addition of Damanhouri is particularly important because she is among the first few women journalists to cover the automotive industry in Saudi Arabia. She reported on the recent reforms and progress that promote women and grant equal opportunities in various sectors in Saudi Arabia. She covered news related to the automotive industry and the female market segment, such as car sales targeting female audiences, car insurance, and test drives for different car brands.
Her appointment to the WWCOTY jury highlights the new and exciting role that women have begun to play in this Arab country, especially in the lifestyle, sports and entertainment industries.
In hindsight, it would have been a wonderful collaboration between our own Car of the Year-Philippines (COTY-P) and WWCOTY. Imagine how much more relevant our own car of the year awards would be in the eyes of the world had we been represented in the WWCOTY during COTY-P’s heyday.
I remembered, during the early 2000s, when I used to be among the COTY-P members doing the field work to make the organization recognized by other car award-giving bodies in Europe and North America. We also corresponded with other Asian journalists, who were surprised that motoring scribes in the Philippines were able to band together for COTY-P.
I’m still hoping, though, that COTY-P would be revived, and would be a better, stronger, and more well-represented car award-giving body that all motoring media groups, from both traditional and new platforms, would be proud to be a part of.
Oh, and by the way, while we’re still on the subject of women, it’s worth mentioning that June 23 is being celebrated annually as the International Women in Engineering Day (Inwed). Yes, there are a number of women engineers in the auto industry. But that’s another story.
