RIYADH – Donning a helmet inside a pearl silver sports sedan, Rana Almimoniskids and drifts around a Riyadh park, engine roaring, tyres screeching andclouds of dust billowing from the back.
For Saudi women, such adrenaline rushes were unimaginable just weeks ago.
Speed-crazed women drivers are bound to turn heads in the deeplyconservative desert kingdom, which overturned the world’s only ban onfemale motorists in June as part of a much-hyped liberalisation drive ledby Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Almimoni, 30 and a motor racing enthusiast, is defying the perception –- orsexist misconception, depending on who you ask –- that only dainty cars inbright colours are popular with women drivers.
“I adore speed. I love speed… My dream car is more than 500 horsepower,”said Almimoni, slamming the accelerator of her silvery sleek Kia Stingerinside Riyadh’s Dirab motor park.——————————
“It’s a myth… that Saudi women only choose pink and cute cars.”
Almimoni said she was awaiting an expected government decision that wouldpermit women to obtain a “racing licence”, which would allow her to honeher passion in motor-sport competitions.
That includes drifting –- oversteering the car to slip and skid or evenspin, and other high-speed daredevilry — which is illegal in public buttolerated in the controlled environment of Dirab park, whose private ownersinsist on safety.
Author Pascal Menoret’s acclaimed book “Joyriding in Riyadh” described thehigh-octane Saudi obsession for drifting, long seen as a symbol of revoltamong legions of restless youth, as all “about being a real man”.
Now newly mobile Saudi women are embracing what was previously deemed amale entitlement — speed.
“Most of our enquiries (from women) are about drifting — how to learndrifting, which cars can they train on, how long will it take them” todrift, said instructor Falah al-Jarba as he watched Almimoni zip around thepark.
Auto showrooms tapping new women clients have rolled out a line-up ofcherry red Mini Coopers, but sales professionals say many exhibit anappetite for muscle cars like the Camaro or the Mustang convertible.
Many new drivers seek inspiration from Aseel al-Hamad, the first femalemember of the kingdom’s national motor federation, who got behind the wheelof a Formula One car in France in June to mark the end of the driving ban.
Clad in skinny jeans and Harley-Davidson T-shirts, a handful of women arealso training to ride motorbikes at a Riyadh driving school, a scene thatis still a stunning anomaly in the conservative petro-state.
Transport authorities have rolled out racing simulators to help first-timewomen drivers get a feel of being behind the wheel.
As a male traffic official demonstrated the importance of seatbelts bybuckling up inside a car tethered to a flat platform and upturning thevehicle, some women zipped around twisted tracks in toy cars.
Another sat down behind the wheel of a simulator and instantly floored theaccelerator, sending the speedometer soaring.
“I don’t feel I’m in Saudi Arabia anymore,” said Nagwa Mousa, a 57-year-olduniversity professor in Riyadh.
“But I don’t expect to see many women in Saudi Arabia overtaking andspeeding in the streets anytime soon.” – APP/AFP