Afghan Women Going Places

Kabul resident Diba Sediqi has been driving round the city for the last seven months, ever since she got her license.

Although she has more freedom of movement now, it hasn’t been an entirely happy experience. For seven months, Sediqi has been subject to constant harassment.

“It’s not easy fro me to drive because I continuously face sneers, and ridicule from men,” she said, adding that she had taken a driving course with the Kabul traffic department and followed the rules of the road strictly.

Nonetheless, she continued, “Men have even crashed into my car on purpose so that they could talk to me and tease me, especially wild young men.”

Despite such antagonism, female interest in driving is steadily growing in the capital.

Ghulam Jilani Wardak, head of Kabul’s license distribution department, said that dozens of women came to Kabul’s traffic department of City every day to apply for a permit.

In just the last five months, 140 women had obtained driving licenses from his office.

 “Women can get their permits without any restrictions after they take a two-week training course in Kabul’s traffic department or in the traffic departments of other cities,” he said.

Wardak agreed that female drivers faced constant harassment, despite being generally more proficient than men. They made more effort to learn traffic laws and to drive carefully, he noted.

“In the four accidents I have witnessed involving female drivers, it was male drivers who were at fault,” Wardak continued.

One female driver, Nooria, told IWPR that men habitually stopped their cars in front of her to obstruct her while she was on the road.

Another, Marzia, a graduate of the private Mamozi’s Driving Centre, said, “I haven been driving for a year-and-a-half. All that time I have been subject to male harassment.”

“Once I got a puncture and was forced to stop my car. I tried to change the tyre myself because there was no workshop nearby but I couldn’t. Instead of being helped by male passersby, they called me rude names and said insulting things that are not fit to be repeated.”

“The men teased me so much that I was forced to report them to the police. Fortunately, the police officers intervened and told them off and helped me.” 

In general, however, the police seem to have a hands-off attitude to male harassment of female drivers.

Faridoon, head of criminal investigations with Kabul police, said that they often received reports of this kind but were yet to make any arrests.

“These complaints were not serious enough for us to arrest, investigate or prosecute anyone. However, if a woman faces such a serious problem, she can go to a police station and the police will be at their service.”

Officials say that the government supports more women learning to drive. Karima Salik, head of the women’s affairs department in Kabul, said that around 120 women had taken two driving courses they ran in cooperation with an Italian organisation, Italia Cooperation.

 “We are planning to provide more training courses for women in the near future so that they can find jobs and increase their earning potential,” she said.

Fawzia Naseriar, a member of parliament for Kabul, said, “Although driving is not easy for Afghan women, I am glad that interest is increasing.”

It showed that prejudices against women’s ability to work outside the home were also disappearing, she continued.

Women were feeling more confident about their own abilities, Naseriar went on, and thus looked for the same opportunities as men.

“Women’s interest in driving shows that they want more than ever to be economically self-sufficient,” she said, “because this dependence on male breadwinner’s money has been the reason so many times for their rights to be squandered.”

Haji Delawar, the director of Mamozi’s Driving Course, said, “In the 15 years since the centre was founded, 5,000 women have taken our courses in various branches throughout the country.”

He added that Mamozi’s driving course provided hundreds of women free trainings with the support of Germany and Italy between 2003 and 2013.

Women’s rights activist Suraya Paikan said that the process of urbanisation and increasing levels of female access to education were why more women were learning to drive.

They now had to fight on, despite the obstacles in their way.

“If women are afraid of male harassment and don’t fight such problems and struggle for their rights, they will not achieve equality,” she concluded.

The benefits of obtaining a license are clear. Roya is taking lessons at the Mamozai Driving Centre so that she can make use of the family car.

“When there was no man at home, I had to take taxis to do all my shopping, so I decided to learn to drive so I could look after my family,” she said. “Women driving are still considered something abnormal and weird in our society, but it is not the case at all. In reality, women can earn their own living and look after themselves if they learn to drive.”

 This report was produced under IWPR’s Promoting Human Rights and Good Governance in Afghanistan initiative, funded by the European Union Delegation to Afghanistan.