Women need to take control and take the wheel

There is a Saudi Arabian film that I love. It is called Wadjda and is about a young girl who longs to have her own bike, so that she can play outside and ride wherever and with whomsoever she likes. Yet Riyadh’s restrictive patriarchy frowns upon women having agency over their means of transport, even bicycles, ensuring that they are forever at the mercy of capricious and often irascible male drivers. 

I have thought about this film and its message a lot this year, when the many benefits of having our own independent methods of transport, primarily cars, have been amply highlighted. Those of us with four wheels have been best able to shop for essential supplies, catch up safely with loved ones and take advantage of the albeit curtailed amount of freedom on offer to go on day trips and holidays at home. Never before have I been so glad that I gave in to my late father’s gentle nagging – ‘I can’t be giving you lifts for ever, you know’ – and finally buckled down to driving lessons at the grand old age of 22.