When I lived in the middle east I noticed something very unusual. I was watching the news and saw that in Saudi Arabia a woman got arrested for driving. I asked one of my teammates who happened to be from that country why are men only allowed to drive and his response was, "Women aren't allowed to drive". So I said, "Why not?" and he looked at me and laughed. This stuck with me for a couple of days and even brought it to the attention of one of my friends back home. So women have to rely on men to take them to work or just to run errands on a regular day? So you're trying to tell me that a single woman has to pay for her transportation to and from work everyday? She can't go to a car dealership and purchase herself a vehicle? Now HOW CRAZY IS THAT?
The picture on the left is the first woman to receive her driver's license in Saudi Arabia. On June 24th 2018 Saudi Arabia pulled the ban on driving for women. The week after the ban was lifted 2,000 women received their driver's licenses and were able to drive to work or wherever they needed to go. Some of us have been driving since the age of 17 or 18, and the fact that we can get in our own vehicles and just go is a real luxury. For a long time women in Saudi Arabia and other countries did not have that luxury.
As a woman can you imagine not being able to drive in America or the UK?
A Women will look at a man and laugh if he told her she wasn't allowed to drive. We are in the golden age of female independence and I think the idea to lift the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia was a great idea. For years women weren't allowed to be independent in that part of the world, but on June 24th 2018 was a great day to take a step in the right direction.
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Alex Owumi is a professional basketball player and bestselling author of Qaddafi's Point Guard and The Fire Raven series. You can view his website here.
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