{"id":145684,"date":"2018-06-24T09:21:19","date_gmt":"2018-06-24T09:21:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/i-cant-believe-im-driving-in-saudi-arabia\/"},"modified":"2018-06-24T09:21:19","modified_gmt":"2018-06-24T09:21:19","slug":"i-cant-believe-im-driving-in-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/i-cant-believe-im-driving-in-saudi-arabia\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I can&#8217;t believe I&#8217;m driving in Saudi Arabia&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Roa Altaweli on her first drive to work in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/14D31\/production\/_102179258_img_1101.jpg\"\/><figcaption>Image caption                                      Roa Altaweli on her first drive to work in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia                              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">As Saudi Arabia lifts its ban on women drivers, Roa Altaweli, a midwife in Jeddah, makes her first drive to work. Here is her story.<\/p>\n<p>I woke up earlier than usual today. I was so excited that I couldn&#039;t sleep. Today I&#039;m driving to work, and for the first time I&#039;m not taking a backseat. I&#039;m behind the wheel. I still can&#039;t believe I&#039;m going to be driving in Jeddah.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia has today finally lifted its ban on women drivers. I was up until after midnight scrolling through social media for photos and videos of women hitting the roads in the moments after the ban was lifted.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Saudi women celebrate end of driving ban<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Day one is a quiet one on the roads - a school summer holiday. Not a bad thing for anxious first-time drivers. Accompanied by my dad, for a few tips and some moral support, I set out for work.<\/p>\n<p>On the way I pass the police, but I&#039;m not scared of being pulled over. I have a licence and I&#039;m driving legally in Saudi Arabia. I stop to get coffee from a drive-through, and I&#039;m the first female driver the barista has ever served.<\/p>\n<figure>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/images\/ic\/720x405\/p06byymk.jpg\"\/>Media playback is unsupported on your device<figcaption>Media captionSaudi women hit the road<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I used to drive when I was studying for a diploma in midwifery in Bahrain and I have had a driving license since 2005. I also had an international licence that I used to drive when I was on holiday in Dubai, Portugal and the US. <\/p>\n<p>Converting my Bahraini driving licence was straightforward, but getting an appointment for a driving test wasn&#039;t so easy. Demand was so high everything before July was booked. Fortunately, my sister and I found openings a couple of weeks ago and passed on our first go.<\/p>\n<p>My father and brother encouraged me and my younger sister to get the licence so we could drive as soon as the ban was lifted. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Five thing Saudi women still can&#039;t do<\/li>\n<li>In pictures: Saudi women get driving lessons<\/li>\n<li>Saudi women troll &#039;You won&#039;t drive&#039; trend<\/li>\n<li>Watch: Saudi women prepare to hit the road<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I am a midwife and I have obtained my PhD in midwifery in the UK. In Europe and developed countries, it is vital for a midwife to drive, in case they need to drive a mother to hospital instead of waiting for an ambulance. Having a driving licence is often required to do the job.<\/p>\n<p>When home birth is allowed in Saudi Arabia, hopefully in the near future, driving will give mothers the option to give birth at home with the help of a midwife. Driving will also help female healthcare practitioners and physicians on late-night shifts get to hospitals safely rather than taking taxis.<\/p>\n<p>I am now approaching the hospital in the eastern part of Jeddah where I work, entering the main gate. No one bothered me or stared at me on the way, and I feel like I have been driving here for a long time.  <\/p>\n<p>There is still a way to go, but it feels empowering to switch off the engine and walk into the hospital. Today is a historic day, and it feels full of the promise of more historic days for women in Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n<p>As told to Lulwah Shalhoub.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image caption Roa Altaweli on her first drive to work in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia As Saudi Arabia lifts its ban on women drivers, Roa Altaweli, a midwife in Jeddah, makes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":145685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}