By Justin Dorman
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – This past week it was announced that women in Saudi Arabia would be allowed to ride bicycles and motorbikes. This was another extremely small step, for women in ultraconservative Islamic Saudi Arabia.

In order to fight unemployment, in the 1980s, British politician Norman Tebbit would advise the unemployed to “get on yer bike” and look for a job. This is far from what the religious police were intending. It would be very unlikely that they would suggest to a women to get a job, and would certainly not advocate that stance without the consent of her male relatives.

Nor is the grant for women to ride bicycles related, in any sense, to any use of bicycles as a vehicle for transportation. The impetus for the allowance was to give women some form of entertainment in which they can pass time. It would be too good to be true if this magnificent source of fun did not come without its restrictions. The religious police have stipulated that women may only ride their bicycles in recreational areas like parks, that they must be wearing full head-to-toe Islamic garb, and that they must always be accompanied by a male relative. Additionally, it was suggested that they avoid riding in places in which young men may congregate and harass such women.

Saudi Arabia’s religious police chief found this whole matter fairly comical. He stated that no one really rides bicycles in Saudi Arabia so that it was never truly considered whether or not there was actually a ban on women from riding in the first place.

It may be difficult to consider the right to ride bicycles a real freedom considering women can only do so when confined to certain areas, properly chaperoned, and properly covered; but, it can still be considered a slight progress in what might be the golden age for women in ultraconservative Saudi Arabia. Last year, Sarah Attar, a Saudi Arabian woman, became the first to be allowed to compete in the Olympics. Two years ago, King Abdullah granted women the right to vote, and to run in municipal elections starting in 2015.  Over the past year, King Abdullah also appointed thirty women to Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council.

While bicycle riding may not be very important in Saudi Arabia, we should still consider the rotation of each woman’s tire as part of a revolution.

For further information, please see:

Foreign Policy Blog – Saudi Women Might not be Allowed to Ride Bikes After all – 3 April 2013

Guardian – Saudi Women are Allowed to Cycle – but Only Around in Circles – 3 April 2013

Time – Saudi Women Can Now Ride Bicycles in Public (Kind of) – 3 April 2013

Al Jazeera – Saudi Arabia Eases ban on Women Riding Bikes – 2 April 2013