Pakistani Student Hopes to Change Her Life with Motorcycle Training
In Lahore, Pakistan, a 22-year-old student named Laiba Rashid is undergoing a training program to learn how to drive a motorcycle. The program, called Women on Wheels (WOW), is offered free by the Lahore traffic police and has been in operation since 2017. Although the program is 7 years old, it’s rare to see women driving motorcycles in the conservative, Islamic nation.
Rashid hopes that learning to drive a motorcycle will change her life, as she is currently dependent on her brother to pick her up and drop her off at college. She wants to buy a motorcycle to go to college and is eager to break the cultural and religious taboo surrounding women driving two-wheelers.
Women driving two-wheelers has been a taboo in Pakistan, but more women are now changing the culture, said Bushra Iqbal Hussain, a social activist and director of Safe Childhood. The WOW program has trained at least 6,600 women, and Rashid’s batch was the 86th since it started.
The program has become increasingly popular in recent months as car prices have soared and motorcycles offer a cheaper alternative. Auto sector analyst Muhammad Abrar Polani said that stagnant wage growth and high inflation have eroded the purchasing power of the middle class, leaving motorcycles as the only viable option for many households.
The cheapest four-wheeler in Pakistan costs about 2.3 million rupees ($8,265), compared to about 115,000 rupees for the most affordable China-made two-wheeler. The WOW program has trained women of different ages and segments of society, including young women who are quick learners and enthusiastic.
One of the program’s graduates, Ghania Raza, 23, said learning to drive a two-wheeler gave her a deep sense of achievement and empowerment. Shumaila Shafiq, 36, a mother of three and a part-time fashion designer, has also benefited from the program and has designed a special short length abaya to wear while operating the motorcycle.
