
While Pakistan is a staunchly conservative society unwelcoming for women to be socially well-equipped, Women on Wheels (WOW), a driving school programme, is empowering women in the country by teaching them a must-have bike riding skill.
Launched by the traffic police department in Lahore, the driving schooling programme has been actively teaching women how to operate two-wheelers for seven years.
Despite the programme being nearly a decade old, it's a rare sight to see women riding two-wheelers in Pakistan.
"I hope this will change my life because I am dependent on my brother to pick me up and drop me at college," Reuters quoted 22-year-old Laiba Rashid, a newcomer in the WOW programme.
Hopeful that riding would transform her life to an advantageous extent, Rashid was willing to buy a motorcycle to reach college by herself.
While none of Rashid's female family members can drive a bike, she added: "Now everybody is convinced that women should be independent in their movement to schools, jobs and markets."
According to Bushra Iqbal Hussain, a social activist and director of Safe Childhood —an organisation advocating the safety of female children— bike riding for women has been a widely accepted cultural taboo in the Islamic Republic.
However, more women, in line with a modern social fabric, are seen as willing to break this taboo. This is said to be reminiscent of women resorting to learning to drive in the 1980s in order to be less dependent on men for their mobility needs.