Women drives happy over reduced harassment during driving

KABUL (Pajhwok): Women drivers in capital Kabul says harassment they were facing in the past had reduced and now they were able to drive comfortably.

Lately, the number of women drivers had increased in capital Kabul but they faced harassment from men and had complained in this regard.

Nelab Durrani, 24, is a woman driver and owner of Women Driving Centre in Kabul’s Macroryan area.

Initially when Nelab wanted to learn drive her family members opposed her but now nobody had problem with her driving.

She said, in the past men drivers were harassing her and caused problems for her and sometimes she was faced with problems.

“During past government I was driving and faced harassment from men drivers, they blocked my way but now nobody was harassing and I drive comfortably,” she said.

Referring to the behavior of Islamic Emirate Security personnel, she said that she faced several times in check-points but they had no issue with her driving and was treated well.

She said initially her family did not allow her to learn driving and was faced with problems and challenges and therefore she opened a driving centre for women.

Nelab said up to 150 women had learned driving in her centre and currently 12 women were busy learning the driving.

She added after regime change her driving centre was closed because she believed that the new government will not let them continue with their work but lately the driving centre had started functioning again.

She asked interested women to learn driving and make themselves self-sufficient.

Nelofar, another woman driver, told Pajhwok Afghan News she had been driving from the past two years she had been driving.

She took her daughters in her car to the university and she is very happy with this.

She also complained against the harassment by men and said: “After the takeover of the Islamic Emirate now people had stopped harassing us,” she said.

In her  message to other girls she said: “Women should be self-sufficient and resolve their problems themselves.”

She hoped the process of license issuance for women will continue.

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