Last year, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia made the historic announcement that it would allow women to drive from June of this year. The lifting of the ban was met with worldwide support and many women in the Kingdom are counting down the days until they can get behind the wheel (of cars, as well as trucks and motorcycles).
And in case there was any doubt about their eagerness to drive, it was announced across the weekend that more than 1,000 women in the Kingdom have signed up to become Careem drivers from June 24.
Magnus Olsson, the Co-Founder of Careem, told Zawya, “We had a significant number of Saudi women getting training for the captain role and there are already 1,000 Saudi women who signed up with be captains at Careem. We are very excited about this June, it is a big milestone for the country.”
Olsson explained that the company hopes to rapidly expand within the Kingdom over the coming year with a target number of female captains already in mind. “We hope to get up to 100,000 female captains on board within a year from June.”
The repealing of the ban will also provide women with higher employment opportunities, given that they can drive themselves to and from a job. In January, the General Directorate of Passports announced that it was looking to hire women for the first time and a staggering 100,000 plus women applied for the roles, according to Al Arabiya.
Now, see the new book celebrating street style in Saudi Arabia.
