Why can’t women ride motorbikes in Pakistan?

[Henry]

It wasn’t long ago when I saw her. I remember how stunned people were as soon as they caught a glimpse of her. She was a fat woman, wearing a dark grey men’s kurta with sleeves half-rolled, riding a motorcycle.

Yes, you read it right. She was a middle-aged woman, riding a Honda 70 on Karachi’s roads, with a man sitting behind her. This often makes me wonder; being a girl, why am I deprived of enjoying this convenient form of personal commutation without having a million eyes ogling at me? It saves time and is amazingly economical, if nothing else.

Studying at the University of Karachi’s humungous campus, it irritates me every time I am walking and a motorbike skids past me.

Everyone remembers the massive uproar in various countries, including Pakistan, when a woman was sent to jail in Saudi Arabia for driving a vehicle. Newspapers carried dozens of blogs and other related articles on the issue. Most were sharply critical of the decision to send the woman to jail, just because she wanted to drive a car.

It troubles me. I wanted to ask all my fellow countrymen – are women in this country any different? If driving a car is a basic right of a woman, which has nothing to do with religion, then how is riding a motorbike any different?

People conveniently blame our culture for it. But if it really was for our culture, then we would not be seeing women, beautifully draped in saris, riding scooties in India, since that is the country which has a culture that is the closest to ours.

If not culture, then they will bring in religion. I don’t claim to be a religious scholar but I fail to see how a woman riding a motorcycle would be against the tenets of one’s faith.

The media serves as a stimulus for a lot of acts that people as a society end up doing, and this is exactly what is needed here as well. Television channels need to show more and more women riding motorcycles and bicycles so that ordinary women and girls understand that there is nothing wrong with this. This will also send a much-needed signal to Pakistani men.

Why can

 

[third eye]

MCPs ...perhaps ?

 

[Shardul.....the lion]

Is it for real that women dont drive bikes in Pakistan or even metropolitan cities like Karachi? some pakistani members can clarify

I am sure women must be driving big cars in Karachi so why not bikes?

 

[Icarus]

Bike is not considered a Lady's transport but some ladies do ride motorbikes. Scooters and Cars are preferred to motorbikes for ladies because they don't have to have their legs dangling over both sides. It's considered an inappropriate way to sit for women.

 

[Fazlu]

This is something new to me .

 

[Don Jaguar]

In Pakistan they don't drive bikes but a lot of them drive cars.

 

[Baby Leone]

some womens drive bikes in metro areas cz mostly females may afford cars so they prefer cars, and there is no specific female brands & other bikes are heavy for them,
i remember when MQM jalsa for women happened in Karachi few girls were on bikes

& for cars some times i feel tht there are more females who drive cars than males especially in Karachi...:S

 

[Imran Khan]

 

[FullMetalJacket]

Women can't join Pakistan's chapter of Hells Angels

 

[Don Jaguar]

They were only in Lahore.

And now their duties are changed they are in office and not outside.

 

[Bhairava]

There was this hot girl who modelled for a crappy honda ride some time ago.


Whats her name ?

 

[Armstrong]

Yeah ride a bike the whole day long and then go to the nearest Super-Market to get a month's supply of 'Fair and Lovely' or some other whitening sh*t like that. No women generally don't ride bikes...but apart from the well-off families the women in almost every family that has a car, are the ones that drive it around the whole day ! Women travel by buses, by the rikshaws, the qingqis and the vans. So there isn't really a restriction of sorts, in my opinion, its just isn't something that they're normally seen doing though I've seen a couple of women riding bikes and others riding bicycles ! I suppose if we had any 'scooters' barring those old Vespas we might see more women going for this or maybe not.

 

[VCheng]

Bike is not considered a Lady's transport but some ladies do ride motorbikes. Scooters and Cars are preferred to motorbikes for ladies because they don't have to have their legs dangling over both sides. It's considered an inappropriate way to sit for women.

That is why there are scooters without a central tank:

 

[Don Jaguar]

Yeah ride a bike the whole day long and then go to the nearest Super-Market to get a month's supply of 'Fair and Lovely' or some other whitening sh*t like that. No women generally don't ride bikes...but apart from the well-off families the women in almost every family that has a car, are the ones that drive it around the whole day ! Women travel by buses, by the rikshaws, the qingqis and the vans. So there isn't really a restriction of sorts, in my opinion, its just isn't something that they're normally seen doing though I've seen a couple of women riding bikes and others riding bicycles ! I suppose if we had any 'scooters' barring those old Vespas we might see more women going for this or maybe not.

Totally agree with you since we are in same city.

 

[Pakistanisage]

I am not aware of any laws that specifically bar women from riding motorbikes. I think it is just the cultural thing as women in Pakistan prefer driving cars over riding motorbikes.