Trailblazing women pilots complete history-making flight to Saudi Arabia

ON BOARD a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, these trailblazing women have blasted their way into a country where they’re not allowed to drive a car.

A Saudi woman defiantly drives a vehicle in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as part of a campaign protesting the ban on women driving in the ultraconservative kingdom. Picture: AP

ON BOARD a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, these trailblazers have blasted their way into a country where they’re not allowed to travel without a man, let alone drive a car.

The three women pilots have become Royal Brunei Airlines’ first all-female flight crew by making their first flight from Brunei to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are forbidden from driving, which makes the historic journey even more remarkable. Captain Sharifah Czarena and senior first officers Sariana Nordin and Dk Nadiah Pg Khashiem flew into the Middle Eastern country on February 23 to mark Brunei’s independence day. Czarena is already a history-making aviator, having become the first female captain of a flag carrier in Southeast Asia three years ago. “Being a pilot, people normally see it as being a male-dominant occupation,” she told The Brunei Times in 2012. “As a woman, a Bruneian woman, it is such a great achievement. It’s really showing the younger generation or the girls especially that whatever they dream of, they can achieve it.” Royal Brunei Airlines has committed to getting more women into the industry and has extended its engineering apprentice program to both men and women. The milestone voyage marks another promising step towards progress for female pilots in parts of the world where aviation remains an overwhelmingly male domain. Hanadi al-Hindi became the first Saudi woman to be licensed to fly in the kingdom in 2014, paving the way for a number of other women Saudi pilots. It also follows the daring work of Niloofar Rahmani, who became Afghanistan’s first female fixed-wing military pilot and continues to work in the field despite death threats from the Taliban and other Islamic hardliners in her home country. But the history flight also serves as a sobering reminder of the tough restrictions on women in Saudi Arabia, where the prohibition on women holding driver’s licences is only part of the struggle. BIZARRE RESTRICTIONS ON SAUDI WOMEN The ultraconservative Muslim kingdom forbids women from obtaining a passport, marrying, travelling or accessing higher education without the approval of a male guardian. Women have also been forced to secure a male guardian’s permission to undergo medical procedures, according to Human Rights Watch’s 2015 World Report. Saudi women are also reportedly banned from participating in sports, dressing freely and even walking into a cemetery, however Saudi women also deny this is the case. Still, the oppression of Saudi women have long been a concern for human rights groups. While there have been some recent gains for women’s rights — such as a possible move towards introducing physical education for girls in schools — it often seems a case of one step forward, one archaic step back. Last month, US coffee chain Starbucks was at the centre of a global boycott after it allegedly banned women from its store in Saudi Arabia, sending #girlcott trending internationally. It came days before Saudi Arabia ratified a law that would, finally, let women to book hotel rooms without being accompanied by a man, a move women welcomed for allowing them more freedom of mobility. But this year has also seen a strong push towards banning Saudi women from using social media, with an Arabic hashtag translating to “We don’t want girls on Twitter” going viral. MOVEMENTS FOR CHANGE Women’s rights in Saudi Arabia received a major boost late last year when women were allowed to vote for the first time in local council elections. There were 978 women entered as candidates, however many were barred from registering, including a woman who had been detained for two months for driving from the United Arab Emirates to Saudi Arabia. Women candidates were also prohibited from directly addressing male voters during their campaign. Up to 20 women went on to be elected as councillors, according to the Associated Press. They included Salma bint Hizab al-Oteibi, who was named Saudi Arabia’s first elected female politician after scoring a council seat in Madrakah in Mecca province. But as a new era dawns for women in Saudi politics, the ban on driving continues to be a major fight — and is perhaps symbolic of wider injustices against women in the kingdom. A series of huge campaigns, including the #womentodrive movement, have been launched by women on social media who demand an easing of the restrictions. “In Saudi Arabia we take patriarchy to the extreme,” campaigner Eman Al Nafjan has said. “You cannot walk to the corner and catch a bus or take the subway except in Mecca. “This day-to-day obstacle has proven to be a demoralising deterrent for many women from pursuing an education, a career and even maintaining their own healthcare.”