DRIVING FORCE

Afghan Woman Wants Driving Rights

Opened driving school for women in Kabul.

In a country where most women are illiterate and few will speak to men outside their family, Shakila Naderi has broken with convention by opening a driving school with the sole purpose of putting the fairer sex behind the wheel. “It bothers men when women drive,” the 45-year-old wife of a taxi driver told reporters. “But I wasn’t scared of them then, and I am not scared of them now.” After a decade under the cruel thumb of the Taliban, many Afghan women are still adjusting to their expanded education and work rights—but they still lag far behind men. The Naderi Driving School was the target of some threats, but Naderi is winning: 312 driver’s licenses were issued to women in Kabul last year.