Saudi women are in the driver's seat for the first time in their country and steering their way through busy city streets just minutes after the world's last remaining ban on women driving was lifted on Sunday.
It is a euphoric and historic moment for women who have had to rely on their husbands, fathers, brothers and drivers to run basic errands, get to work, visit friends or even drop kids off at school. The ban had relegated women to the backseat, restricting when and how they move around.
But after midnight Sunday, Saudi women finally joined women around the world in being able to get behind the wheel of a car and simply drive.
The lifting of the ban, ordered last September by King Salman, is part of sweeping reforms pushed by his powerful young son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, in a bid to transform the economy of the world's top oil exporter and open up its cloistered society.
"I'm speechless. I'm so excited it's actually happening," said Hessah al-Ajaji, who drove her family's Lexus down the capital's busy Tahlia Street after midnight.
Al-Ajaji had a U.S. driver's license before obtaining a Saudi one and appeared comfortable at the wheel as she pulled up and parked. As for the male drivers on the road, "They were really supportive and cheering and smiling," she said.
Women drove up and down a main road in the eastern city of Khobar and cheered as police looked on.
"Today is a historic day. Thanks to the leadership for this decision, it's a beautiful day, we are happy, driving has started minutes, hours ago," said new driver Samah Al-Qusaibi.
"There is a difference between yesterday and today. Today we are here [the driver's seat] yesterday we were here [in the back] or here [the passenger's seat] thank you very much and thanks God we are witnessing this day."
"It was a dream for us and has been achieved, praise Allah," said Hala Aljindan. "We thank our wise leadership of King Salman and Prince Mohammed bin Salman. No one believed that this will happen, but it has happened, big numbers went out to the streets of Khobar enthusiastic, the organizing, the arrangement and readiness was very wonderful and thank God that we have been able to witness this day."
For nearly three decades, outspoken Saudi women and the men who supported them had called for women to have the right to drive. They faced arrest for defying the ban as women in other Muslim countries drove freely.
In 1990, during the first driving campaign by activists, women who got behind the wheels of their cars in the capital, Riyadh, lost their jobs, faced severe stigmatization and were barred from travel abroad for a year.
Ultraconservatives in Saudi Arabia had long warned that allowing women to drive would lead to sin and expose women to harassment. Ahead of allowing women to drive, the kingdom passed a law against sexual harassment with up to five years prison for the most severe cases.
Criticism against women driving has largely been muted since King Salman announced last year that they would be allowed to drive
The kingdom's decision to lift the world's only ban on women driving could also help boost the Saudi economy by ensuring stronger female participation in the workforce, meaning increased household incomes.
Car companies also see opportunity in this country of 20 million people, half of them female.
Ahead of the ban being lifted, they have put Saudi saleswomen on showroom floors and targeted potential new drivers with advertising and social media marketing.
Saudi Arabia is the largest automobile market in the Middle East, with at least 405,000 cars expected to be sold this year. That number is expected to increase between 6 and 10% once women start driving, the chairman of the national committee for cars at the Council of Saudi Chambers told the daily Saudi Gazette.
The overwhelming majority of women in Saudi Arabia still do not have licenses. Many have not had a chance to take the gender-segregated driving courses that were first offered to women only a few months ago. There is also a waiting list of several months for a course at Princess Nora University in Riyadh. And the classes can be costly, running several hundred dollars.
