She Can Ride is an initiative launched three years ago by a young woman called Sara Gamal who wanted to share the happiness that comes from biking with other women and their children. She wanted them all to spend enjoyable times and, perhaps, also to contribute to changing social attitudes towards cycling for women. Gamal, 30 years old and a Cairo resident, said that the initiative at first was "a self-challenge. I challenged myself at the age of 27 to start riding a bike, using the services of a professional trainer to do so. Then I started to go for long rides in a group, even travelling together with our bikes." "But during the rides, I noticed that most of the attendees were men. I thought to myself that I would like to find a bunch of other women who would overcome their trepidation and also enjoy the feeling of happiness and the loss of restraints that comes from bike riding," she said. "We aimed at women in their twenties and thirties, but young women of that age started to bring their mothers as well, and the mothers started to bring their kids. As a result, She Can Ride started catering to a wide range of ages from three to 70. Our dream is to replace other forms of transportation with bikes, so that we can help to preserve the environment as well." Gamal added that "the core skills that we teach include balancing, using the brakes, riding long distances, using different speeds and fixing problems on the road using various tools. Most importantly, we give knowledge about safety requirements. We have been having weekly events on Fridays in different neighbourhoods of Cairo and Giza, riding for about 10 km, a good distance even for beginners." All the trainers are women, and many of them have added bike skills to their career plans. They all have their own bikes, have been riding for several years, and have the gift of communicating their knowledge. They also have a high level of patience and a sense of humour. "We are 15 trainers now, and we have taught some 2,000 people how to ride over the past three years. Our specialty lies in psychological training. We concentrate on how to deal with setbacks like hastiness or anger, and we work on helping with them during sessions. By the end of the training sessions, most of the trainees feel as if they have been reborn," Gamal said. Sara Essam, a 27-year-old trainer working with the group, said that "since I was a child, I have loved how I feel when I ride a bike, like flying in the wind and breathing freely. When I learnt about She Can Ride from a friend who was one of the trainers, I was so excited to join and fulfill my passion. I also loved the way I could put a smile on the women's faces by helping them achieve a goal with a big impact." "I think of the group now as a second family. Sara Gamal is like a sister to us. I have worked in many fields, including in a call centre and in sales, data entry and as a graphic designer. But I have gained real-life experience with bikes in the group that has beaten all of these." Essam said that some members of the group had received negative responses from men, some of whom have questioned whether training is needed to ride a bike. However, many members have also received encouraging comments from both genders. For Essam, at first it was not easy to get her parents' consent. Biking to feel alive "My father totally disagreed with the idea, as he had concerns about girls riding bikes in the streets and the way they would need to dress. But with the help of my mother, I managed to convince him," Essam said. Today, there are 25 training points with She Can Ride covering Cairo, Giza and Alexandria. They try to find uncrowded places to train, as far as possible, though these are usually ordinary streets, even if with fewer cars. "Although we don't get security permissions for the training sessions, we do for the events we organise. The police have been very supportive during the rides, and they even provide a security vehicle to follow the participants," Gamal said. The events welcome everyone, not only She Can Ride trainees, and they are announced on the group's Facebook page. There are still social perspectives that ask why women would want to learn to ride bikes and why they should be taught to do so. It is such perspectives that Sara Gamal and her team have been challenging over the past three years. "Two memorable examples are worth mentioning – a 69-year-old lady who joined us to learn biking to help her use a scooter, and a young woman in her twenties who had been fearful of learning how to ride a bike since she was a child. It took seven sessions for them to learn, but both were strong and stubborn enough to succeed in achieving their goal," Gamal said, explaining that such stories can help to challenge negative social perspectives. Dina Hamdi, a 36-year-old lawyer, found out about She Can Ride from the group's Facebook page and wanted to ride a bike to help her lose weight. She comes to each session with good news about losing a few kilos. "The experience was worth a try. I started as a kind of game, and they were very supportive and kind to me, especially my trainer, Sara, who gives a huge positive vibe. Riding a bike is like any other kind of sport as well, in that it helps to get rid of any negative energy," Dina said. Hala Hussein is one of the She Can Ride stars. A 54-year-old doctor, she wanted to learn to ride a bike after her daughter had participated in events with the team. "I chose She Can Ride because of their easy-going style. I had been dreaming of learning to ride since I was young, and biking is a source of positive energy and a great way to get fit," she said. "I haven't faced any negativity, and many people salute me in the street. She Can Ride also posted me on their page, which gave me great encouragement. Age is just a number, after all, and now I can share my daughter's leisure time," Hussein concluded.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 1 April, 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
