International Female Ride Day, an event in which thousands of women all over the world are doing the same thing on the same day, took place on 3 May in almost every part of the planet, from Afghanistan to India passing by Toronto and stopping in Cairo and Alexandria. On this day, female motorcycle and scooter aficionados took to the roads for International Female Ride Day, a one-of-a-kind globally synchronised motorcycle ride. The event has brought women together through motorcycling across cultures and borders, echoing women's fervour for solidarity and joint activities. “Women riding motorcycles isn't new. As long as there have been motorcycles, there have been women who ride them. It's simply a way to show how many of us there are,” Vicki Gray, International Female Ride Day founder, told the press. In Egypt, the day was by no means the first time that women have been seen in such numbers riding scooters, mopeds and motorcycles through the streets. In the 1950s and 60s, young women wearing long dresses and high heels could often be seen riding bicycles and motorcycles. They were neither threatened by sexual harassment nor afraid of society‘s disapproval of women riding bicycles. However, at some point in the 1970s many women stopped riding two or three-wheeled vehicles. As society became more conservative, it may have been thought that riding a motorcycle by a woman was prohibited. However, it was not the law or city regulations that prohibited a woman from riding a motorcycle. Instead, this was the doing of society, which now began increasingly to disapprove of women riding bicycles or motorcycles. With the 25 January Revolution, many Egyptians began to break old barriers, including where they felt repressed or subjugated by society. One of these barriers took the form of the rules erected by society to govern the lives of women, and here the rule against riding two and three-wheeled vehicles came to mind. The International Female Ride Day was widely covered in the newspapers, on television and in social media, when it hit the streets of Alexandria this year. The event was organised locally by Shaimaa Aly, a young Alexandrian English teacher who owns a nursery and is the founder of Let's Scoot, the first school for scooter riding for women in the country. Aly, who has been riding a scooter for three years, said, “Over the past few months I have seen many magazines and newspapers writing about the impossibility of women riding scooters in Egypt, saying that it is prohibited for women to do man-like activities in the Middle East. But this is not true, of course.” The International Day gave Aly the opportunity to organise an event to contradict the false ideas spread in the media and to prove that women in Egypt did ride scooters, bicycles and motorcycles, and it need not be uncommon to see a woman hitting the road with her helmet and safety equipment. “I got all the permits necessary for the event, including from the governorate and the security. There was an ambulance standing by, and all the other necessary measures were also taken. Everything was prepared for the big day, and I invited all the scooter and bike groups I could think of from Cairo and Alexandria,” Aly said. “Since most international and local media were covering the event, I decided to add a touristic flavour to the route, and we started from Stanley Bridge and went to the Qaitbay Fortress, passing by the Bibliotheca Alexandria and many other sites along the Corniche.” “More than 300 participants took part in the event. Many men also came to share the day with us, and they were full of enthusiasm to help and lend support. Many of my students from Let's Scoot helped me a lot with their enthusiasm also,” she added. The Let's Scoot School was founded when Aly discovered that there were few such services in her native Alexandria. “When I found that there was only one man who taught how to ride a scooter in Alexandria, I said I would teach it myself. Many girls don't want a man teaching them about scooters and bikes, and many parents would not agree anyway. That's how the whole thing started,” she explains. “There are six classes in the course. Only one is theoretical, where all the necessary questions are put on the table and discussed thoroughly. The rest are all practical, and up to now I have taught some 30 women to ride by taking them out in the Alexandria streets.” The International Day attracted female riders old and new. Dina Hegab, one of the pioneers of scooter riding in Alexandria who took part in the Day, said, “I started to ride a scooter after the 25 January Revolution. It was a breakthrough not only for me but also for the community in which I live. Now I use my scooter as an easy, cheap and very beneficial mode of transportation, especially in our traffic-congested streets. “Why take a two-hour trip in a car, when you can do it in minutes on a scooter? It does not make any sense our obligation to use a car rather than a scooter or even a bicycle,” she added. Hegab is a mother of three and the founder of the Alexandria Scooter Riders Club-Female Edition, and she has been riding a scooter for four years now. She also organises a rally for Alexandria women to ride along the Corniche every Friday morning. The group aims at spreading the idea that women and scooter riding is acceptable. Since 2011, the group has helped many women in Alexandria to pluck up the courage and hit the road with their scooters. According to Hegab, scooters are much safer than taking a taxi, a microbus or a bus for women. Women can be annoyed by men sitting next to them in a microbus or a taxi driver harassing them verbally. But these things never happen when they are riding a scooter. “Which is better – to ride on your own or to ride with someone? That's what we have been asking parents,” Hegab added. This year it was not just Alexandria that celebrated International Female Ride Day in Egypt. The country's women bikers could be seen out in force with their Harleys, scooters and motorcycles from Cairo to Ain Sokhna, undertaking an epic journey that was powerful, beautiful and full of oomph.
