Kabul residents watch an Afghan woman during a car driving test

KABUL, January 26 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – A German non-governmental organization, Medica Mondiale, started giving driving lessons to one hundred Afghan women, 18 of whom will graduate by the end of this moth, with licences to be issued by the Kabul Traffic Department.

With one white-knuckled hand on the steering wheel, and another trembling the gearstick into reverse, a young Afghan woman quickly tugs back her veil for a rear view as she drives along a white line, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported Sunday, January 26.

Greety Nai Kbenn, a timid adolescent of 18, has driven herself into the history books, as one of 28 Afghan women to become the first in 14 years to take the national driving test.

She and her fellow learner drivers on Saturday, January 25, hit the public highways of traffic-choked Kabul for a practical examination in a relatively quiet part of the city.

"We must encourage other women to take firm steps in order to achieve their rights and turn Afghanistan into an equal society for men and women," the BBC news online quoted one of the learner drivers as saying.

"I come from a cultivated and open family, so following the driving course was not a problem. On the contrary they were very proud of me," said another.

For his part, Rachel Wareham, the program manager, said that Afghan women are highly motivated to take driving lessons.

"Almost every woman I spoke to wants to learn to drive," said Wareham.

However, she said that the idea does not appeal to the majority of men, pointing out that women have difficulties in registering at the driving examination centre.

"Unfortunately, it is very difficult for them to register at the driving examination centre, because many men there are opposed to the idea of women driving, this is why we have organised this driving course."

But the idea starts to gain ground in Kabul. Some men believe that the new drive will spare women the hassles of commuting.

"These women are very brave," AFP quoted one police examiner as saying.

"In the jungle of Kabul's traffic they will have to face insults, humiliation, spitting and sexual harassment," he said.

Women are set to take the wheel in Afghanistan after a 10-year ban.

Under the ousted Taliban regime, women were banned from driving, working and attending school.