This is an encouraging story about Afghan women moving forward despite many obstacles.  It's still very unusual for an Afghan female to be driving. 

Women drivers are so rare in Afghanistan that it's a head-turning, hand-pointing shock for most people who see one. The license bureau reports that of the more than 17,000 licenses issued in the Kabul area last year, only 85 went to women.

Abdul Shokoor Ziaee opened Bakhtan Technical and Driving Course school after the 2001 fall of the Taliban, which had banned women from driving. He has seen a small increase recently in the number of women at his school, where colorful traffic signs cover the walls and a greasy, disassembled car engine sits on the front table.

"More women should learn how to drive because men and women have equal rights. The other thing is that Afghanistan is developing, moving forward," he says.

snip….

The 14-year-old exudes a general giddiness. "I like driving so much. It's not hard," she says in the halting English she learned while at school in Pakistan.

Although she has been driving for about a year, she won't be legal until she's 19, Afghanistan's driving age.

Female drivers weren't always such a rarity. Women's rights were relatively advanced during the 1980s, when a Soviet-backed government ruled Afghanistan, and women could then drive in Kabul, though not in the provinces.

In the 1990s, the Taliban took over.

Afghani women still have a ways to go though.  In order to get drivers training or a drivers license they must have the approval of their husbands or fathers or male head of the household.  Once they are driving female drivers will get harassed and lots of stares.  As time passes this too will change.

Stares, glares for Afgan Female Drivers – Seattlepi.com

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