Driving in Kathmandu, not very long ago, was taken as a man’s job. There used to be very few bikes and scooters in the streets and a car was not accessible or affordable to everybody barring a certain affluent class that could afford the luxury. Public transportations were driven by men and even bicycles in the Valley had mostly male riders. So, women, more often than not, were limited to the backseats.[break]
Bijay Gajmer/The Week File Photo
Saguna Shah, 37, a teacher and a writer, however, has a different story to tell. She shares an anecdote of some forty years ago when her mother used to be a hardcore rider. Saguna describes herself as a fiercely independent woman and believes that she has inherited those same so-called manly traits from her mother.
“Just like my mother, I love being in control of a vehicle because it makes me feel more relaxed and confident,” she smiles.
Saguna, who has even been on extended road trips to different parts of the country all by herself, shares that her mother, a lady with an independent streak, loved to hit the road on bike as well as cars. And she never had to face any reproach or rebuke from her family about her driving interests. In fact, even men would be taken aback by her skills and confidence with the vehicles and feel intimidated by her driving speed and abilities.
In recent times, though, cars, and more importantly, scooters have brought about an era of revolution for women. The roads are full of women riders and drivers and private vehicles have become mandatory to their daily schedules. Students, jobholders and housewives have started associating driving with a sense of independence. Women on wheels don’t feel as if they are trespassing on anybody’s time anymore. With their private vehicles, they seem to have found their keys to freedom and are not dependent on the male members of their families to pick them up or drop them whensoever required.
There are some female drivers, in fact, who have experienced a sense of equality that comes with a reversal in conventional gender roles.
Rita Tiwari, 38, Acting Principal of Padma Kanya Higher Secondary School, is proud that her husband asks her for a ride these days when his bike doesn’t have enough fuel or is at the garage for maintenance. She therefore feels that her scooter has not just saved her time and energy but also increased her sense of worth and reverence in her husband’s eyes. “It has made us more equal,” she claims.
Other than the issues of equality, having one’s own vehicle is also considered safe and comfortable in many ways. The public vehicles of the capital are often overcrowded and consume a lot of time and energy during travel. Especially after dark, women may have to face bullying and harassment in crowded buses which is not just physically exhausting but mentally disturbing.
Saguna insists that if every woman dared to take the wheel in her hands, she could make herself less prone to such hassles. However, that being said, the roads are still not free from those chauvinists who still believe that women are too “feminine” to drive.
“I have been driving for fifteen years and can now put those chauvinist bullies in trouble merely by flashing my license. But I feel sorry for those young girls who are only a couple of months old on the road,” she reveals.
The driving woes of the present-day riders are shared by many girls like Princi Koirala, 23, an engineer. She is a confident driver and feels that her scooter has not just enabled her to attend night classes but has also given her a sense of independence and freedom. However, the chauvinism displayed on the streets irritates her a lot. Some drivers knowingly try to race her ahead, many ogle at her and the others make faces. Also, some overly helpful ones, especially in the underground parking lots, she feels, treat her like “a damsel in distress.”
Princi also shares her security concerns as a nighttime rider. According to her, the situation on main roads is satisfactory. But dark alleys are a completely different story.
“The Valley’s traffic police should focus their attention on the narrow lanes and pathways where female riders have ample chances of getting harassed at night,” she points out.
Saguna, an older and wiser driver, adds to Princi’s experiences by sharing some of her own, particularly regarding some annoying microbus drivers. However, contrary to Princi, she expresses her dissatisfaction even with the situation on the main roads during broad daylight. She shares an incident where a microbus hit her car on the side and then dragged it over for a while, eventually shattering her bumper. She puts the blames for these incidents on the rigid mindset of the people who still believe that driving is men’s territory and women have no business sitting behind the steering wheel.
If this is the scenario now, one can only imagine the situation a few decades ago. The handful of female drivers in Kathmandu used to be under constant scrutiny.
Dr Sangita Rayamajhi, Professor of Literature and Gender Studies at Tribhuvan University, reminisces those days of being a young driver on Kathmandu streets. She used to feel a sense of accomplishment tied to a sense of anxiety. She had never considered driving to be a man’s job; nevertheless, she couldn’t deny the sense of satisfaction that evoked whenever she took the driver’s seat.
But at the same time, she was also worried that her car would break down in the middle of the road or she would run out of fuel because that would make her the laughingstock in the eyes of those male drivers who were of the opinion that women were all talk and no substance.
“It was a prestige issue for most male drivers and they couldn’t even stand it if a woman overtook them on the road,” she comments.
However, these days, things are gradually changing. Sangita calls this a result of gender sensitivity while Rita calls it the demand of time. Today, Pratima herself is happily married with two kids and drives not just a bike but also a car. And she is glad that those people who had raised their eyebrows before are now proud to have their own daughters and daughters- in-law driving vehicles.
No woman can be considered masculine just because she drives vehicles. Driving is not and never was a man’s job anyway. It was just a way in which society was conditioned to think and perceive. A few unfortunate road incidents apart, the scenario looks much favorable for female drivers than it used to be in the past, a notion that can also be substantiated by the increasing number of female riders and drivers on the city roads. Taking on the driver’s role has handed the keys of liberty and empowerment over to women. In fact, with economic independence and a hectic lifestyle that demands of them to juggle their homes and studies with careers, private vehicles have become a necessity of the present day that cannot be overlooked.
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