About 150 women motorcyclists after completing training with the collaboration of Special Monitoring Unit on Law & Order and City Traffic Police participated in the Women on Wheels (WoW) rally in Lahore. The rally is an immense move to encourage female bike riding. The event was full of well known national and international ladies such as Austrian Ambassador Brigitta Blaha and prominent lawyer Asma Jahangir and Danish Ambassador Helen Neilson, American Consul General in Lahore Zachary Harkenrider, UN Women Country Representative Jamshed Qazi, prominent motorcyclist from Singapore Juvena Huang, Provincial Minister for Population Welfare Zakia Shahnawaz, Minister for Women Development Hameeda Waheeduddin and SMU’s Salman Sufi also attended the event.
Gender Equality Is an essence of modern and educated society .The female bike riding will make Pakistani women self reliant and self confident. However it is not an easy task to take such a bold and giant step in the men oriented and conservative society of Pakistan . No doubt female bike riding must be encouraged as it is quite common in many states of India , even in Bihar one of the most conservative states of South Asia , but there should be strict law to protect the respect and dignity of women during bike or scooty riding . On the other hand,there is still a question that in long and uncommon routes how is it safe for a girl to ride a bike lonely ??? when gazing , hooting , negative comments and harassment of female in the offices and outside the homes is quite common in Pakistan .
ARSALAN ULLAH KHAN,
Sindh, January 21.