Women race to learn to ride motorcycles

As yet another taboo in the Islamic Republic quietly crumbles, thousands of Iranian women are signing up for free motorcycle riding classes.

Iranian women have been driving cars for many years without opposition, but after the 1979 Islamic revolution all changed. In their infinite wisdom hardline clerics then decided it was wholly inappropriate for women to be allowed to ride bicycles or motorbikes, but times have changed.

President Mohammad Khatami came to power in 1997, and as a moderate and a modern thinking man the new style of government has seen many women challenge that cycling ban. Some younger women these days even dare to try in-line roller skates in parks and quiet streets in Tehran!

Now a leading motorcycle manufacturer has invited women to take motorbike riding classes, and less than a week into an advertising campaign, the response has been enormous.

"Three to four thousand women have signed up so far... This will give a boost to our business" was the reply from Mohammad Reza Farhad- Sheikhahmad, head of sales at motorcycle maker Bana Industrial Group.

Classes will not start until next May Mr Farhad-Sheikhahmad said that they have had a difficult time finding suitable riding instructors as due to the religious implications they to also must be women.

While Mr Farhad-Sheikhahmad recognises that the issue of women motorcyclists might draw criticism from conservatives in Iranian society, but he was quick to point out that the Prophet Mohammad had advised Muslims to learn to ride horses, swim and fence.

"But he did not split men from women. He referred to Muslims as a whole. And in today's world, horses are not used any longer, so bikes and motorbikes can replace them," he said.

Change in dress code for women.

Three years ago Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of the former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, came under attack from Islamic hardliners when she called for women to be allowed to ride bicycles and to dress as they liked in public.

Strict dress codes for women are still exist in Iran although there has been quite a bit of relaxation in this respect over recent years. Many young women in Tehran now push their headscarves well back on the top of their heads, exposing some hair, and sandals have also made a comeback. As with many other issues in Iran, these boundaries have shifted without any official ruling and women constantly run the risk of an unexpected crackdown.

Motorcycle riding class advertisements appeared in some newspapers last week and featured a woman riding a scooter wearing a helmet and fully covered from head to toe. Women's activists representatives in Iran said they did not foresee any problem for women riding motorcycles, in fact they are an ideal form of transport in the traffic-clogged streets of Tehran.

"This does not seem to be a far-fetched goal," said Shahla Sherkat, the publisher of the women's magazine Zanan. "There are things we could not even talk about 10 years ago that are now legal". Others said that riding a motorbike was a trivial issue in a country where women still have fewer child custody and divorce rights than men and need permission from their husband or guardian to leave the country.

"Women are faced with far more basic problems than driving a motorbike," said reformist parliamentarian Jamileh Kadivar. "Focusing on motorbikes could even backfire, by allowing conservatives to complain of a slide towards liberal attitudes and drawing attention away from more serious problems faced by Iranian women", Kadivar said.