Women on Motorbikes Taking the Streets of Tehran

When Merat Behnam first gathered enough courage to ride her yellow scooter through the gridlocked streets of Iran's capital to the coffee shop she runs, traffic wasn't her main worry. She instead girded herself for disapproving looks, verbal abuse, and even being stopped by the police for being a women riding a motorbike in Tehran, something long frowned upon by Iranian hardliners and conservative clerics. But Behnam, 38, found herself broadly accepted on the road—and part of a wider reconsideration by women about societal expectations in Iran, as detailed by the AP.

• For decades, women in the black chador could be seen riding sidesaddle on motorbikes driven by men. But after women began forgoing the hijab, more of them began taking the risk and riding their motorbikes through Tehran as well, avoiding the congestion charges levied on cars that run more than $20 a month. While still a small percentage of the overall traffic, their presence on the road has become more common.

• Two things in the past prevented women from driving motorbikes or scooters. First, police regulations in Farsi specifically refer to only mardan, or men, being able to obtain motorcycle licenses. It's a very gender-specific wording in Farsi, which broadly is a gender-neutral language grammatically.
• Then there's the cultural aspect. While women can now hold jobs, political office, and a car license, since its 1979 Islamic Revolution the country has imposed a strictly conservative, Shiite Islam understanding of conduct by women. That includes Iran's mandatory hijab law, which sparked mass demonstrations in 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini, who'd allegedly been detained over not wearing a headscarf.

• In the beliefs of some conservative clerics and hardliners, a woman riding a scooter or a motorbike is tabarruj, or excessively flaunting her beauty, which is prohibited by Islam. "A woman sitting on a motorcycle cannot maintain the modest attire expected of her, since both of her hands are occupied with steering the vehicle and she is exposed to the wind," hardline lawmaker Mohammad Seraj told the semiofficial ILNA news agency in September.
• There's been speculation the administration of reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian, who campaigned on openness to the West, may try to change the regulations to allow women to be licensed. Reformists also have called for the change. "It's time to move past the invisible walls of cultural judgment and bureaucratic rules," the Shargh newspaper said in September. "For women, riding a motorcycle is not just a way to commute, but a symbol of choice, independence, and equal presence in society."

More here.