driving in Afghanistan is not a smooth drive. It may turn out to be a headache when pedestrians, animals and various types of vehicles share the same roads. Here are some videos: example of what it is like driving in Afghanistan.

 For the 27 registered female drivers in Herat, driving can be a rough and humiliating experience. Yet despite the prejudices and cultural obstacles, their numbers are creeping up, say the traffic police, who are surprisingly supportive of the handful of women at the wheel in this city of 400,000 inhabitants.

“Women [proportionally] have fewer traffic accidents so the traffic department of Herat Province is trying to issue more licenses to  women drivers, which might in turn decrease the number of incidents in the city,” said traffic police chief Aminullah Maihan Yar.

In Afghanistan’s male-dominated society, it is still an anomaly to see women driving. As might be expected, women drivers can be spotted more easily in Kabul, while it is virtually unheard of in the still more conservatively minded Pashtun heartlands in the east and south.

Herat occupies the mid-ground, posting slightly higher numbers due to the influences of nearby Iran.

Shaima Ibrahimi says it's time for women to seize all available opportunities, both on and off the roads.

Sita, who is married and previously lived in Iran, has ten years of driving experience. So hers were not the tears of an overwhelmed newcomer, but rather of someone exhausted by a long fight for her place on the roads.

 

“This is a reflection of poor culture in our society and of  the distinctions between men and women, that people won’t even let through a woman’s car.”

 

Shaima Ibrahimi, 42, is another member of Herat’s female driving vanguard. She lost her husband ten years ago and raises her children single-handedly, relying heavily on the use of her Toyota Corolla to get them to school and herself to work each day at the city government’s financial department.

“One of the freedoms afforded under the country’s law is the right of all citizens to drive,” she said. “I think this is a good time for women’s development, now it’s the right time for them to take advantage of such golden opportunities.”