In Afghanistan: that's one small step for women

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This is worth fighting for

 

An incident in the western city of Herat a couple of weeks ago is a cautionary tale. Two motorcyclists who spotted a woman driver buzzed around her and cut her off, said Gulam Sarwar Haydari, deputy police chief of Herat province.

 

'They yelled at her, 'Why are you driving? Aren't you ashamed?'' he said.

 

Police jailed the two men for three hours.

 

'They were stupid boys,' Haydari said.

 

Even after the Taliban fell, Herat's conservative former governor kept on enforcing the ban against female drivers for three years.

 

Sofia has not yet suffered any harassment. She executes a snappy U-turn at her father's command, beams and declares herself 'the luckiest girl in the world' for being allowed to drive at such a young age.

 

She answers a question before it can be finished. 'Your father is very ...'

 

'Cool,' she says. 'He's a freedom man.'