The Wider Image: Cycling in Jeddah: Saudi women embrace change
When Amirah al-Turkistani left Boston in 2015, after earning a graduate degree, friends mocked her decision to ship her beloved pistachio-coloured bicycle back home to Saudi Arabia. Riding in public was unthinkable at the time in the deeply conservative Muslim kingdom, where religious police patrolled public spaces to enforce modest dress, bans on music and alcohol, prayer-time store closures and the mixing of unrelated men and women. Fast forward three years and Amirah is riding regularly on the seaside corniche, alone or with her husband and children. On the bike, the 30-year-old wears an abaya, the loose-fitting, full-length robe symbolic of religious faith and still required public dress for Saudi women. But instead of traditional black, she chooses from a range of pastels she designed herself, trimmed with lace and sporting patches of bright colours. "Jeddah today isn't the same as Jeddah five, six years ago," she said. "The scrutiny on clothes (has eased), there's more places to go, working opportunities for women are the same as for men." Saudi Arabia, which for decades seemed irreparably stuck in the past, is now changing by the day. REUTERS/Reem Baeshen SEARCH "BAESHEN WOMEN" FOR THIS STORY. SEARCH "WIDER IMAGE" FOR ALL STORIES. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY. Matching text: SAUDI-WOMAN/
