They Just Got Driver’s Licenses, and Now They’re Going Off-Road

The starting line for the Rally Jameel was drawn in 2017, when women in Saudi Arabia earned the right to a driver’s license. Last month, the ceremonial green flag finally fell on the Kingdom’s first all-women rally at Qishlah Palace in Hail, waved by Prince Abdulaziz bin Saad bin Abdulaziz, and Saudi Arabia marked another historic beginning for women.e era of women’s motorsports in the Kingdom. Rallying, or desert racing, originated in the early 20th century. Racers drive long distances, typically in stages, over rough off-road terrain in modified vehicles. Often courses, such as the famous Paris-Dakar Rally, include checkpoints or waypoints where drivers and navigators collect points as they plot their way to the finish line.