Being A Woman Is Not Weakness
High rate of Pakistani women failing their first driving test: ‘Women are not bad drivers, they just get nervous’
If you visit an Al-Khidmat center in Lahore these days, you will mistake it for a fish market.
These situations have arisen as a result of the crackdown on unlicensed and underage drivers in the province of Punjab.
In fact, the death of six members of the same family at the hands of a young driver in Lahore last month raised many questions on the traffic system in the province.
On this, the Lahore High Court issued orders to the traffic police to take strict action against underage drivers and drivers without a license.
As a result of this action, the number of new license holders has increased manifold. According to Traffic Inspector Imran Faraz, “Earlier, 1,000 to 1500 people used to come to us on a daily basis to get learner (training) licenses, but now the number has increased to 9,000 to 10,000 on average.”
According to Pakistani law, driving without a license and killing someone in a traffic accident can be a case of murder against the driver, so a license is as important as an ID card. Because if you are a licensed driver and someone dies as a result of an accident, the case is manslaughter.
Perhaps because of this fear, according to the traffic inspector, in the last 45 days, nearly three lakh people have obtained new learner’s licenses.
Why do people fail the driving test?
Traffic police officials also shared some interesting data from the driving test center with the English Publisher.
According to him, around 70 percent of women across Punjab fail their first driving test, while the situation is reversed in the signboard test, i.e. the number of men who fail is more than women.
When we asked the opinion of some women about this, most of them thought that they are not bad drivers but the real problem is that most women in Pakistan have less opportunity to drive or learn driving than men.
Samina Rashid, who has been driving her car for the past several months, says, “Boys start driving at a young age, like matriculation or O-levels, but parents don’t object to them driving illegally.”
But when it comes to girls, parents in Pakistani society generally think that ‘get married first, then do all the work.’ In such a situation, girls are neither able to learn how to drive a car nor can they drive a car.
Samina Rashid believes that the most important thing to drive is self-confidence, which is lacking in women due to lack of experience.
This may have been the case with Noreen Asif who had come to take the driving test at the center with her father and husband but failed the test due to a wrong turn.
Although they have the full support of their families, they believe that women are less experienced because of the issues they face in terms of their safety.
“Many women are very good drivers but the problem is that they lack self-confidence,” she says.
We noticed that many men and women who failed the driving test used to drive the car over the cones installed for the tire barrier while reversing the vehicle.
Ayesha Zafar was among those women who cleared the driving test with ease. “Usually women learn to drive from their fathers, brothers or husbands,” she tells the Media. Family members are usually the last to teach and the first to scold, which is enough to destroy any woman’s self-esteem.
She suggests that women should learn driving from women like themselves or from a driving school.
Aram, 55, who has been driving for 30 years, came to Al Khidmat Center to renew her license.
He said that if the driver of a car on the road makes a mistake, people usually say without looking that it must be a woman driving. While we have very few people among those who go out on the streets who know the right way to drive a car or a motorcycle on the road or cross the street on foot.
This is essential to pass the driving test!
It is also important to note that most people are nervous before taking the test, so there is a big difference between driving a normal car and taking the test.
During the test, one thing is looked at, and if there is any test in life, there is always the fear of failing it.
We put this question to Traffic Warden Mohammad Usman who took the driving test that why most people including women are failing while reversing.
He said that people do not adjust the seat and the glasses of the car according to themselves before driving, due to which they cannot see. While many women are also scared.
Dozens of men and women who visited the Al Khidmat Center were those who have been driving on learner’s licenses for many years.
They prefer to renew the learner’s license instead of taking the test and making it a permanent license after the expiry of the first learner’s license.
I asked a person who has been driving on a learner’s license for many years, why don’t you get a permanent license?
In response to this question, he said, “Who asks in Pakistan?” Others may also say that I am lazy. Whenever the learner license expires, I renew it again.
While talking about this system error, Inspector Imran Faraz said, “Legally, we cannot take any action against people who have any kind of license.”
“However, there is currently no mechanism or law in the system under which we can take action against people who produce learner’s licenses again and again.”