Women pay six times more for driving lessons in Saudi Arabia

As women drivers in Saudi Arabia gear up to drive on the Kingdom roads, it is stated that women will pay six times more than men for driving lessons.
The head of the Saudi Society for Traffic Safety Dr. Abdulhameed Al-Mejel said that driving lessons for women will cost between SR2,000 and SR3,000 as compared to SR450 for men.
The driving schools for women will be completely different from those of men and will be run by highly-qualified female trainers and supervisors, Saudi Gazatte quoted Al-Mejel as saying in Al-Watan on Tuesday.
The cost of driving lessons at the women-only driving school will be equivalent to the quality of lessons and training provided to women. "Many women have participated in awareness workshops and forums and shown a high-level of preparedness and compliance with the traffic and safety rules," Al-Mejel said.
Currently, around 600 women who have enrolled are being given driving lessons and are provided with all the required information to operate a vehicle and observe safety rules.
Meanwhile, Princess Abeer Bint Faisal, the wife of the emir of the Eastern Province, launched a four-day Women Driving Awareness Forum under the theme "My Driving...My Will" on Monday. The forum will be held at Imam Abdulrahman Bin FaisalUniversity in Dammam and is organized by the Saudi Society for Traffic Safety to focus on preparing women for driving.