Merryhan Al-Baz, world's first female crane driver in race competitions, is set to explore new horizons in the world of motors and engines.
Al-Baz has been taking vehicles apart and satiating her curiosity about cars ever since she was 13, Arab News reported.
Her passion for motors and engines that she inherited from her father has now paved the way for her to take part in the Diriyah E-Prix 2022 as a recovery marshal this year.
This essentially made the 30-year-old the world’s 'first female crane driver in race competitions.'
“No one ever thought a woman could enter this field — the world of mechanics is a male dominated career," Al-Baz said.
"Fortunately, in my household, my mother and father always support any talents, ideas, or anything you desire to do,” she added.
The keen motorist further said, “My father loves mechanics; he has old cars that he tries to repair and put back into operation, and I was the only person that sat next to him to watch how he does it."
Such quality time allowed her to gain the requisite experience and expand her skills and knowledge of car mechanics.
That also led her to participate in every car exhibition or race, taking her dreams further “I’ve loved cars all my life, I have experience in racing and drifting as well,” she expressed.
Al-Baz recalled that opportunities came forth for women as a driving ban was lifted in the kingdom in June 2018, such as the roles of driving instructor, race driver and mechanics.
“This helped me achieve my dream of becoming a mechanic,” she said. “It’s such an amazing feeling to walk down the street and have people know who I am and greet me, encourage me and even learn from me.”
Explaining her profession further, she said, that there were four types of marshals at the E-Prix, such as the fire, recovery, flag, and trackside.
Seeing her capabilities, the authorities assigned her to the recovery marshal team, who must clean up the circuit forthwith in the event of an accident on the track so that the race could continue.
“Being a recovery marshal is considered a difficult job for women — I was a crane driver tasked with picking up cars whenever an accident occurs on the circuit as quickly as possible,” Al-Baz added.
She highlighted that her role was time-sensitive as it would directly affect the flow of an ongoing race.
“Whenever there is an accident, recovery marshals need to be at the scene as soon as possible because accidents delay the race and we must act quickly. The time the car is causing a roadblock is taking up time from the other racers,” she maintained.
Interestingly, Al-Baz is a self-taught mechanic, as her academic background is completely different from her career path.
“I actually studied psychology and media in Lebanon, but I see myself in the world of cars,” she said.
Later on, the motorist got registered at an institute in Jeddah to receive a certificate to take her career forth in a more professional way.
With time, her autodidactic skills earned her a role as an instructor too, and she now hopes she will be able to initiate her own automobile repair shop in the future.
In a landmark ruling, women in Saudi Arabia can now live alone in a house without the consent of father or any other male guardian, Gulf News reported on Friday.
Previously, every Saudi woman was assigned a male relative – often a father or husband but sometimes an uncle, brother or even a son – whose approval is needed to marry, obtain a passport and travel abroad.
Rights groups said that the arrangement had turned women into "second-class citizens", depriving them of social and economic freedoms and making them more vulnerable to violence.
Gulf News report said that the kingdom's judicial authorities scrapped Paragraph B under article No. 169 of the “Law of Procedure before Sharia Courts” which states that an adult single, divorced, or widowed woman shall be handed over to her male guardian.
It was replaced with a new legal text stipulating that “An adult woman has the right to choose where to live. "A woman’s guardian can report her only if he has evidence proving she committed a crime," the ruling stated.
The text also stated, “If a woman is sentenced to a jail term, she will not be handed over to her guardian after completing her term.”
“Families can no longer file lawsuits against their daughters who choose to live alone,” lawyer Naif Al Mansi was quoted as saying.
He said that such cases were given priority earlier but now the courts will no longer accept them.
The move comes under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 initiative, introducing reforms that allow Saudi women to advance in various fields.
Under the initiative, the kingdom earlier ended a ban on women driving and eased restrictions on gender mixing. The crown prince had earlier indicated that he favoured ending the guardianship system.
In February 2019, Saudi media had reported that the kingdom would study how its male guardianship system was being abused after the flight of an 18-year-old woman to Thailand focused global attention on the issue.
The plight of Rahaf Mohammed, who slipped away from her family last month during a holiday in Kuwait and then tweeted calls for help from Bangkok airport, sparked an online campaign that ended with the Thai authorities reversing a decision to send her home and Canada granting her asylum.
Saudi Arabia, one of the world’s most gender-segregated nations, was ranked 138 of 144 states in the 2017 Global Gender Gap, a World Economic Forum study on how women fare in economic and political participation, health and education.