ISLAMABAD: Dozens of women in Pakistan took part in female-only bike races in major cities on Sunday.
“Our strategy is simply to be visible in public spaces,” said Meher Bano of Girls at Dhabas, a feminist group which organized the races after a woman from Lahore was pushed off her bicycle by a group of men last year for not responding to catcalls.
The bike race was one of many events organized in the last few years by Girls at Dhabas – the name given to roadside restaurants in Pakistan – to promote female participation in public events.
“I drive on these roads all the time but this was maybe the first time I got to experience them while biking,” said Humay Waseem, one of the riders on the 5-kilometre race around Pakistan’s leafy capital Islamabad.
“I loved the feeling of freedom with the breeze in my hair.”
Members of Girls at Dhabas say they are a new generation of Pakistani feminists determined to build on progress made by their predecessors.
