In Gaza city, you’ll rarely see a woman riding a motorbike, bicycle or car, and you definitely won’t see a woman riding a truck.
Gaza city has a small, closed and conservative society, where traditions and religion control residents’ lives and social relations. Women in Gaza often get the brunt of it, complaining that they aren’t allowed to exercise equal rights and freedoms.
But all that might be slowly changing.
Leena Ibrahim, 22, did the unthinkable when she recently applied for a truck driving license in Gaza, making her the first ever female driver to apply for one.
Ibrahim wears the Niqab (Islamic veil that covers all but the eyes), dressing head-to-toe in black. Although you can only see Ibrahim’s eyes, it is enough to illustrate her strong personality and persistence.
Ibrahim also comes from a well-to-do family. So what is motivating this young woman to take this difficult route and take on a career in truck driving?
Ibrahim describes Gaza’s future as “foggy” and “uncertain”, seeing as the lives and fate of Palestinians are controlled by many local, national and international factors, which could change at any moment.
This worry of an uncertain future has led Ibrahim to use her summer break from university to learn skills that could help her get a job in the event that her family’s financial status deteriorates or she doesn’t find a husband soon. Ibrahim is majoring in optics at the Islamic University – Gaza, but doesn’t believe she will find work in her field after she graduates, so she decided to turn to truck driving as a fall back.
Driving instructor Shady Abdul Hak says that driving trucks is strictly a man’s job since trucks are very heavy, requiring masculine qualities like strength to control the trucks and to unload heavy cargo. He says that he doubts Ibrahim will ever actually get a job driving a truck.
Ibrahim, however, strongly disagrees, saying that she is already training and has become a skilled driver, which will enable her to work as a professional truck driver soon. “There is nothing wrong in that,” she says.
Ibrahim has faced many troubles from the beginning of this pursuit, including rejection from her father and brothers. Her male family members told her that Gaza’s closed society wouldn’t accept her choice to be a truck driver and people wouldn’t cut her or her family any slack. But Ibrahim has insisted on learning how to drive, defying her whole family, who has eventually come around to the idea, accepting her decision, at least for now.
Ibrahim, Leena Ibrahim’s father, says that despite his initial rejection, he is very proud of his daughter. He says the job will help her when she gets married, since the cost of living is so expensive these days, making raising children one of life’s greatest challenges.
“Palestinian women have proven how strong they are. Whenever life faces them with troubles and forces them to do the undone they stand up for it,” says Ibrahim.
She says Gaza’s first female car mechanic also stirred a wave of rejection from society at first, but then later every woman who owned a car went to this woman for repairs.
Ibrahim resents the idea of becoming famous, saying that she doesn’t want to bring more trouble on herself, since everyone already looks at her strangely when they see her driving a truck.
“Usually men and women come up to me asking me ridiculous questions like: ‘Are you crazy?’ Or, ‘Are you a man disguised?’ And women usually show their resentment, saying that a female should never do what I do. I just answer back, saying that women are no longer defined like the past.
Nowadays women are capable of doing anything. We are equal to men, whether our society like it or not.”
Sabreen Abu Lehyah, the director of the driving school where Ibrahim is training to get her commercial driving license said that she is the first Gazan woman to ever want the license, never mind actually obtain one and drive trucks.
Abu Lehyah supports Ibrahim and congratulated her for her courage, saying that she should be a role model for Gazan women so they know that they can achieve anything they put their minds to.
Riding a truck with Ibrahim is not any different than driving a truck with a skilled male driver. She knows what she is doing; using the skills she has learned to drive. She knows every sign on every street and knows how to beat traffic in rush hour.
Ibrahim can’t wait for her last evaluation test, which will enable her to work more freely and pursue truck driving as a profession.
Walking with Ibrahim in Gaza city’s streets, people passing by have varied opinions of Ibrahim’s interest in truck driving. Some are encouraging, while many others are opposed the idea of a woman driving a truck, saying that a woman’s natural place is at home cooking, cleaning, bearing and raising children, and taking care of her husband.
What shocks Ibrahim most is that many men have supported her actions while women have not. She says she supports the fight for women’s rights in Gaza, so is saddened to see women speaking out against her.
However, she says this won’t stop her because her message is about more than just driving a truck; it is about women’s equality.
“I promise you that one day soon you will be seeing me driving a truck as a profession and the next strong girl that will decide to go through this will see easier times than I did, because then it wouldn’t be as weird as now.
I started this and many females will follow, just mark my words,” says Ibrahim.
