Women banned from driving cars in Turkmenistan

And in January, ANT sources in the capital reported that now traffic police officers were taking out rights from the drivers, and the cars were being sent to the penalty area.

“At first, I took this information as a joke, but then I ran into it personally,” said an Ashgabat resident. “Now women are afraid to get behind the wheel, so many husbands bring up to work and back.”

According to another source, in state institutions, employees who come to work on their own cars took a receipt stating that they undertake not to drive.

An ANT source close to the traffic inspectorate said that on December 5, Interior Minister Isender Mulikov provided the head of state with information that, according to statistics, most of the traffic accidents in the country are caused by female drivers or with their participation. The president instructed the minister to "rectify the situation."

The interlocutor of the ANT believes that the new bans were introduced only to close the main problems of the department, namely the low professional training of the traffic police and total corruption in the service. In social networks, readers are also outraged by the news.

Turkmenistan adopted the ban a few months after the King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdelaziz Al Saud issued a decree that for the first time gives women of the kingdom the right to drive a car, the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in Twitter.

Saudi Arabia, considered the most conservative state in the world, restricts women's rights in many areas. Lately, however, many in the kingdom have advocated giving women the right to drive in order to save time for men who are forced to deliver them. One of the Saudi imams said that the woman could not be trusted to drive because of her “mental disabilities,” but after that the authorities removed him from religious activities.

In Turkmenistan, starting from the new year, a number of restrictions for drivers are in force. So, for example, a message was received about banning cars of dark colors.

Cars of dark colors, for example, “wet asphalt”, also disappeared from the streets in Ashgabat. Owners of such cars are told that it is impossible to drive now.

At the same time, the traffic police do not refer to any regulatory acts. Before the new year, dark cars were evacuated at the request of the police at a penalty. At the beginning of the year, cars began to be returned to their owners, but on receipt that they undertake to repaint cars in white or light colors.

New requirements have led to the fact that car repainting services in car services have doubled in price. If painting a car used to cost $ 500, now this service will cost $ 1000.

It should be noted that white is the favorite color of Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, who believes in signs and superstitions. At the same time, in October last year, drivers of Ashgabat were prohibited from placing amulets and talismans in cars, including “aladzha” ropes knitted from camel's hair, as well as inscriptions and toys.