High Court Rules in Favor of Motorbike Licenses for Women

EghtesadOnline: The Iranian Traffic Police must issue motorbike licenses to women, Iran’s Administrative Court of Justice ruled on Sunday.

News ID: ۷۴۸۰۹۴

06 August 2019

A woman living in Isfahan had filed a complaint with ACJ over traffic police denying her a license for driving a motorbike, ISNA reports.

In response to the complaint, the court’s ruling declared, “The traffic police is required to issue motorbike licenses to women meeting the prerequisites.”

The verdict does not detail the prerequisites, but these are most likely the same tests and requirements laid out for men, Financial Tribune reported.

In response to the complaint, the Traffic Police had argued that as per the current laws, “they have been authorized to issue motorbike licenses only to men”.

The defendant further said that the current laws and regulations “did not require the Traffic Police to issue motorbike licenses to women”.

In response, the court ruled: “The Traffic Police is the sole entity in charge of issuing driving licenses in Iran … No law or regulation bars Iranian women from driving cars, commercial vehicles and motorbikes.”

The court has mandated that the legal clause invoked by the Traffic Police does not bar the authority from issuing motorbike licenses to women.

The court further proclaimed that the issuance of motorbike licenses has nothing to do with the drivers’ gender.

Over the past few weeks, pictures of women bikers have gone viral on social media among Iranians with hardliners calling for a crackdown and others supporting them on the basis of gender equality.

Apparently, the law and judicial authorities are on the side of progressives.