OnTheBeach: The Freedom to Drive Your Life

Manal Al-Sharif is a Saudi woman who dared to drive in a society that believes women driving leads to prostitution, rape and moral decay. She dared to challenge her society and do something that is not actually against the law in Saudi Arabia, it is just frowned upon by society. It’s a really interesting and inspiring talk and I highly recommend that you take 15 minutes to watch it.

One of the things she said really stuck in my mind “women need to realise that the time is now and step up and drive their own lives”. Hear, hear! Most of us are not living in a society where our freedom is curtailed because of our sex. Most of us are not living under a regime that treats women as children until the day they die. And yet most of us curtail our own freedom to drive our lives, out of fear, self-doubt, uncertainty and inertia. We allow our fears and doubts to stop us from living the life we are meant to life. We allow our uncertainties to stop us from taking the action we need to take to create the life we are meant to live.

We put ourselves down, make ourselves small so as not to stand out or rock the boat or make a change we are afraid of. Manal Al-Sharif faced death threats for daring to drive, in a country where women driving is not illegal! But she did it anyway. More, she arranged for other women come together and drive. And even more, she has become an activist for women’s rights in a country that is not famed for it’s sympathy to women’s independance and freedom.

Most of us do not face external challenges as Manal Al-Sharif has, but we do face internal challenges. Inner voices that say “you can’t”, “you’re not good enough”, “who do you thin you are”, “give it up on your Big Dreams, you won’t get them anyway”, “you don’t deserve x, y, z”, “you suck” and other such phrases that drag us down and make us retreat into ourselves.

But just as we can fight an external battle with people who have odd beliefs about women driving causing Armageddon, we can fight an internal battle too. By taking action anyway. By going ahead anyway. By driving our lives anyway. There is no one trying to stop us, no one (I hope) threatening us with death, rape, beatings, jail for going after our Big Dreams.

There are merely fears that we can’t or we won’t or we don’t deserve. Phooey. You can, you will and you DO deserve. Just as every women deserves the right to drive her own destiny, not to be ‘guarded’ by a man, every one of us deserves to go after our dreams. The voices of disapproval will be there, the fears will be there. But get behind the wheel anyway.

You have the freedom to drive your own life, so buckle yourself in and put your foot firmly on the accelerator. Only by taking action, by taking the steering wheel into your own hands and driving your life will those voices be silenced. Manal Al-Sharif’s Big Dream is that women be allowed to take control of their own lives in her country. Mine is that people everywhere will honour the voices of their heart and soul, fall in love with their lives and make their Big Dreams a reality. I know I’ll live to see the day when both of us realise those dreams.

Love

Donna.x