it is a strange sight for people in gaza a woman, wearing a head cover climbing into a truck and embarking on a career as a truck driver but lina ibrahim took on the challenge and became the first female truck driver in the gaza strip
young driver car hire, the young woman is also a student of optometry she says her attempt at gaining further qualifications that it opens doors, and most importantly it embodies a larger quest to realize her rightsas a woman
honestly, i chose this field because looking around women have entered into so many new fields i feel like now i can do any kind of work this field shouldn’t be confined to men it is like supplementary courses for university students who take courses in computer science, web development, or anything outside of class those courses, like this one, open upopportunities for them several attempts were made to dissuade lina from getting her truck drivers license
the primary argument was that the job required the physical strength of a man but nothing worked, lina said there was no reason she should not drive a truck i tried personally to dissuade her she is not strong, not to mention other requirements she lacked she had never even driven a car before and i told her she would need to show them that she had previous experience and for a girl, it is hard to just walk in
and say she wants to be a truck driver but she insisted she went in for the first appointment and she passed the theoretical test from the start my father supported me and he registered me for a license my brothers opposed the idea that i -as a woman - would be driving a truck they opposed that i learn driving with men together in the same truck but they finally agreed to let me join and so i started lessons to become a truck driver
many found the idea of a woman driving a truckstrange, given the strict norms in gaza but lina did not pay attention as long as she had the support of her family she felt she could surpass all of the obstacles before her society will eventually accept anything as long as you aren't being indecent orviolating essential moral standards it isn't harming anyone, so no one can stop you we created these social regulations, so we must be the ones to surpass them
i am not calling for revolution against social traditions really, it will not take anything like that we just need to confront what makes women shy away from their goals lina faces confrontation with a positive attitude her first teacher was shocked when she walkedinto the office to register for class but her peers say determination and consistent success quickly relaxed concerns of the school first of all, lina was a woman who was sure of herself but the whole school was surprised she wanted to drive a truck i admit we were hesitant, we did not know if she should continue
we asked her several times if she thought it a good idea, but she was insistent so a profession once restricted to men was opened because a woman proved that truck driving was not about physical strength and that success was about determination and a positive attitude lina proves that women are serious competitors in all fields this is ibrahim qannan, with this is our countryin the gaza strip