When Hoda Gamal rides her scooter, she says there is no better feeling in the world. “It’s the best moment in life for me, like total freedom. All the wind is inside me, I can breathe, as if I am walking along the ocean shore,” she tells MEE.

Sometimes Gamal's friends call her for a ride, and she especially likes picking them up when they're far away. Her first stop is the petrol station, where she goes to change the oil and fill up her tank. On unfamiliar routes, she pays extra attention to potholes, but rarely faces any obstacles. 

Gamal, a scooter instructor, is one of Egypt’s new generation of female bikers, challenging a trend that has seen most women excluded from two-wheel transport amid congestion and societal disapproval.

Through the 1970s and into the mid-80s, many women and girls rode around Cairo on a bicycle. Yet, in recent years, this tradition has dwindled as Egypt’s polluted streets became congested with cars, motorcycles and scooters driven primarily by men. 

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