Learning to Drive as a Woman in Islamabad

A large share of our students are women, and most arrive with the same two questions: who will be teaching me, and will I be safe. The answers are simple ones, so let us start there.

A woman teaches you

Female students are taught by female instructors. Not usually, not where possible — always. The school appoints the instructor rather than asking you to choose one, and that is the rule the appointment follows. You do not have to ask for it, negotiate it, or check.

The first lesson is not on a road

It is in an open, empty area with nothing to hit and nobody watching. You will spend it learning where the controls are, moving the car a few metres, and stopping it. The training cars have a second brake on the instructor’s side, so the worst mistake available to you is stalling — which everybody does, including your instructor on her first day.

Timings that fit a real week

Lessons are thirty minutes a day, and the timing is agreed with you rather than assigned. Working women usually take an early slot before the office or one in the evening; students fit lessons around university. Both branches are open six days a week and closed on Sunday.

Getting there

Pick and drop is available if getting to the branch is the difficult part — we collect you from home and drop you back. It is charged separately from the course fee, because it depends on how far you are from the branch, and we tell you the exact amount before your course starts, never after.

What it changes

The thing students mention afterwards is almost never the driving. It is not having to arrange a lift to work. Taking a parent to a hospital appointment at ten at night. Doing the school run. Being the person who can go, without asking. That is what the fifteen days actually buys.

If you would rather start on two wheels, a scooty course is in preparation — ask at either branch about when it opens.