In 2015 elections, Saudi women were allowed to vote and be elected for office for the first time ever.
In 2017, Saudi Arabia finally allowed co-ed pop concerts (but shimmying was still forbidden). In 2018, women were finally allowed to drive on their own. Now, in 2019, we have Saudi’s first ever female commercial pilot, twenty-eight year old Yasmeen Al Maimani, and things are looking up.

Yasmeen Al Maimani first received her aviation license from the Saudi Civil Aviation Authority six years ago, and she’s finally completed her goal of flying a plane in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a major victory for women’s rights in the country. Earlier, she was flying in the United States and completed three hundred hours of flying practice there. In 2013, Al Maimani decided to trade in her International license for a Saudi one, and started having trouble being recruited as a female captain in Saudi for a while. In February 2019, she finally received an offer from Nesma Airlines to be a pilot trainee, and a few months later she got a pilot permit to fly commercially.
Al Maimani took to Instagram to express her feelings at this point in time:
She also shared a heart-warming video of her family welcoming her once she returned home:
There is still so much ground left to cover, Saudi women still cannot apply for a passport without the permission of a male guardian, receive equal inheritance, or go out in public without wearing a full-length abaya.