TREAD
EXCEPTIONAL ENDURANCE
Rally Jameel challenges 35 two-women teams
BY MERCEDES LILIENTHAL PHOTOS BY RALLY JAMEEL & JOHN RETTIE
Even though each rally vehicle was bone stock, each team was required to wear helmets.
(Photo: Rally Jameel)
Women in Saudi Arabia have only been allowed to drive a car beginning just four years ago. Announced in September 2017, it wasn’t until June 24, 2018, where women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia got behind the wheel. Fast forward to March of 2022, and the first-ever all-women’s off-road competition in Saudi Arabia and the Arab nation was held: Rally Jameel.
This three-day event took competitors from Hail to Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh in bonestock 4x4s and all-wheel-drive vehicles. Not only did they tackle soft sand and challenging terrain, but they tried to keep the exact speed, time, and distance while finding various waypoints required by the rally’s roadbook. This is called a time/speed/distance rally, or TSD rally.
Coming Together
Hassan Jameel is a supporter of Rally Jameel. He is a Saudi businessman and the Deputy President and Vice Chairman of Abdul Latif Jameel, which includes Abdul Latif Jameel Motors, a subsidiary working with Toyota since 1955. He and the company helped fund the rally and supplied stock Toyota vehicles for some of the Rally Jameel competitors to use.
Rally Jameel competitors rallied past various historical and notable sights but didn’t have the chance to stop at them.
(Photo: Rally Jameel)