Bahraini biker inspires other women to break norms

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STORY: From a university professor to a Harley-Davidson enthusiast

Location: Manama, Bahrain

Sajida Saeed Tabbara has loved motorbikes ever since she was six years old

She took up motorcycling in 2008 when she was working as a linguistics professor

Her hobby has taken her across the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Jordan

‘’It was very difficult for me as a woman, particularly as a Bahraini woman, it was tough because people passed a lot of judgments and I was teaching at the university of Bahrain and I had some people say that she's not a very good role model for our girls and there was something actually about it online but the most wonderful thing was that my kids, my own students, stood up for me and said 'how dare you say something like this about her.'"

Tabbara says she has inspired a number of her female students to take up the hobby

"I mean, change is difficult for everybody, change is difficult for any society and in any community, particularly when it comes to women, you know, breaking the norm, eventually I can actually say that I actually talked a number of my female students into becoming bikers and they did, yeah, that was quite something."

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