Saudi Arabia's Rima Juffali sits behind the wheel in her four-wheel drive electric car for the final exercise before taking part in a local competition as the first woman to compete in a speeding race in the kingdom. The 27-year-old Jafali, who began training for racing a few months after the decades-long ban ended, will compete today and tomorrow in the Jaguar iBase Trophy, an electric car race in Diriyah near the capital Riyadh.
"The ban was lifted last year, but I did not expect to compete professionally," Juffali said in a press statement. "The fact that I am doing this is amazing," she said in an interview with AFP near the Diriyah circuit, where Formula E races are held. Juffali, who comes from the western city of Jeddah and was educated in the United States, will participate in a paragraph where she hosts a "very important" driver, making her the first Saudi woman to compete on Saudi soil. Prince Abdul Aziz bin Turki al-Faisal, chairman of the General Sports Authority, described the event as a "turning point" for the kingdom. Juffali has been racing professionally outside the Kingdom for almost a year, making her debut at the British Fumurla 4 in April.