Hala al-Dosari, a Saudi women's rights activist, is celebrating. For the first time on Sunday, women could be seen behind the wheel in Saudi Arabia as a decades-long driving ban was lifted as part of a liberalization drive in the conservative kingdom.
However, the well-known rights activist believes Saudi women still have a long way to go, and must prepare themselves to push for more rights.
"The next step should be the end of male guardianship," al-Dosari says.
For many years, women in Saudi Arabia have relied on their husbands, fathers, brothers and hired drivers to help them run basic errands, get to work, visit friends or even drop their children at school.
But, as of Sunday, women are allowed to drive cars on their own under a decree issued by Saudi King Salman last September.
Saudi Arabia was the world's only country where women were not permitted to drive. The country is dominated by the puritanical Wahhabi school of Islam.
The end of the ban is part of wide economic and social reforms initiated by Saudi Arabia's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
However, under the country's strict guardianship system, Saudi women are still unable to travel, engage in paid work or higher education, or marry, without the permission of a male guardian.
In addition, Saudi women married to foreign nationals cannot pass on their nationality to their children, unlike their male compatriots in a similar situation.
"We've been campaigning [against the system] for years, but we haven't seen any real changes yet," says al-Dosari, who lives in the United States.
Just weeks before the ban on women driving was lifted, at least 10 Saudi campaigners for women's rights were detained in a surprise crackdown, allegedly for working with "foreign entities to support their activities."
Among those detained was Loujain al-Hathloul, a prominent rights activist who was involved in the campaign for women's right to drive.
In 2014, al-Hathloul was detained for more than two months after attempting to drive into Saudi Arabia from the neighbouring United Arab Emirates.
"I'm hoping women will achieve more, but I feel bad about the activists who made this moment possible and are now being treated as traitors," al-Dosari says.
"The activists are now being punished and in prisons," she added.
Even so, June 24 marked a historic day for Saudi women as they took to the road for the first time.
Nora al-Kheliwi's eyes welled up with tears of joy as she drove in the morning to her work in the capital Riyadh.
"Although I do not have a car, I was keen on obtaining a licence and drove to my work with my family's car," al-Kheliwi, a finance officer, says.
"There was no harassment, but some were surprised while looking at me," the 28-year-old told dpa.
Last month, the Saudi government adopted a long-awaited law criminalizing sexual harassment with a maximum penalty of five years in jail. In the run-up to lifting the driving ban, several women had expressed concerns about harassment.
Many Saudi women have licences issued elsewhere in the world.
Shahd al-Rashid, a researcher at the state-run King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Centre in Riyadh, says she used to drive while she was studying in the United States.
"I did not imagine that the day would come when I could drive here," the 26-year-old says.
"It's an indescribable feeling to come in the morning to your work in your car. I laughed when I parked my car next to that of my male workmate, who could not believe his eyes."
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