The Wind in Her Hair

There's nothing quite like the empowerment of driving. Thelma and Louise understood it. Out on the highway, the radio on. The feeling that anything is possible.

Not that the movie duo is an example to follow. But their liberation through the steering wheel might be somewhat akin to the joy that 30 women in Afghanistan must be feeling as they become their country's first female licensed drivers in a decade.

Since 1992, Afghan women have been banned from driving, education, and the workplace. But for the past four months, a group from the Women's Affairs Ministry has been practicing at the Olympic Stadium in eastern Kabul, and learning car repair, too. Also taking the classes: female doctors. Now, if they only had some decent roads to drive on.