Women Land Plane in Country That Doesn't Allow Them to Drive

Royal Brunei Airlines' first all-female pilot crew landed in Saudi Arabia last month to celebrate Brunei's National Day. It was a bit of an ironic moment—a fact not lost on the Telegraph, which states it highlighted "the absurdity of laws preventing women from driving cars." Women in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to get driver's licenses, and they are arrested if seen behind the wheel. According to the Independent, a woman who drove into Saudi Arabia from the United Arab Emirates in 2014 was jailed for more than 70 days. Muslim clerics claim female drivers would spread "licentiousness." Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that doesn't allow women to drive.

The team that essentially drove what the Huffington Post UK identified as a Boeing 787-Dreamliner into an airport that they wouldn't be allowed to drive even a Honda Civic away from was identified as Captain Sharifah Czarena Surainy, Senior First Officer Dk Nadiah Pg Khashiem, and Senior First Officer Sariana Nordin. Surainy became the first female captain of a major Southeast Asian airline a little more than three years ago. National Day is a celebration of Brunei's independence. (More Saudi Arabia stories.)