Women are increasingly seen riding motorbikes in Iran's capital, where laws and religious mores once barred women from motorbikes.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — When Merat Behnam first gathered enough courage to ride her yellow scooter through the gridlocked streets of Iran ‘s capital to the coffee shop she runs, traffic wasn’t her main worry.

She instead girded herself for disapproving looks, verbal abuse and even being stopped by the police for being a women riding a motorbike in Tehran, something long frowned upon by hard-liners and conservative clerics in Iran.

But Behnam, 38, found herself broadly accepted on the road — and part of a wider reconsideration by women about societal expectations in Iran.

It’s not all encompassing, particularly as hard-line politicians call for laws on the hijab or headscarf to be enforced as Iran cracks down on intellectuals in the wake of the 12-day Iran-Israel war in June — but it does represent a change.

    • Triumph@fedia.io
      9·
      7 hours ago

      Okay, here we go. All of these have two wheels. If I’ve missed anything, or you’d like my opinion on a specific two wheeled vehicle classification, let me know.

      Motorcycle

      • More than 15HP
      • 16" or larger wheels
      • Manual transmission or DCT automatic (not a variator with a belt)

      Moped

      • “Functional” pedals; not practical, just functional
      • Under 80cc
      • 16" or larger wheels
      • Variator/belt transmission
      • Few or no plastics
      • These came up in the late 1970s to comply with various “motor-driven cycle” legal allowances
      • You rest your feet on the pedals
      • Can be “throw your leg over” or step through
      • Generally have a max speed of 30MPH stock

      Scooter

      • Any engine size (I believe the Suzuki Burgmann 650 is the largest, could be wrong)
      • Step through, you sit on it like a toilet
      • Flat floor pan for your feet, or flat foot “floorboards” to the sides of a low center hump
      • Lots of plastics
      • Variator/belt transmission
      • Most of these have 14" maximum wheel size and comparatively fat tires

      Noped

      • Basically a moped without the pedals
      • Foot pegs
      • These came in the early to mid 1980s
      • Can have smaller wheels, but the tires are not fat like scooter tires

      Scooter cycle

      • Looks lilke a small motorcycle; clearly intends for you to think it is
      • Variator/belt transmission

      Motorized bicycle (MB)

      • Began its life as a regular pedal bicycle without power assist
      • Has an added internal combustion engine for power assist
      • ICE engine can drive the rear wheel with a second chain and sprocket, or the front or rear wheel with a pinch roller, very rarely with a pusher trailer; kits also exist to replace the bottom bracket with a freewheel sprocket that the engine drives, with power going to the wheel via the pedal chain
      • In rare cases, these were manufactured this way, generally very old ones

      E-Bike

      • Pedal bicycle with electric power assist
      • Many of these are factory made now
      • These can also be made the same way MBs are, by adding an electric motor: – Pinch roller drive – Hub motor drive – Bottom bracket drive

      Minibike

      • Similar to a noped, but extremely small
      • Small wheels and fat little tires
      • May not have brakes at all, if it does, they’re really bad
      • Pull start

      Dirtbike

      • A small motorcycle designed for offroad use
      • May not be street legal
      • Small ones for kids may be variator driven