Dig deeper into these different cultural beliefs about cycling and talk about how they came about

pull together some really extreme “headlines” about cycling from around the world, showing really opposing views and extreme scenarios

how design represents cycling differently in different cultures?

analyse how clubs, bike manufacturers etc promote themselves in different cultures and how this leans into the stereotypes you’re talking about.

the power to instigate political change, improve wellbeing/health and empower communities

some analysis around the role of design in the cycling world

are cycling adverts (in Iran) totally aimed at men?

analysis on the representation of cycling/cyclists and how design has contributed to the stereotypes that have formed

explain how your project might break down the stereotypes/myths around cycling and tell a more gritty, but real story

demonstrate that cycling is more than the common cliches. You should argue this point and shatter perception

It has the power to instigate political change, improve wellbeing/health and empower communities

explore, in particular, view cycling through a global and social context.

Gary Chin Interview: Q’s prompt sheet

Is it ok to record so I don’t need to take notes, use parts of the recording to tell the story?

If he asks about the project: It’s evolved into a proposal for a multi-sensory exhibition, light/sound/type/image, etc.

Get away from the stereotypes in cycling, not just the Lycra and expensive carbon bikes, but the changes brought by cycling. Changes in Infrastructure, policies, mental and physical benefits.

Also, the negative perception; Middle East women can ride, it’s not against the law but it’s against the ‘rules’ – causes infertility, seen to have to dress inappropriately gives independence that they don’t believe women should have.

Mission statement: Using the bike as a vehicle for social change, how is the bike such a powerful tool, a powerful symbol?

International Programme

The videos talk about the bike helping bring social change, I can understand that, but when they mention social justice, what do they mean by that?

How is it decided which places get the bikes, is there a certain trigger, what’s the benefit to the people there?

Guatemala, ingenious adaptations into various different machines, has what they do been promoted as something to do in other countries

Youth Programme

Does it work as a diversion from taking the wrong path?

Where does the Youth Programme take people once they complete it, what do you see, what’s the before and after for those taking part

If we compare the International Program to the youth program, What’s different outcome is there for those on

On a personal level, do you have a stand-out project, something that you look back on and see as particularly special?

If you could say what cycling, the bicycle, means to you in just three words what would they be?

Would it be ok to use clips from YouTube – the Building Momentum Breakfast Video for eg? Or any images you could send?

The bicycle – from a status symbol to a mass-produced product

It all started with the eruption of a volcano: the climate changed; harvests failed and many horses – which in those days were not only used in farming but also served as a means of transport for people and goods – starved to death. Without these animals life became even more difficult than it already was. Then Karl Freiherr von Drais had an idea: In 1817 he invented the draisine, which was supposed to replace the horse but was so expensive that the majority of the population were unable to afford one.

For a long while after the invention of the velocipede nothing much changed. Not until the beginning of the 1860s, when Pierre Michaux began developing bicycles with pedals. Michaux presented his invention in Paris at The International Exposition of 1867. It was an out-and-out success. Only the well-to-do bourgeoisie were able to afford bicycles. It was no different when the penny-farthing appeared on the market three years later with its large front wheel and small rear wheel.

The Penny-farthing which entered the market in 1885 – big front wheel, small back wheel – was mainly interesting for the bourgeoisie. Photo: Technoseum

This changed at the end of the 1870s with Harry John Lawson’s safety bicycle and John Boyd Dunlop’s air-filled rubber tyre, which he invented around 1888: equally sized wheels, a chain drive to the rear wheel and the previously mentioned tyres – that’s how bikes looked like then and that’s how they still look now. The beginning of the 20th century saw bikes being mass produced; they became affordable to all and evolved from a status symbol to an object of practical use for everyone.

Bicycles saved workers time as well as providing them with freedom and greater independence, they could thus emancipate themselves from their employers and find a new job thanks to the mobility that bikes gave them. But it wasn’t only the workers who benefited from having more freedom: although the bike was primarily for men, women didn’t pass up the opportunity to ride either.

Women on bicycles

The first female cyclists didn’t have it easy: their role in society and the dress code at that time made riding bikes very difficult. Their puffy and at the same time restrictive clothing made it almost impossible for them to ride regular bikes. If they wanted to ride they either had to transgress the dress code and thus the ethical code – exposed legs were not proper and trousers were rather inappropriate – or they could opt for women’s bicycles, which were extremely unstable and which women were obliged to ride sidesaddle.

Since the popularity of cycling as a sport was not confined to men, the first ladies’ race was held in Bordeaux in 1868 in spite of all conventions. With the rise of the safety bicycle, which was also produced with a step-through frame for women, more and more women began riding bikes. If the bicycle promoted the emancipation of the workers, it did the same for women; they rode bikes and continued to do so until the bicycle lost importance in the years following World War II.

Bikes overtaken by cars

For decades the bicycle was an important means of transport, though this changed with the economic boom of the 1950s: Motorbikes and cars quickly took hold and the only people who rode bikes were those who couldn’t afford a motor vehicle or those who didn’t have a driving licence. The former status symbol now bore the reputation of being merely a poor man’s car.

The folding bike of the 1960s was seen as additional equipment for cars. Illustration from a catalogue, around 1970.

The bicycle experienced a small boom at the end of the 1960s, when the banana bike and the fold-up bike were launched. Still, the focus remained on motorised transport and car-centric cities were the primary concern. This situation didn’t change until during the oil crisis in the 1970s. Ecological awareness developed and the bicycle began slowly to become important again, especially in an urban context. As a result of the rise of mountain biking in the 1980s and the emerging fitness movement, the interest in bicycle use continued to grow.

Commodities and luxury goods

Today, riding bikes has become an expression of lifestyle and the bicycle is a common lifestyle object – at least in large parts of Europe. At the same time, it is still a primary means of transport in many countries. Particularly in African countries where the distances are large; public transport often does not exist and without a bike people would have to walk miles. However, it is still not a given that everyone owns a bicycle, yet the bicycle is especially important for the emancipation of women due to its role in society.

Even in China, the erstwhile bike nation, many people still rely on their bicycle. The story of a Chinese migrant who wanted to go home to celebrate Chinese New Year but didn’t have the money for a train ticket was all over the internet this year. He set off on his bike to ride over 1,000 miles to visit his family and mistakenly rode 300 miles in the wrong direction before being stopped on the motorway.

The bicycle: It is and remains the most environmentally-friendly means of transport

Two hundred years ago a volcanic eruption set the invention of the bicycle in motion, today it’s a desire for a certain quality of life in cities that motivates people to choose the bicycle as a means of individual transport – what started off with modest production levels and as a status symbol is now a permanent part of city traffic.

The bicycle is taking on an increasingly important role in urban spaces. The huge variety of models can be seen on the streets; folding bikes, cargo bikes and e-bikes have all become more and more popular over the past years. Long distances can be travelled in comfort with the help of electric motors, small folding bikes save space on the train and cargo bikes are ideal for carrying shopping. A lot can now be done without problems by bike. It brings movement into our lives, gives us freedom and is environmentally friendly.

There are a number of different bike-related events every year, especially during the jubilee year in Baden-Württemberg, where numerous events, films, exhibitions and bike tours (German website only) are organised – including a large exhibition on the history of the bicycle in Mannheim in the Technoseum. All images in this text were provided by the Technoseum and other exhibitors.

‘200th Anniversary: How the Bicycle Changed Society’. 2017. bikecitizens [online]. Available at: https://www.bikecitizens.net/200th-anniversary-bicycle-changed-society/ [accessed 23 Feb 2021].

‘Cultural Differences – Or How to Transport Goods?’ 2016. bikecitizens [online]. Available at: https://www.bikecitizens.net/cultural-differences-how-to-transport-goods/ [accessed 23 Feb 2021].

Translation for the above found on Facebook page:

Press clippings; suggests an archive or protest?

Before I forget – the headband the children are wearing in the Dutch photos, belly-band for the document (note, the visual isn’t the proposal for the cover, it’s just for looking at in context…).

Don’t even know if it’s going to be a book yet anyway.

The prosecutor in Iran’s third largest city announced on May 14 that women have been banned from cycling in public, saying it was “haram,” or prohibited under Islam.

Women had long assumed that they could bicycle in public if they respected Iran’s strict dress code, which requires women to cover their hair and body in public.

In 2016, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared to crush the notion with a fatwa explicitly banning women from cycling in public, but it was not strictly enforced.

Now, Isfahan’s announcement is being taken as a sign that authorities are enforcing Khamenei’s fatwa, adding to the long list of activities that Iranian women are deprived of taking part in.

‘Islamic Punishment’

Since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the clerical establishment has enforced Islamic laws denying women equal rights in divorce and inheritance, prohibiting women from travelling abroad without the permission of a male relative, and attending major men’s sports events.

Prosecutor Ali Isfahani said police in Isfahan had been ordered to warn women against biking. He said police would confiscate the bikes of those who resisted, adding that repeat offenders would be subject to “Islamic punishment,” without elaborating.

Islamic Shari’a law does not mention bicycles because they were invented centuries after the birth of Islam in the 7th century. But Isfahani said “Muslim scholars” had “proved” that women biking was “haram.”

Isfahani said city authorities were designing a special “covered bicycle for women,” although he did not indicate what such a contraption might look like.

When Khamenei issued his fatwa against women riding bikes in September 2016, he said that “women often attract the attention of male strangers and expose society to debauchery, and thus contravene women’s chastity, and it must be abandoned.”

‘Women Banned From Cycling In Bike-Friendly Iranian City’. 2020. RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty [online]. Available at: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-women-banned-cycling-isfahan/29949683.html [accessed 10 Dec 2020].

We often drink less in the winter
So make sure what you drink is rich in electrolytes and sodium for maximum absorption.
Try @scienceinsport Hydro Tabs for a higher hydration than water alone.
Available in our showroom and online store # Bike Path

Translation (Google) of the post above

Two images of females found on the FB page – are they found images from another country? Are they from the supplier of the particular product?

Tabriz – The famous Saeed Mohammedi, who gives a free service for bicycle tourists, and a host of other bike shops are found on Nader Square, just west of the city centre. Saeed can be reached by telephone on 282 00 82 or 0914 313 63 72.

For parts, also good and nearer the centre is Alamir Habib Commerce (24 Artesh Avenue). A few shops on Emam Khomeini Street sell camping supplies and in one of the malls off this street is a small store crammed with high quality outdoor gear including down jackets, sleeping bags, MSR stoves and Petzl headlamps.

Tehran – Pooya Cycle Co Ltd, 301 Satarkhan Street, Tohid Square. +98 (021) 6642 8800 or +98 (021) 6642 9209. A shop that sells high quality bicycles as well as a range of parts and accessories including some basic panniers. The owner speaks English. Some local cyclists say prices are higher here than they should be so you may need to bargain.

Hidden away on a side street off Jomhoori Islami Avenue is a nameless hole-in-the-wall gem of a bike shop with Sport Bike written on the window in large red lettering. They stock some Shimano parts and can order just about anything you want with a few days notice, including high quality rims like Mavic and DT Swiss. They also offer cheaper alternatives and do repairs. Hours can be erratic so call before you go. The owner speaks a little English. The address is: 260 Shahid Changizi Street, Bastan Jonoubi Street, Jomhoori Islami Avenue, Tehran. Tel: (021) 6643 5410

Yazd – Bicycle City on Ayatollah Kashari Street (off Basij Boulevard) has some Shimano parts, clothing and other goodies.

Tirachian Bicycle Shop If you need to get your bike repaired in Yazd, try Tirachian Bicycle Shop on Shahid Rejaei Street (formerly Iranshahr). They did a very nice job rebuilding our wheels and even knocked down the price from the original quote when we came to pick up our new wheels. (Tel. 626 8291)

Cross Bikes, Shiraz

Sells Giant bikes, Shimano parts and Alex rims. It’s on Afifabad Street, outside the town centre.

http://cross360.ir/#about

Either Google or Iran says no. I can’t drop the little man…

Women arrested in Iran for riding bicycles in public

Written by Staff Writer
27th July 2016

NCRI – Iran’s fundamentalist regime on Tuesday arrested a group of women for riding bicycles in public in the north-western city of Marivan, in Iran’s Kurdistan Province.

The incident took place on July 26 as a group of women were planning to participate in a sports event to cycle from the city’s Stadium Square to the Zaribar Lake.

According to eye-witness accounts, suppressive state security forces (police) approached the women and girls and informed them that based on a new government directive cycling by women in public places is barred and considered “unlawful.”

The suppressive forces demanded that the women and girls sign written pledges to not repeat their “violation” of cycling in public.

Several of the women who protested the regime’s new misogynist measure were taken into custody, witnesses said.

Commenting on the new suppressive measure, Ms. Farideh Karimi, a member of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and a human rights activist, said:

“Suppression of women has been a tenet of the mullahs’ regime from its outset. This latest restrictive measure shows that misogyny is being stepped up under Hassan Rouhani’s administration. With each passing day the mullahs’ regime is further infringing on the basic rights of women which they had fought hard to obtain.

Such gender discrimination and the overall increase in brutal human rights violations speaks well of the reality that Hassan Rouhani is no different from the other mullahs and the hopes for an improvement of women’s rights in Iran which some had advocated at the start of his tenure as President are a mirage.

The world is now belatedly taking note of this tragedy, with the UK’s Foreign Office stating in its most recent update on Iran last week that the human rights situation has worsened in the past six months.”

‘Women Arrested in Iran for Riding Bicycles in Public’. 2016. NCRI [online]. Available at: https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/women-arrested-in-iran-for-riding-bicycles-in-public/ [accessed 23 Feb 2021].

As it stands [2013], Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world which denies its women the right to ride bikes and operate vehicles on the road. But now, a century after cycling helped emancipate the women of the west, it appears to be aiding the Saudi women’s case for equality on the roads.

July saw the release of groundbreaking Saudi Arabian film ‘Wadjda(link is external)’. Directed by the first native female director, Haifaa Al Mansour, the film has been nominated as the country’s entry for best foreign film for the 2014 Oscars.

‘Cycling Central to Saudi Women’s Driving Protest’. 2013. road.cc [online]. Available at: https://road.cc/content/news/97172-cycling-central-saudi-womens-driving-protest [accessed 23 Feb 2021].

‘Girl on the bike’ in Iraq pedals for women’s rights

Young artist Marina Jaber began riding in Baghdad after questioning why women on cycles were frowned upon by Iraqi society.

Published: February 10, 2017 04:00 AM

Baghdad // Marina Jaber has become better known as “the girl on the bike” after inspiring other Iraqi women to exercise their rights, one turn of the pedal at a time.

The young artist cuts an unusual figure as she rides her red bicycle through Baghdad, her hair swaying in the wind. What she started as an art project soon became a social media meme and then a movement.

Women now gather regularly to cycle in Baghdad and break new ground in Iraq’s conservative society.

Or is it old ground?

“My mother and my grandmother used to ride bicycles. It used to be normal,” Ms Jaber said.

She said felt so proud when she rode a cycle during a visit to London last year, then asked herself why.

“It’s only a bike. It’s a simple thing. It should be normal,” the 25-year-old said.

“Does society just not allow us to do certain things or does it start not accepting those certain things because we stopped doing them? That was an important question that had been on my mind for a long time.”

To find the answer, Ms Jaber started cycling in her neighbourhood and made that a project for a contemporary arts institute called Tarkib – an Arabic word which can mean installation and assemblage.

A picture she posted of herself cycling alongside an old man on his bicycle as he stared at her in reproving disbelief made the rounds on Iraqi social media last year.

“With that old man, I found my answer. For more than five minutes, I was riding next to him and he kept looking at me. He didn’t seem to like it,” Ms Jaber said.

“Then he stopped looking and went about his business. All the people in the area got used to it, they stopped looking at me … I understood then that I am society. If I want something, I should start doing it.”

Ms Jaber instantly became an inspiration for girls and women across the country who yearned to live the way they chose and not bow to more or less recent social, tribal or religious restrictions.

“I received a lot of messages, mostly from young girls. Maybe they needed somebody to stand up for their rights,” she said.

Ms Jaber has become part a long history of women using cycling as a symbol of emancipation.

In England, suffragette Alice Hawkins once famously rode down the streets of Leicester to promote women’s rights – scandalously wearing pantaloons.

More than a century later, the symbol is still potent in the Middle East, as exemplified in the 2012 Saudi film Wadjda about an 11-year-old girl from Riyadh who defies society and her mother by buying the green bike of her dreams with the prize money from a Quranic recitation contest.

Ms Jaber’s story also echoes that of Bushra Al Fusail, a photographer from Yemen who started her country’s first female cycling group in 2015 to affirm women’s rights and protest against the war.

In Iraq, women from across the country started posting pictures of themselves on cycles and dozens have joined group rides in the streets of Baghdad, which are closed off to traffic by police who escort the cyclists.

“It’s not illegal for a woman to cycle in Iraq but because of the war we Iraqis stopped doing a lot of things we used to do … we are too busy with death,” Ms Jaber said.

Men have started joining the group rides as well.

“It’s liberating for a man too. Everyone looks so happy, the city even looks more beautiful like this. It feels like the normal life we want,” said Mustafa Ahmed, a young army officer.

“There were some negative reactions at first but the comment I hear the most now is ‘Aah, this is the Baghdad we know’,” said Ms Jaber.

“Now I want to support girls to stop being scared. We can change reality.”

* Agence France Presse

Women defy fatwa on riding bicycles

Tom Coghlan, Beirut
Thursday September 22 2016, 12.01am, The Times

Iranian women have reacted with defiance to an edict by the Supreme Leader that they must give up cycling because it “contravenes chastity”.

Iranian women have reacted with defiance to an edict by the Supreme Leader that they must give up cycling because it “contravenes chastity”.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that women cyclists were likely to stir impure thoughts in men. “Riding a bicycle often attracts the attention of men and exposes the society to corruption, and thus contravenes women’s chastity, and it must be abandoned,” he told state media.

Rebelling against the fatwa

His fatwa enraged liberals in the country, dozens of whom posted videos or pictures on social media of women on two wheels. A mother and daughter, both disguised with masks and dark glasses, filmed themselves cycling on Kish island, an Iranian holiday resort in the Gulf. “Bicycle riding is part of our lives,” said the younger woman. “We were here when we heard about Ayatollah Khamenei’s fatwa banning women from bicycling. We immediately hired two bicycles to say we’re not giving up cycling. It is our right.” The low-level conflict between religious hardliners and liberals has taken on new urgency since the end of sanctions as the establishment opposes any opening up to Western influence.

Many Iranian women have been posting photographs of themselves cycling on the “My Stealthy Freedom” Facebook page, set up by Masih Alinejad, an exiled journalist who lives in Britain. She said: “Women in Iran want to be active in society but for the clerics that’s the big threat because in their eyes women should not be seen nor heard — stuck in the kitchen.”

She posted a picture of herself doing four activities banned by religious edict for Iranian women in public: cycling, singing, failing to wear a veil and laughing “inappropriately”.

The UKs closest example

I thought I’d look back through British history to find any comparisons. We all know womens’ rights weren’t great before WWI and some activities were frowned upon by the Victorians; swimming costumes for eg. and the little huts on wheels to get women to the sea without being seen virtually undressed (for the time). Sports were also an issue when it came to women’s clothing. Did cycling feature anywhere?

It did. I found an article on the Suffragettes which tells us a little of the cycling saga. Comparisons can be drawn but remember this was well over 100 years ago in the UK.

Alice Hawkins: Leicester’s Working Class Suffragette Cyclist

The Leicester WSPU’s first priority was to recruit supporters. They did so through open air talks in village squares, greeting women at factory gates and visits to the surrounding towns and countryside. This is where the bicycle came in handy.

Alice likely learned to ride in the late 1890s. As a working class lass, bicycles would have been prohibitively expensive during the early craze years of the mid 1890s. Alice was a member of the Clarion Cycling Club, a socialist recreational group connected with Robert Blatchford’s Clarion Newspaper. Many other future suffragettes, including the Pankhursts, also joined their local Clarion Cycling Clubs. A 1902 newspaper report claimed that as a member of the Clarion Cycling Club, Alice was accused of “outraging public decency” by riding in rational dress.

Alice and her fellow suffragettes used their bicycles as transportation around Leicester and to travel to the nearby countryside and neighbouring towns. In 1909, Alice, with the support of Gladice Keevil of the Birmingham WSPU, spearheaded a bicycle drive to increase membership in the Leicester WSPU by targeting supporters beyond city limits.

The bicycle played a small but vital role in the Leicester WSPU’s fight for the women’s suffrage.

‘Alice Hawkins: Leicester’s Working Class Suffragette Cyclist’. n.d. Sheila Hanlon | Historian | Women’s cycling [online]. Available at: http://www.sheilahanlon.com/?page_id=2231 [accessed 23 Feb 2021b].

Use Persian to show their statements? Illustrates the lack of clarity to what’s-law-and-what’s-not’ that I’m finding…

Looked up Persian typography, some beautiful examples. I think what makes things more interesting is that you can’t read what they say, you’re literally just looking at the letterforms and layouts and not taking in any meaning.

Nice results from Pinterest.

Arabic Wim Crouwel?

A quick (very) try-out

Block out the translation – ref to the censorship between countries?

Inverted colours to ref. the opposing messages…

National colours; use the red to highlight the contentious area?

Emboss some tyre tread?

Introduce some other visual link to cycling. Music.agency in Manchester promoted the British Cycling Olympic Team using tyre treads, turning them into posters.

Google has failed me this time so here’s something similar…

If I pay for a TV licence can I use the BBC Archive?

Doesn’t look like it:

Accessing the BBC television archive online

The BBC has a wealth of content in our archives that can be accessed for both programme research and production purposes.

Much of our programme archive is available in online depositories and access to these for research purposes is free of charge for any independent production company or Studios teams with a BBC commission or who are under contracted development.

That was quick! Maybe the project sounded more plausible this time.

Colab Response

Received an email from Izzie Compton, 3rd-year journalism student at Falmouth who, conveniently, loves. cycling. She’s interested in the Kindermoort story.

Her work is mostly audio which could be an advantage for the project; the article could be used as audio online or as a narration to images as part of an exhibition. The content can also be transcribed for use in print.