Pakistan, Sept. 24 -- Former Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry has found another occupation unsuitable for Pakistani women. Three months after questioning why women should join the police, the former federal minister turned his attention on Tuesday to women riding scooters. "Most of the girls are horrible drivers," he wrote on social media, arguing that encouraging them to ride was putting their own lives and those of others at risk. No evidence accompanied the verdict.

It would be easy to dismiss this as another social-media provocation. That would miss why such remarks matter.

Women's mobility in Pakistan is already negotiated through layers of permission, including but not limited to whether a father can drop a daughter at university, ...