How did all those female Saudi drivers get a license?

As of a few days ago, Saudi Arabian women are finally legally allowed to drive cars, and the news is full of reports of joyful/excited/apprehensive women driving around the streets of Riyadh and Jeddah. Whoop, whoop! Many women are even signing up to become drivers for ride-hailing operations like the Uber knock-off Careem.

My question was: how do these women suddenly have valid drivers' licenses (and for that matter, cars)?

The cars question is perhaps the most easily answered. Most of these women are pretty well off, and are probably members of families that boast several cars to choose from. Or, if need be, they could probably just go out and buy one for cash.

But the licenses? Well, it turns out that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is way ahead of us, and made arrangements for licenses to be obtained in advance for those women who already have overseas licenses. Many of them were educated in North America or Europe, for example, and may have obtained drivers' licenses there during their education years. The first ten licenses for Saudi women were issued on June 4th, in preparation for the June 24th lifting of the ban, and many thousands more have followed suit since then. This is literally a case of swapping an overseas license for a Saudi one, with no road test necessary. Several foreign driving schools (e.g. Ford's Driving Skills for Life for Her) are now setting up in the lucrative business of female driving lessons in Saudi Arabia.

It's certainly a big step in the right direction for Saudi Arabia, although there is much more still to be done for equality in the country (and some women driving activists are still in jail for their actions and protests, despite the lifting of the ban). Certainly, having women drivers is not likely to make the country less safe: Saudi has an execrable record of automobile safety, and Arab News reports that some 78,487 people died in car accidents in the ten years to 2016.