A Doomed Plan: Women Bikers, Hikers, Jackasses, and Royal Riders………..
“Working Saudi women spend more than a third of their salaries on drivers and taxis, prompting calls for women-only buses. A report has found that some 35% of Saudi women’s monthly income is spent on drivers and taxis as they are forbidden from driving and are largely excluded from the public transportation system. The survey, conducted by the Saudi Center for Studies and Media (SCSM), is recommending the establishment of women-only buses in the kingdom and is currently being studied by Saudi Arabia’s legislative branch, the Majlis A-Shoura (Consultative Council). The line of women-only buses, called Hafilati (“My Bus”), will employ only male drivers. “This is the first program of its kind in Saudi Arabia to transport female passengers for a price that is fair and equal to that of men,” Jamal Banoun, director of the SCSM told The Media Line. “The primary aim of this is to provide protection for women against moral problems and sexual harassment that they sometimes face from taxi drivers.”…...….”
This seems a simple thing to the R.O.W., but would be quite a development for the kingdom. A lot of anguish and political and inter-family power calculations go into these decisions. A tiny step for a few women, a giant step for….. the bus company?
Unfortunately, if it is approved, I don’t expect it to succeed though; not enough women will want to ride the bus, which in the Gulf states is reserved for lowly menial help like housemaids. It may work if the princesses and the women of the ruling potentates and plutocrats start taking the bus; just to show the rest that it is okay to mingle.
Why not allow them to ride bikes? That should be the healthiest thing, and the cheapest. They can’t allow them to ride motorcycles, because they sound like old cars, and they are not allowed to drive even old cars. I was going to suggest allowing them to ride horses or mules, but then I thought of all the cleaning and care that is required. They also have plenty of jackasses, in fact too many male asses who are not being utilized. But I digress………
Cheers
mhg
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