After tasting a success in Karachi, women-only taxis eye new cities
karachi — Braving whistles, catcalls and vulgar remarks, Karachi’s female taxi drivers are determined to stay on the road to ferry women safely around the teeming city from home to the office, to college and even to late night wedding parties.
Since March, women in Pakistan’s commercial hub have been able to hail the pink taxis — called Paxis — by phone, app or simply by flagging one down on the street.
The women drivers say they have faced harassment from other road users, but will persevere with the service. “This (harassment) that we face is the occupational hazard of this job. It’s best to ignore such people, they will get used to sharing the roads with us!” said Shamina Bano, 43, a mother of grown-up sons and one of the drivers with the first ever gendersegregated taxi service.
Wearing a hot pink headscarf, Bano said she left her previous job as a personal secretary after her boss started making “untoward advances”.
“Working in an all female environment feels so much more comfortable; I don’t have to look over my shoulder anymore,” she said.
The app asks potential riders the number of passengers and if there are any men accompanying them. If the man is between 12 and 70 years old, the request will be turned down. By the end of this year the company would have doubled its fleet of cars from 15 at its launch to 30.
And Paxis are soon to appear on the streets of Sukkur in Sindh province and then to Peshawar close to Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, said Shaikh M. Zahid, the founder of the service.
Peshawar lies in the highly conservative province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where strict purdah is observed.
“It has a much higher ratio of educated women, but due to lack of a safe transport system, their mobility is greatly compromised and their full potential to be productive citizens gets somewhat lost,” said Zahid. —