Women-Only Taxis in
Nigeria
Mar 26 2007 05:55:33:290PM
New lemon-yellow motorised rickshaws for women, bearing the
slogan 'Be Pious', are vying for pole position in Nigeria's Muslim-dominated
north.
Kano - New lemon-yellow motorised rickshaws for women, bearing the slogan "Be
Pious", are vying for pole position at traffic-choked intersections in Nigeria's
Muslim-dominated north.
The subsidised rides with pull-around shades to thwart prying male eyes hit
the streets of Kano in recent months after women were banned from riding on
motorcycle taxis - on which they were pressed against male drivers.
The motorised rickshaws embody a struggle across the north to reconcile a
strict interpretation of a foreign religion with Nigeria's culture and secular
constitution - and the quotidian realities of African poverty.
Nigerians say the strictest interpretation of Shariah runs counter to their
culture. Keeping women behind doors and out of sight, or cloaking them in
fabric, is a foreign idea in Nigeria, where women play leading roles in economic
life.
'Not in keeping with Islam'
The state government agreed that women buzzing through streets clutching a
man to whom they were not related was not in keeping with Islam and ruled that
women could no longer ride the hazardous motorcycles, known in Nigeria as Okadas
- named after a defunct Nigerian airline in a country known for air crashes.
In a crowded city of two million with many tiny back streets and sprawling
markets cars can't negotiate, women suddenly found themselves immobile. The Kano
government made a study and found that 60% of the commuters in Kano were women.
There was a backlash against the ruling from women, who said they needed to
go to work and the market, and the government had to find a solution.
Entirely rescinding the order would have angered some, so officials found a
solution in the tricycle rickshaws, essentially motorcycles with two back wheels
and a canopied seating area with room for three passengers.
Women sit behind the male drivers, with black plastic curtains that hide them
from the traffic.
Artificially depressed prices
Initially, 500 of the rickshaws were imported from India. The government is
planning to send 1 000 more rickshaws into the streets and keep up drivers'
subsidies that artificially depress the prices to make the rickshaws cheaper
than the motorcycles.
A ride inside Kano is fixed at the equivalent of 30 US cents - at least a
quarter less costly than the Okadas. Cabs are much more expensive.
Many women have taken to the rickshaws, although some still ride the
motorcycles - shooting past government-sponsored billboards calling on citizens
to "fear God" and "be
kind".