Sharia Alert from modern, moderate Dubai. By Diala Saadeh for Reuters, with thanks to Writer Mom:
DUBAI (Reuters Life!) - For the comfort of Muslim women who do not wish to ride taxis with men, Dubai is now offering pink-coloured cabs with a female driver."Ladies Taxis" are the latest fad in the booming city, a business, tourism and commercial hub for more than 203 nationalities.
"Our society is conservative and our women do not want to ride with men alone at night or when they arrive at the airport at two or three in the morning," Ammar Bin Tamim, director of Dubai Taxi, told Reuters.
"We decided to operate this service after complaints from women who did not want to ride with men, especially at night."
Fifty women-only cabs operate in Dubai. Outside Dubai airport's arrivals terminal, the busiest in the Middle East, women drivers wearing white headscarves and pink hats wait in their pink and beige cabs in line for their female-only customers.
A policeman at the airport taxi stand directs women to hop into a pink cab, and men to the red-topped cars.
good thing it's not sowdi arabeea...since the womens aren't allowed to drive.
but how can the drivers see?
If a man wears a hijab or burka, can he ride in the taxi? If you pay the female cabbie extra I wonder if you can 'split the fare' with someone it would be hard to rendezvous with in other circumstances.
In other words - dress like a muslimah, meet your muslimah, meat your muslimah.
Just trying to help. I'm sure it's hard to hook up in Dubai - but I'm sure people die tryin' (literally)
Isn't it supposed to be pink for girls and blue for boys?
Sharia? Or is it catering to the desires of the customers...? Is there a distinction here, or are all cultural differences lumped in with the true incidinces of Sharia?
How dare those women drive at all????
And women out at night? Sheesh; what's this world coming to? Can't they control them anymore?
pink cabs are easier for the religious police to locate...
Are you listening Minneapolis-St. Paul?
I wouldn't want to ride with them either - and that is over and above the fact of their grossness. Since it takes 4 men to witness a rape in order not to die by their standards - I wouldn't want to ride with them either for fear of my life in a muslim country.
I wonder how many muslim males would stand up for a woman after raping her, along with his pals? I probably could count them on one finger - and that number would probably be too large.
Muslim women in Dubai are liberated now. They can drive pink cabs. Ons small step for womankind in Dubai.
I'm not sure I blame anyone here. Muslimahs know that they are under constant risk of assault and rape from their "brothers" in Islam under any circumstances. I imagine that risk escalates a thousandfold in situations where a woman is alone with a potential predator, such as a taxi driver. Add in the factor of darkness, and I imagine female cab customers must be in fear the entire time.
Considering that becoming a rape victim can get you whipped, stoned, or hanged in Muslim countries, I can see the point of the women-only cabs.
I wonder if the women drivers are less aggressive with the traffic than their male counterparts in Dubai. That alone would be an incentive to get into a pink Taxi.
"Considering that becoming a rape victim can get you whipped, stoned, or hanged in Muslim countries, I can see the point of the women-only cabs."
Yeah, really! These seems more a Sharia Protection instance than a Sharia instance! It is a whole other debate as to why such things are truely necessary, but let us call it for what it is! :)
This isn't a bad idea.
From the World Tribune
The U.S. embassy in Damascus has reported a spate of sexual attacks on foreigners in Damascus. In a June 6 warden message, the embassy said the attacks targeted foreign women.
"Two incidents in the past week involved women walking alone, either in the early morning or early evening," the embassy said. "Another incident occurred several months ago when two women were walking together in one of the tunnels crossing underneath the Autostrad near Damascus University."
The warden message cited other reports of female U.S. embassy employees being sexually harassed by Syrian taxi drivers. The embassy reported two cases of female staffers being fondled during taxi rides.
This may not be sharia-related. They do the same thing in Japan with certain trains because of the male culture. There culture encourages males to be the masters, add to that repressed sexuality and your left with the worst place in the world for a woman.
We may be introducing something similar in UK cities though whether that's a result of an expanding Muslim population is another question.
Which ones have the bombs?
BlowHammed just what we need: the clock to roll backward. We live in civilized societies, and that means trust, and a lot of it. It seems the UK wants to become what it hates, or should hate. Lefties at work.
White headscarves and pink hats???
I don't blame the female customers either. The risks of being alone with a muslim male do seem pretty high, if he can get away with rape so easily. All depends on whether this is to offer female customers a real choice, or whether they are forced to use only these cabs.