Egypt: First female metro drivers proud to take controls
Cairo metro’s first female train drivers have spoken of the admiration — and occasional disapproval — they have received from commuters since taking the controls.
The metro’s contingent of female drivers were hired in April, a first in a predominantly Muslim Arab country.
It coincides with the significant expansion of the Cairo metro, which is used daily by up to five million of the Egyptian capital’s 20 million residents.
Cairo’s metro has been the transport mode of choice for many of the city’s working and middle classes, despite significant fare increases in recent years.
It has, however, failed to reduce the near total reliance on cars of the city’s more affluent commuters, perpetuating Cairo’s nightmare traffic congestion and air pollution.
Reflecting the city’s conservatism and frequency of sexual harassment in public places, the Cairo metro has women-only carriages to protect female passengers.
One of the new female drivers is mother-of-two Hind Omar, who said she rushed to apply to be a train driver, eager to be a pioneer in a country where only 14.3 per cent of women are in formal employment, according to 2020 figures.
One perk that attracted her even more is the exemption of women drivers from doing the night shift, she said.
The tests for would-be drivers, she said, required her and other candidates to demonstrate their “attention span” and “endurance”.
Launched in 1987, the Cairo metro is the oldest in the Arab world, but has fallen behind other Arab countries in providing employment opportunities for women.
Moroccan Saida Abad became the first female train driver in Africa and the Arab world in 1999.
