"Women drive with women" ... cars for women only in Algeria

Laila Mangour - Algeria

She waited a long time in a taxi stand in the neighborhood of Belouizdad, in the heart of Algiers, and despite that, she rejected the offers that were neglected by drivers who were passing through it successively. (Taxi) is driven by a man, but rather by a woman.

Lamia, 28, is a young Algerian woman who is forced every day to take a taxi to join her workplace in the Abyar district, in the upper part of the Algerian capital. She is one of Algerian women who abandoned the "driver" man in favor of the "driver" woman during their transportation in taxis or those known as hidden cars. "Klundistan".

Women jostle with men
For years, Algerian women have challenged the idea that driving transportation is the exclusive domain of men, and not only has their own car carrying them to work or university or spend children and home matters, but rather crowded men in driving taxis, express train and buses.

According to the figures of the Traffic and Urban Transport Corporation of the Ministry of Transport, the number of taxi drivers at the level of Algiers has reached thirty women, and this number is related to those who work legally, as there are women practicing this profession in unspoken ways.

Algerian law sets the age of 25 to pursue the profession of driving a taxi, according to what was stated in Executive Decree 230 issued in 2012.

"A woman leads a woman."
Riding with the driver in the taxi did not cause any problems for the Algerian woman in the past, as Ms. Amina, 60, was waiting for her private driver in front of her house in the Ben Aknoun district of the Algerian capital.

However, changing circumstances and increased harassment and harassment have resulted in the phenomenon of "women driving in women", meaning that taxis or "Klundistan" cars are allocated to women and families only, a phenomenon that exists in Arab countries, including Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

In the province of Tizi-Ouzou in the Kabylie region, the "Enas Taxi" initiative was launched in August 2018, aiming to fulfill the desire of the region's women and girls to preserve their privacy, as Enas (35 years), who supervises the project, assured us.

"The woman generally feels comfortable and reassured when she is riding in a car driven by a woman," Enas said - by phone from Tizi Ouzou.

100% women
The electronic applications for taxi reservations, which have recently spread in Algeria, helped the existence of the phenomenon of "women's taxi", by launching services dedicated to communicating the fairer sex.

The application "Done" - and means colloquially "at full speed" - which launched in 2018 and provided a service of "one hundred percent women", and the founder of the application, Elias Mullar, said to Al Jazeera Net that this service came to fulfill the desire of surfers of the application through social networking sites.

Female applicants to work as female drivers undergo a training course during which they are taught techniques for using the "Tamm" application and the method of dealing with female clients. Note that the number of female drivers working for the company is about one hundred and the number is expected to increase.

"Klondistan" is an attraction
Parallel to the women services provided by transportation applications, some taxi companies have resorted to employing women drivers whose mission is to transport women and families throughout Algeria.

According to Samir Dabbahi, general manager of the "Siren Taxi" company, which is based in the Douira region (west of Algiers), his company has allocated cars for women since 2017, and this came in response to the requests of people on social media and by phone.

Sirin Taxi, a subsidiary of the parent company, DS Taxi, employs four women drivers who have official training certificates, among them Ms. Rawan Shahrazad, 50, who has years of experience in driving.

And drivers are booked through an electronic application or by phone, and the customer can get to know the CV of the driver who is carrying it by clicking on the box designated to choose between the driver, man or woman.

On the other hand, women and girls of different ages and levels of education have stormed the world of "The Klundistan", and they are eager to provide their services to women by offering offers through social networking sites or through employment ads.

It is Mrs. Kawthar. F (40 years), who lives in the El-Sharaga district (west of Algiers), is one of the women who broke into the field of "The Chaldeans".

Kawtar selects her clients very carefully, as she refuses to transport "suspicious" girls, so she does not smoke or listen to music in her car, and she opposes riding with her customer's husband, as she only carries women.

Welcome and encouragement
Most of the men and women we met on the streets of Algiers are welcomed by the phenomenon of "Women Leading Women." Some of them called for their encouragement because they provide protection for the wife, sister, and daughter.

Osama (27 years), who works in a neighborhood in Al-Shuhada Square in the capital, prefers that his wife or sister take a taxi or "Klundistan" car driven by a woman.

Latifa Bouchir, 45, who works in a library on Al-Arabi Bin Mahdi Street in the heart of the capital, does not find anything wrong with riding a taxi driven by a man, but she encourages women to enter various fields as long as they work for a living.

As for Ahmed (35 years), who is a taxi driver, he does not find any embarrassment for the woman to lead the woman, but he fears for the driving woman from the harassment and attacks that even the man was not safe from.