The Cairo metro has hired Egypt’s first female train drivers, a novelty in a nation where few women hold formal professions, as it gets ready to expand to accommodate a population that has surpassed 20 million.
According to the two trailblazers, commuters on the network’s newest line have noticed women taking the wheel in the driver’s cab since April, and their reactions have ranged from raised eyebrows to open disgust.
Since 1956, Egyptian women have been able to vote and run for office, but patriarchal laws and a predominately male culture have severely restricted personal freedoms.
Business graduate and mother of two Hind Omar said she had rushed to apply to be a train driver, eager to be a pioneer in a country where only 14.3 percent of women are in formal employment, according to 2020 figures.
“I have several thousand lives in my hands every day,” the 30-year-old told AFP, proudly wearing a fluorescent jacket emblazoned with the RATP-Dev logo of the foreign operations arm of the Paris metro beneath her black and white headscarf.
Omar acknowledged that she had been lucky to have the support of her family.
Omar said the tests for would-be drivers had been gruelling, requiring candidates to demonstrate their “attention span” and “endurance”.
She said drivers had to remain “extremely vigilant for long hours” during a six-day working week.
Omar was one of two women accepted for the training programme run by Egypt’s National Authority for Tunnels in cooperation with RATP-Dev.
The other, Suzanne Mohamed, 32, recalled the first time commuters on the platform saw her in the driver’s cab.
She said she could understand “they were surprised” in a country where women have limited access to many careers.
“Some passengers were afraid,” she told AFP. “They doubted my skills and said they didn’t feel safe with a woman at the controls.”
The Cairo metro itself provides reserved carriages for women who do not wish to ride with men in an attempt to provide protection against sexual harassment.
Source: African Insider
