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In strict Muslim countries, no unmarried woman can ever be unchaperoned in the company or any man. The only way a Muslim woman can ride in a taxi is if the only other occupants of the car are either women or male members of her immediate family.
With more women than men getting college degrees in UAE and other Muslim countries, conservative woman are beginning to enter the professional ranks, and need transport. Women from Saudi Arabia cannot drive their own car at home, and presumably don't know how to drive a rental, either.
This is not a sexist issue or a safety issue, it is simply a convenience that's been established to conform with the requirement of conservative women in a changing Muslim world. What Americans regard as "gender discrimination" is of no concern to people whose countries have not yet been forced into our colonial empire by shock and awe. How taxis are dispatched in Dubai is not a matter for Americans to go to war over. Get over it.
I would have LOVED this when I got off a cruise ship in Dubai. There were only male cab drivers available and they were very difficult to deal with. I needed a ride to a local mosque for a tour but they only wanted to take you for a full day or to the airport so they got a larger fare. A lady inside the cruise terminal had to come out and yell at them for me. She basically threatened to report them if they didn't take the fare. I was actually pretty open to getting a full day tour but in looking at the lot available I didn't want to be stuck with any of them for the day. If there had been a lady cab driver I would have hired her for the full day. They guys all smoked and smelled bad so I only wanted the short ride to my tour.
I don't know if I would call it sexist. If the male cab drivers had been as nicely attired, as polite looking and as clean as the one you show in your picture they would have been OK. Let's face it women would rather hire a safe, clean, polite cab. Men probably would to but they are more willing to put up with dirty, rude and smelly.
Even here in the US I wish there was some way to pick your cab driver. It might encourage the drivers to present themselves a little better and might weed out the bad ones as no one would ever pick them. I hate getting in the cab line and then your expected to take whomever is in line when you get to the front of the line. Usually I will ask for a non-smoking cab to get one that at least doesn't stink. But even so sometimes the guy one or two cabs back has a clean cab and is dressed nicely. I would rather pick him than accept a dirty or broken down cab.
it would be nice to have an option. especially when it's late at night.
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