Jordanians Hail First Female Taxi Driver

During the day, she keeps a gun under the seat. At night, she often hides a male friend in the trunk of her yellow cab - just in case.

Being the first woman among Jordan’s 100,000 taxi drivers is proving quite an adventure for Myassar Abul-Hawa. Female cabbies may be commonplace in many countries, but not in this male-dominated Arab nation.

“At first, bystanders rub their eyes. Then they clap, whistle and cheer me,” Abul-Hawa said. “They can’t believe a woman is driving a cab.”

Abul-Hawa, 52, has a degree in English literature and worked as a tutor in Beirut. But since fleeing Lebanon’s civil war in 1975, she hasn’t found similar work. She began driving in part to help support her eight children.

After a month on the job, she says she relishes it, especially since it has made her something of a celebrity in Amman. Children run after her car, and women try to get her to stop and chat.

Women make up only 14 percent of Jordan’s 1-million-member work force. Laws on marriage, divorce and inheritance still favor men, and women are banned from jobs deemed dangerous and from working after dark.

Happily for Abul-Hawa, the law on night work is rarely enforced. She says her only serious problems at night have involved being pulled over by bewildered policemen.

“Cops think I am driving a stolen car,” she said. “But when I show them my (taxi) driver’s license, they salute me and let me go.”

Abul-Hawa said she has not taken out her gun to face trouble. And her friend in the trunk has never flipped down the back seat to come to her aid - although he did emerge once to convince police she would be safe.

As for potentially troublesome male riders, she says she could handle them: “I like to argue.”

There is, she said, a benefit to working in the male-dominated society. Many devout Muslim men don’t want their wives and daughters alone with male cabbies - so they call to ask for her by name.