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By Mohamed Osman
DOHA: At its routine weekly meeting tomorrow, the Central Municipal Council (CMC) is all set to discuss a proposal by a member to have taxi service exclusively for women. Such taxis are to be driven only by women.
The proposal has been made by Nasser bin Ibrahim Al Mohannadi, who represents Constituency Number 25 (Al Khor) in the CMC. This will be the CMC’s 9th weekly meeting and also slated for discussion is a proposal to have state-sponsored wedding halls in constituency numbers 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 21 and 22.
The proposal was earlier transferred to the Services and Facilities Committee of the CMC for further discussions and to decide what should be done before transferring it to the competent authorities.
The CMC members are also going to discuss a report prepared by the legal committee regarding the demand for setting further control on single workers’ accommodations in family’s residential areas. The proposal was presented by Fatima Al Kuwari, representative of constituency No 9. This proposal has also been referred to the legal committee for review in line with a law that bans labour camps in residential areas where families live. Contacted for comment, Sheikha Al Jefairi, one of the oldest members of the CMC and representative of the Old Airport locality of the city, said that Al Mohannadi’s proposal also suggests that the women-only taxis have a special colour.
She said that this proposal could have made much sense earlier when women were not allowed to drive. Now, women can have driving licence and most families have cars and drivers. This is at least true of Qatari families.
“That is the reason why Qatari families do not rely on taxis at all,” she told this newspaper. She said there is no harm in launching woman-only taxi service on an experimental basis. Once the experiment is successful, a full-fledged service can be launched for women and children.
According to her, the idea behind the proposal is to make sure that women and children are safe in woman-only taxis. Asked for more details about the proposal, she said the House will discuss it at length and the recommendations will be forwarded to the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning. The municipal ministry would then refer the proposal to the authorities concerned to take a policy decision, she said.
The Peninsula
