Zahida Kazmi – Pakistan’s First Female Taxi Driver!

Zahida Kazmi – Pakistan’s First Female Taxi Driver!

Zahida has had to drive long distances on treacherous routes to northern areas. She has been hailed as Pakistan’s first female taxi driver. She has driven from the crowded markets of Islamabad to the remote tribal country in the north. Here she tells Nosheen
Abbas about her two decades in a male-dominated world.

In 1992 at the age of 33, newly widowed Zahida Kazmi decided to take her fate in her own hands and become a taxi driver. Born into a conservative and patriarchal Pakistani family, she flew in the face of her family’s wishes but with six children to support,
she felt she had no choice.

Women are famous for their lack of confidence and careless driving at main roads. They are stuck at signals and need several horns from the back drivers to move on but this lady has been travelling all across Pakistan to earn her livelihood in the most unique
manner ever. She took advantage of a government scheme in which anybody could buy a brand new taxi in affordable instalments. She bought herself a yellow cab and drove to Islamabad airport every morning to pick up passengers.

In a perilous and unpredictable world, Zahida at first kept a gun in the car for her own protection and she even started off by driving her passengers around wearing a burqa, a garment that covers the entire body. She was interviewed by the news channel
and answering to one of the questions about fear for travelling alone being a lady, she proclaimed, “I realised that I would scare passengers away," she said. "So then I only wore a hijab [head covering]. Eventually I stopped covering my head because I got
older and was well-established by then."

Exposing herself to the hot, bustling city streets of Islamabad and by driving to the rocky and remote districts adjoining Pakistan’s tribal areas, Zahida says she learned a lot about the country she lived in and its people. The Pathans of the tribal north-west,
despite a reputation for fierce male pride and inflexibility, treated her with immense courtesy on her journeys.

She has set an example for those women who think that life of a widow in this male dominated society is really ridiculous and earning livelihood is extremely difficult. Allah helps those who helps themselves and if a person strives for something, Allah definitely
grants it (if it’s in his/her favour). Hard work never goes in vain and having a pessimistic thought ruins it all. Be optimistic and hope for the best!

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=3531

Posted by Fahad Zafar on Nov 14 2011. Filed under Opinion, Pakistan, Society. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry