By Riad Zein Edeen, IOL Iran Correspondent

TEHRAN, Aug 25 (IslamOnline) - Women taxi drivers in the streets of Iran started to prevail after the Iranian Ministry of Interiors authorized women, who want to be taxi drivers, to get a license.

The latest statistic by the Ministry showed that 124 Iranian women are currently driving taxis with a sign reading “Weiza Zanan” (Women only), touring the streets of some Iranian cities, especially the capital Tehran.

The move was welcomed by women, who find it embarrassing to have to sit beside stranger men in taxis, or those who suffer economic problems and want to work as drivers to earn a living. On the other hand, the move was rejected by those calling for the end of separation between males and females in public transportation, a system working in Iran since 1982.

Worth mentioning here that one third of seats in buses and trains in Iran is usually booked for women. In cases of crowdedness, some buses and trains are used only by women, and visa versa.

After the success of the “women taxi drivers” move in some Iranian cities, a group of women, who want to join the club of women drivers, urged the government to generalize the idea in the capital, where more than 10 million people live. However, the taxi drivers union vehemently rejected the demand.

The rejection did not stop some 20 women from using their private cars as “women only taxis” in the streets of Tehran. The traffic police, for their part, look the other way when the women drivers pass by, even though the female taxi drivers do not have a license.

“I’m a widow, mother of four girls. This car is my only source of living, my husband left it when he died,” a woman taxi driver, Tando Kiyan, told IslamOnline Saturday, August 24, 2002. She was speaking at Tehran Airport, where she uses her private car as a “Weiza Zanan”.

“I have to work at night at the airport, hide my car somewhere till I find a female passenger. The Drivers Union refused to give me a license,” she added.

Tando Kiyan sees the Union’s rejection as “discrimination against women”.

“If they insist on their position, they should find us a decent source of earning a living,” she charged.

Another woman driver, Fatma Sheriefi, asserted she would not quit her job, “whether the Union liked it or not”.

“People like the job we do. I just do not understand the justifications of the Union’s stand. Do they want it a “men only job”, and deprive us from a decent way of making a living?” she wondered.

Many women in Tehran support the “Weiza Zanan” idea, hoping it will be generalized in the crowded capital.