De titel van dit artikel zou kunnen doen vermoeden, dat wij hebben geprobeerd een bus te nemen in onze Nederlandse Bible Belt, zeg maar de regio rond Epe. Dames zouden dan slechts via de achterdeur  de bus in mogen,  alleen achterin mogen zitten, terwijl wij mannen het ons gemakkelijk maken rondom de chauffeur. Niets is minder waar, want wij hebben het over de bus in Israël, waar kennelijk Geert voorin mag zitten en instappen, terwijl Fleur als zij mee gaat, de achterdeur moet gebruiken en ook daar moet blijven zitten. Nu weet u gelijk waarom Fleur volgens ons nooit mee gaat naar het beloofde land. Maar er zijn nog veel meer landen waar het boven omschreven fenomeen usance is, zoals b.v. Mexico. Lees wat onze redacteur hierover berichtte:

Wij ontvingen  een bericht van het New Israel Fund, waarin met enige trots werd aangekondigd dat  ”Israeli women will no longer be forced to the back of the bus.” The mail, which was referring to a recent Israeli Supreme Court decision which held that it is no longer legal for government-subsidized bus companies to require gender segregation, at first seemed to be a relic from the past, a historic document that miraculously found its way into 21st century inboxes. Buses where the women must enter through a separate door in the back and sit in the rear of the bus? This couldn’t be real.

I  learned that government-subsidized segregated buses are a quite real phenomenon in Israel and in many other countries around the world including Japan, Egypt, India, Taiwan, Brazil, Indonesia, Belarus, the Philippines, Dubai, and Mexico. Immediately, I wondered if civil rights groups in these other countries view gender segregation in the same light as the Israel Religious Action Center–the advocacy group that initiated the Supreme Court case against Israel’s subsidization of segregated buses in 2007. Do feminists and human rights activists elsewhere consider gender segregated public transportation to be discriminatory against women? At least in Mexico, the answer is no, but they should.

The Institute of Mexico City Women (Inmujeres DF), a branch of the city’s government, first put women-only buses into circulation in Mexico City in 2008. The buses were part of a broader government effort to advance the lives of women and protect their right to lives without violence. Unlike in Israel, where gender segregated buses were motivated by a rapidly growing community of ultra-Orthodox men who believe in separation of males and females in public spaces, Mexico City’s women-only buses were motivated by women seeking protection from the all-too-frequent instances of sexual harassment on the city’s packed buses. The buses are not seen as discrimination but rather as a means of liberation. The director of Inmujeres DF, Martha Lucia Micher Camarena, told the New York Times in February 2008 that the buses are “positive discrimination that responds to the demands of women. And it’s also for men because it protects their daughters, sisters, and mothers.”

There is no question that the intentions of the Mexico City government were good. Inmujeres DF recognized that women were not being respected as equals and it attempted to honor the real concerns of its female citizens. However, despite the benevolent intent of the government, women’s rights groups should be equally outraged at the existence of women-only buses in Mexico as the advocacy groups were at the subsidization of gender segregated buses in Israel.

Yes, the women-only buses are optional and Inmujers DF has also organized a public education campaign to make it clear that inappropriate touching is illegal and has set up five service modules within the metro stations to give immediate attention to cases of abuse, but we need to think about the broader implications of these separate buses. The same New York Times article describes how the new patrons of the women-only buses were jeering at the men who were turned away from their bus. One such patron, Catalina Garduño, explained, “We don’t get paid as much as they, yet we work just as hard…We are tired of their machismo. We don’t feel sorry for them at all.” This attitude is exactly why the separate buses are not a good solution but rather an easy way out. Government policies should not be empowering women to mimic the discriminatory, oppressive behavior (and jeers) of men. On the contrary, government policies should be changing gender expectations and creating an environment of mutual respect, regardless of gender. Maybe the daily rides of the women in Mexico City will be improved but the buses are certainly not “positive discrimination” as Micher Camarena argues. They are not helping women exercise their rights in conditions of equality, as is the mission of Inmujeres DF, but rather in conditions of inequality.

The well-intentioned campaign of Inmujeres DF could have had a much more positive impact had it been directed at the pre-existing, mixed-gender bus system. The general education campaign and service modules could have been accompanied by an increased police presence on the buses and even volunteer freedom riders like those mobilized by IRAC in Israel. The freedom riders and police would act as advocates for women passengers, intervening when they witnessed harassment and helping to gradually change the environment that fostered the harassment in the first place. Specially designed training programs for the bus drivers and policeman themselves might also have been necessary. Regardless, in the long run, the commuting experiences of women and the state of gender issues in the city as a whole would have been better improved without the creation of women-only buses.

Israel and Mexico City were right to take action and to address the concerns of their female citizens but a well-intentioned policy is not necessarily a good one. It is not just about the peacefulness or safety of women’s daily commutes but rather the societal norms that those same women will face when they step off of the bus or onto the subway platform. A separate bus that allows women to avoid harassment but which does not foster equal treatment of men and women should not be celebrated. Gender issues must be brought to the forefront, not relegated to separate cars.

Wij hopen dat u het heeft kunnen volgen, maar zoals u ziet, is er nog een lange weg te gaan , als het gaat om gelijke rechten en plichten, zelfs in landen waar je dit niet zou verwachten. Dit artikel svp niet doorsturen naar de SGP, want het zou ze op ideën kunnen brengen.