Back to Index

Taxi tales - Cape Town taxi drivers speak about feminism
Amanda Atwood, Kubatana.net
December 15, 2008

View audio file details

From 12-15 November, the Kubatana team was in Cape Town, South Africa for the AWID 2008 Forum. During their stay, they spoke with taxi drivers about feminism, women in politics and violence against women. Here are some of their comments.

Women in politics

Many of the taxi drivers spoke highly of Cape Town's Mayor, Helen Zille. They were impressed with the work she is doing for the city, and also cited her as an example of the steps South Africa has taken towards equality for women. However, one driver admitted that some men have problems with a successful woman. A female taxi driver, however, was less impressed with Zille. She said she had to protect herself - the government would not protect her.

Violence against women

Drivers acknowledged violence against women as a problem. But they offered different causes for it, including male attitudes towards women, women dressing provocatively, and South Africa's lenient justice system. One taxi driver complained that when a woman reports violence, the government is more supportive of her than of the accused.

Audio File

• Impressed
  Summary:
  Language: English
  Duration: 45sec
  Date: November 13, 2008
  File Type: MP3
  Size: 713KB
  
  
• Equality for women
  Summary:
  Language: English
  Duration: 47sec
  Date: November 12, 2008
  File Type: MP3
  Size: 734KB
  
  
• Successful woman
  Summary:
  Language: English
  Duration: 1min 08sec
  Date: November 12, 2008
  File Type: MP3
  Size: 1.04MB
  
  
• Protect herself
  Summary:
  Language: English
  Duration: 1min 05sec
  Date: November 13, 2008
  File Type: MP3
  Size: 1MB
  
  
• Male attitudes
  Summary:
  Language: English
  Duration: 57sec
  Date: November 12, 2008
  File Type: MP3
  Size: 899KB
  
  
• Dressing provocatively
  Summary:
  Language: English
  Duration: 43sec
  Date: November 13, 2008
  File Type: MP3
  Size: 675KB
  
  
• Lenient justice system
  Summary:
  Language: English
  Duration: 43sec
  Date: November 13, 2008
  File Type: MP3
  Size: 669KB
  
  
• Complained
  Summary:
  Language: English
  Duration: 10sec
  Date: November 13, 2008
  File Type: MP3
  Size: 162KB

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP