A number of women interviewed by Arab News did not hide their feelings. Housewife Wajida Abdullah said she prefers expatriate taxi drivers because they don’t make a fuss like Saudi drivers.
“First of all, a Saudi driver charges too much. I can go to Hamra for SR15 to SR20 with an expatriate driver, but a Saudi driver will charge SR30 to SR35. Also, if the driver is going fast and I ask him to slow down, he will, but a Saudi driver will ignore me and continue speeding,” she said.
Ahlam, who is a student, said her brother or father usually chauffeur her around, but sometimes when they are very busy she is allowed to take a cab as long as the driver is not Saudi.
“My family feels that a Saudi taxi driver is more likely to flirt with me than a non-Saudi.”
Fathima Misfer, who is a housewife, said that because of the language barrier between the Saudi woman and expatriate drivers, Saudi men feel that it is unlikely for their female family members to get into a relationship with a non-Saudi taxi driver.
Saudi taxi driver Ghazi is very upset by what he calls unfair discrimination. “We are also God-fearing Muslims, why are they (passengers) afraid of us as if we are criminals?”
Ghazi said that he has never charged extra money or been rude to a passenger. He said once a woman passenger duped him into taking her practically all over Jeddah to get her various errands done and offered him only SR10.
“She was an old woman and told me that it would be hard for her to stand in the sun and wait for another taxi, that’s why she wanted me to take her to all these places and also wait till she finished her work,” he said.
“I thought, no problem, I’ll get paid. But after about four different trips from south Jeddah to north, she offered me SR10 and said she was new in Jeddah. She said she had lost her way and didn’t have any money, even though she purchased many things from different shops. I told her, ‘Go mother, I don’t want anything from you.’”
Yaseer, a 29-year-old Saudi cabbie, says that it is unfair families think Saudi drivers are just out to flirt with women.
“I am a God-fearing man and once I picked up this woman passenger from Tahlia Street a little late in the night,” he said.
“When it was time to drop her off and I asked her for the fare, she said: ‘I don’t have any money, I spent it all on shopping, but you can have a piece of me instead of the fare.’ I told her to get out of my car!”
