Taxis by women, for women.

In Iran a cab company has started that is by and for women only. It has provided employment for widowed women and given them ownership over their own means of transportation.

At the centre, the women drivers are also given lessons in basic car maintenance and such essentials as how to change a burst tire. All the operators at the centre are women too. But the concept was the brainchild of a man, Mohsen Uruji, who says he spotted a gap in Tehran’s transport system.
“What was missing was a role for women,” he says.
“By setting up this purely private sector company, we’ve been able to provide jobs for many women, as well as a service for other women who want to travel around in a more relaxed way.”
Many of the drivers are war widows or divorcees who really need the work, and are referred to the agency by some of the big welfare foundations.

The project has grown in popularity and is hoping to have 2000 women run cars soon. I think this is interesting and very cool all at once. As the article says, it does both reinforce traditional gender roles feeding into the very idea that women and men can’t occupy space together alone, but at the same time solves and relieves many problems women are dealing with on a daily basis.
via BBC.