CAIRO — The French RATP Group, which manages, operates and maintains the Cairo Metro Line 3, the main line serving Greater Cairo, has recently conducted training courses for a number of women to drive trains. This step is a precedent on the path to empowering women in Egypt and integrating them in various sectors, through jobs that not long ago were strictly reserved for men.
Although the Cairo Metro is the oldest metro line in Africa and the Arab world — as it opened for the first time in the late 1980s — no woman has ever driven a train there. In Egypt’s patriarchal society, appointing women in this type of job is tantamount to rebellion against several social restrictions.
