The taxi-hailing service – Careem, has introduced female drives in Pakistan to empower women in the region. With the campaign “Main Hoon Azaad”, the service has started with women as captains in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad.
Careem has a larger market share than rival Uber in most of the 32 cities in the Middle East, North Africa, and Pakistan region in which it operates. It operates in the Pakistani cities of Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi. Now it has a new idea for Pakistan: taxis driven by women, who will pick up both male and female customers.
Ahmed Usman, GM Careem Pakistan, told Reuters that seven women drivers had qualified to join the fleet, but applications were open and the company hoped more would apply. “We want to give women the same opportunities and the same chance that men have of leveraging our platform to generate healthy income,” – said Usam.
The service is created specially to cater to the needs of Pakistani women in order to enable them to travel with comfort and convenient, while being completely at ease and stress-free.
Careem will initiate the pilot project with 2 female Captains in Karachi, 3 in Lahore and 1 in Islamabad. Work is underway to expand this project to increase the fleet and introduce more cities in the future.
“This is a unique milestone for us here in Pakistan and we are excited to be the ones leading the movement. Launching a female Captain service, not only helps create equal employment opportunities but also encourages others to break through cultural and social barriers. We aim to continue to empower women to reach for the stars and seek opportunities beyond traditional roles.” — said Junaid Iqbal, General Manager, Careem Pakistan.
With a customer base of more than 50%, #MainHoonAzaad is an important step towards women empowerment. Aside from encouraging freedom of mobility, Careem aims to enable women by providing them safe and convenient job opportunities that ensures more financial independence.
