“What’s the difference between segregation and safety?” That’s what some are asking now that Malaysia has decided to combat their sexual harassment issues by introducing Rapid Lady Buses and Trains, a new form of women-only transit. Blatant harassment of women is common in many different cultures, but the issue has proven difficult to legislate, as it requires changing deeply-rooted gender relations on a much larger cultural scale. But to some, a move to separate the sexes to prevent this problem seems to be an archaic switch back to times when women and men weren’t even allowed to be around each other (and to cultures in which that is still the case).
Malaysia isn’t the first to implement such a system; in 2008, Mexico …