Dilemma for women riding in the rear seat — Tay Tian Yan

The city of Lhokseumawe in Indonesia’s Aceh province has put in place a new rule: rear seat women passengers on motorcycles and bicycles must not sit straight with their legs open, but sideways with their legs closed.

I was instantly reminded of the ‘60s when pretty women teachers in cheongsam would sit sideways at the back of Vespa owing to the very narrow split on their dress.

Due to a displaced centre of gravity, the woman teacher had to cling tightly onto the man in the front seat for fear of falling off the shaky Vespa. What a romantic sight to behold during those years!

I couldn’t quite forget what I saw, and vowed to get myself a Vespa, with a cheongsam-clad woman teacher sitting at the back holding tightly to my waist when I grew up some day.

Of course, this dream did not materialise. When I first got my driving licence, the Vespa was already out of market, and young women would no longer wrap themselves up in cheongsam.

Moreover, they didn’t sit sideways any more but straight with their legs open, across the saddle like riding on horseback.

Perhaps I should make a trip to Lhokseumawe to look for a young woman sitting sideways at the back of a motorcycle to relive my childhood dreams.

However, what I am more worried about is the woman sitting sideways at the back of the motorcycle might tilt towards one side or the other as their feet could not reach the ground, and be thrown off the vehicle any time.

Motorcycles were not designed for rear seat passengers to sit sideways, but across the saddle!

The mayor of Lhokseumawe feels that it is indecent and un-Islamic for women to sit with their legs open, thus the edict.

This goes against the safety requirements for motorcyclists, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that women passengers are falling off their machines in unprecedented numbers in the city of Lhokseumawe.

Alternatively, motorcycles have to be redesigned with a leaning seat at the back, and the women passengers strapped securely to prevent them flying off.

Anyway, no motorcycle manufacturers would mull redesigning their products just to accommodate the fancies of Lhokseumawe’s mayor.

Indonesia is not an Islamic state, but the Aceh province in northern Sumatra has implemented Islamic laws ever since it attained the autonomy years ago.

To be frank, this might not even have anything to do with the religion in the first place. Open-minded Indonesian clerics have said neither the Quran nor the hadith has specified the posture with which a woman passenger should be seated at the back of a motorcycle. How can the mayor then decide that sitting across the saddle contravenes the Islamic laws?

This is reminiscent of a patriarchal society where men through the political powers in their hands restricted and suppressed every aspect of women, from attire to movements.

Specifying the way women should be seated at the back of the motorcycle is similar in nature to the denial of suffrage and right to drive a vehicle in some Middle Eastern countries.

If you care about the woman in the rear seat, you should look at her safety and not posture. — mysinchew.com