The Hijabi Cabbie: Jerusalem's Hottest Taxi Driver

Majda al-Bahr, 38, wife, and mother of five, is Jerusalem's only female taxi driver. And that is not the only item on her list of "coolness," her last name means "The Sea." If I had such a cool last name, you people wouldn't hear the end of it.

As Jerusalem's only female Muslim taxi driver, Mrs Bahr, wearing a white headscarf, cuts a distinctive figure in the city's taxi-driving community.

Mrs Bahr is an unlikely heroine breaking down the gender and religious barriers in the holy city.

Born and educated in Kuwait, Mrs Bahr, whose parents are both Palestinian, has worked as a taxi driver in the city for five years.

Previously, she worked as a cleaner in hotels and retirement homes.

Now, the mother-of-five shares the taxi with her husband and works six days a week. She normally takes Saturday off - the Jewish Sabbath - when there is very little business.

"It's very expensive in Jerusalem," she says, explaining why she first became a taxi driver, "and we needed more money."

Mrs Bahr constantly juggles the challenges of motherhood with her job.

Working the morning shift, she sometimes cuts it short to make lunch for her children.

In her conservative Muslim community, Mrs Bahr says that it is her female Muslim friends that have been her biggest champions.

"My friends think it is daring and brave to be a taxi driver," she says.

Mrs Bahr is even trying to persuade another Muslim female friend to get behind the wheel.

She also says that her male Muslim and Jewish colleagues at the local taxi office are completely supportive.

Check the article for comments by her Jewish colleagues, while they are mostly friendly, they carry more than just a hint of condescension. It seems like they are referring to her being Muslim as some sort of a disability that she had to overcome.

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In a city that is inhabited by largely conservative Muslims, and largely conservative Jews, it is hard for any female to break from the stranglehold of societal norms. Mrs. Bahr's being Muslim, no doubtedly presents her with a unique set of challenges. But the Jewish colleagues forget that she is the only female cabbie in town. They would make you believe that there are female cabbies roaming the city's streets, and being Muslim was the only hurdle she had to pass.

Oh, by the way, Arab women know how to park, and they drive cars with stick shift.

[Tarboush tip: Mary Kate]