Women in Kano State are calling for physical partitions inside commercial tricycles, saying the measure would prevent unwanted physical contact between male and female passengers and provide greater comfort during journeys.
The demand, now circulating online, is directed at the Kano State Hisbah Board and the state government, with the women urging authorities to make partitions separating male and female passengers compulsory for commercial tricycle operators.
The development comes against the backdrop of increasingly strict measures concerning gender separation in Kano’s commercial transport system. The Kano State Hisbah Board announced earlier this year that it would enforce a ban on female passengers sitting beside male tricycle drivers, while reports in August said the state had moved to prohibit the practice altogether.
The women’s latest proposal shifts the focus from simply regulating where women sit to redesigning the passenger compartment itself. They argue that when men and women occupy the same confined seating space, physical contact can occur during movement, particularly when passengers are squeezed together on busy routes.
Kano’s reliance on tricycles makes the issue significant beyond religious regulation, as the vehicles have become an important part of urban mobility. Academic research on transport in Kano has described tricycles as an established component of the city’s public transport system, while also identifying safety, congestion, passenger comfort and operational regulation as longstanding policy concerns.
The proposed partitions would therefore introduce another layer to Kano’s evolving transport rules, combining passenger comfort, gender separation and religious considerations. The immediate question is whether the Hisbah Board or the state government will formally consider the women’s proposal and, if adopted, how operators would implement the requirement without creating additional transport or safety challenges.
