Already facing harassment from taxi drivers, private chauffeur service GrabCar has safety concerns for their female drivers.

Speaking to FMT, a female GrabCar driver, who only wanted to be known as Wawa, said that many male passengers have come onboard and tried to be “gatal” (cheeky) with her.

“They would ask me about my sex life, my husband …

“I’m married and I have no kids, but sometimes it’s a lot easier to just say that I have kids to avoid the conversation.

“Even when I tell them I’m happily married, they would say things like ‘Oh, maybe, you would get divorced one day’,” Wawa said in an interview with FMT recently.

Dhian, a female driver who has been with GrabCar for almost two months, said that male passengers often asked her overly personal questions. Most of them are foreigners.

“It is very difficult being a female driver, especially when it comes to (dealing with) foreigners,” she said.

Jesy, a 40-year-old single mother who works as a GrabCar driver from 6am to 12am on a daily basis, conceded that every female driver would face the same problem.

“Even when I tell them I am 50 years old, they would still make a pass at me.

“Aside from that, they don’t take us women very seriously.

“When we tell them not to consume alcohol in our car, for example, they would ignore our request and wouldn’t even cancel the ride.

“Most times, we feel afraid and threatened, but we don’t have much of a choice,” said Jesy.

A female taxi driver, who wanted to remain anonymous, told FMT about an incident where a foreign passenger would not leave her car until she had given him her phone number.

“He just wouldn’t get down and wouldn’t pay up. What more could I do? I give-lah.

“But most people are nice. But we women just have to be a little more careful than the men.”