Jakarta's commuter trains have women-only cars

Gambir Station in Jakarta is supposed to be a long-distance train station, but not all the trains that come here are long-distance trains. There were also a few ordinary commuter trains coming into the platform. Every time a train came in, I got excited thinking that it was an express train that I was going to board, but I was often disappointed to find out that it was just a regular commuter train.

The train that came in this time was also an ordinary commuter train. Perhaps because it was not rush hour, the train was not as crowded as it could have been. There were no people standing holding on to the straps, but the train was so crowded that all the seats were occupied. If the train was this empty, commuting would be easy.

Looking closely, I noticed a large pink poster on the outside of the train. It was written in Indonesian, so I couldn't understand exactly what it said, but it seemed that this carriage was for women only. Indeed, looking at the passengers in the car, it was all women. It seems that Jakarta has introduced women-only cars just like in Tokyo.

Looking at this poster, I was reminded of how powerful the image of color can be. Even if I don't understand the content, when I see a pink illustration of a woman, I can't help but think that this is a women-only car. In both Indonesia and Japan, pink is a color associated with women. Even in Myanmar, the nuns wore pink robes. I wonder if the image of pink = women is universal. It sounds like something that feminists would be upset about if they heard about it.

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