As Malaysia’s women-only MRT coaches approach the one-year mark, new legislation proposes fines for men trespassing these spaces, sparking debate over enforcement, public transport comfort, and gender equity.

This post contributed by Katrina Ling

In September 2023, Rapid KL introduced women-only coaches to their Mass Rapid Trasport (MRT) services, starting with the Kajang Line, in addressing the numerous complaints of sexual harassment among female passengers. This change was said to be well-received and praised by the general public, but now, just shy of its one-year anniversary of implementation, the Ministry of Transport has announced they are drafting legislation to impose fines on men trespassing women-only coaches, stirring skepticism regarding the regulation’s reportedly positive reception so far.

It appears that as time passes, a steady rise of doubt has followed Rapid KL’s gender segregation policies. It was the same when they first passed it for their Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) lines over a decade ago. In the interest of its female passengers combined with its function for long-distance travelling outside of Kuala Lumpur, they allotted the women-only coaches for safety reasons as well as comfort. But has this been achieved at the expense of the train’s male passengers’ comfort?

Many complaints focus on a lack of space, whereby many female commuters are still choosing to occupy the seats in mixed coaches, leaving ample amounts of unutilized space in the women-only areas. And in the recent months, this problem has also begun cropping up among the MRT lines. As a result, both train lines face an issue of men ignoring these regulations and sitting in women-only coaches.

It’s a blame game that looks more like a diverged network painting a greater problem which may or may not have a solution. In other countries where women-only transportations services exist, it has been observed that those with higher success rates (i.e., a decrease in sexual harassment cases) can be attributed to stricter enforcements of regulations. In Iran, for example, passengers – even married couples – are entirely segregated by gender on their short-distance travel services. Conversely, countries like Brazil see no difference because their rules are largely ignored.

Then it would seem that the proposed fine for trespassing men is the right move. Currently, the most being done to regulate women-only coaches on the MRT is the occasional officer patrolling its borders and telling trespassers to move. Some believe it is really just Rapid KL’s execution and management that needs to improve.

With regards to the lack of space in Malaysia’s public transport, some say more women should be channeled into their pink coaches so the space is properly filled. Many see this as the diametrical and preventive solution to keeping men out of those coaches in the first place. Oftentimes, however, this is hard to be accounted for especially during rush hours, which the MRT is very vulnerable to as it passes Kuala Lumpur’s city center stations.

Even if women-only coaches were removed entirely, the spatial insufficiency would not change. Some have called for a reduced allocation of these ‘pink coaches’ as the current distribution sees a full 25% of the train designated for women only (one out of four carriages).

On the other hand, the problem of men ignoring designated areas for women on a tight-spaced public transport, which comes from a resentment that women are given an unfair privilege of having their own space, is a shadow cast by the greater social issues surrounding the treatment of women in Malaysia.