In Northern Nigeria, Riding Too Close for Comfort

Many men argue that the new rules were brought on by Kano's chaotic traffic. The motorcycle taxis, which are noisy and spew streams of bluish exhaust, whip in and out of preposterously small pockets between moving cars.

The Hausa word for a motorcycle taxi is achaba , meaning "to make a silly mistake." Serious injuries among drivers have become so common in recent years that the city's biggest public hospital has an area known as the "achaba ward."

But it is the contact between a man and woman -- there is no way to ride on an achaba without legs and torsos touching -- that makes them particularly alarming to this traditional community. Polygamy is common here, but sexual contact outside marriage, or even the rumor of it, can generate tremendous shame and condemnation, not just for a woman but for her family as well.

Sule Yau Sule, a senior government spokesman in Kano, said some of the motorcycle drivers pick up women for the thrill of feeling them sitting close behind.

Avoiding such problems in the future, he said, is worth the investment, even in a place with a sagging economy and a dangerously overloaded road system. So far, the government has spent about $2.1 million on the gender-restricted vehicles, which are leased to private drivers, and it plans to buy many more.

"It's the wish of the people," Sule said. "This is part of sharia."

The implementation of sharia has run into practical problems before, and throughout the north, few of the most serious penalties have been carried out. Nobody has been stoned to death for adultery. An initial spate of amputations for stealing stopped after three were performed, and most criminal cases are now directed to state criminal courts.

The sharia courts increasingly deal with marital matters, civil disputes and public drinking, an offense that typically is punished by lashes intended more to shame than to physically harm.

The "Be Orderly" slogan found on the new buses is from a broader campaign initiated by Kano's Gov. Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau. He warned on the program's Web site that "rules of behavior, civility and decency, which the people of Kano were renowned for, are on the decline."

Some men on crowded minibuses seem willing to make propositions they wouldn't have dared a few years ago, women passengers said.

"You can sit by a man who is not disciplined in his own mind," said Fatima Abdulkadir, 45. "They say things, or you see men trying to move toward you, trying to rub themselves against you, which is not permitted."

The new buses and three-wheeled vehicles may gradually eliminate that problem, but not the new motorcycles. Though they are restricted to carrying only women, the drivers will continue to be men, and their female passengers will continue to encounter a degree of physical contact widely regarded here as inappropriate.

One obvious solution -- hiring female drivers -- runs into another sensitive gender issue. Every bus, every motorcycle and the vast majority of private cars in Kano are driven by men. Few expect that to change.

"The traffic is mad," said Ahmad Kofar-Naisa, 47, a bus driver, dismissing the idea of female drivers. "Women can hardly cope. Even for a man it's hard."