A Grandmother Realizes Her Dream, Becoming the First Female Bus Driver in East Jerusalem

Samia Abu ‘Alqam Shawafta, 51, is the first woman to drive a transport bus in East Jerusalem.

Samia was born in Venezuela to Palestinian parents who had moved to South America during the Colonial British Mandate. In 1992, she visited Jerusalem for the first time; she was 19 years old. Up until that visit, she had not imagined that her life course would dramatically change and that she would live all her adult life outside of Venezuela. “I fell in love with Jerusalem from the very first day, and my love for the city still runs strong,” she explains sweetly in a thick Arabic accent. During that visit, her cousin was smitten with her, and the two got married within a year. They established their family (one daughter and two sons) in Shu‘fat, Jerusalem—the place she calls home.

“My husband and my home are my priority, and I happen to be a good housewife,” Samia states matter-of-factly. “But much like any Jerusalemite, I have dreams and ambitions. I don’t believe our role as women is to only cook and clean. I’ve had all kinds of different jobs . . . I taught Spanish, worked as social researcher, tourist usher, student accompanier . . . and now I’m a bus driver.”

Samia mentions her current career casually, even though there is nothing typical about it. She’s the first Palestinian woman in Jerusalem to drive a bus for a living. “For me, it’s a normal type of job by which I gain income,” she notes. “I really enjoy driving busses. It’s like my hobby.”

Samia has been passionate about driving since childhood: She got her driving license in Venezuela at the age of 15 and would venture to drive trucks and busses on empty roads through her father. In 2018, after her three children had already grown up in Jerusalem, she decided to get her bus driver license, which would qualify her to drive heavy goods vehicles.

“My husband was confused the first time I mentioned this,” Samia admits, but he quickly got on board. She soon learned that having a bus license could be both beneficial and rewarding. At the time, she was nearing 50, and she had just become a grandmother. “I was getting bored, and I felt like I needed this type of change.”

With the support of her husband, she took all the necessary exams and passed them immediately. At the end of 2021, she signed up to work as a driver with the only Palestinian bus company in East Jerusalem, the Jerusalem–Ramallah bus company, and she got hired to drive bus number 73, which travels the route between Shu‘fat and Beit Hanina.

“People were astonished to see me as their bus driver,” Samia recalls. She received some harsh comments at the beginning of her career, particularly from disapproving men. “Are you the driver?” She tried to ignore them at first, but they would ask that question so many times that Samia decided to humor them. “No, I’m just sitting here to keep a seat for my husband,” she would say seconds before she stepped on the gas.

“One shouldn’t take these things personally, or to care about random people’s opinions,” she reflects. “Words are just words, and only the weak take jabs at others. When people saw that I was doing my job confidently, the remarks ended.”

Today, almost a year and a half after starting her job, Samia says that people regard her as a competent driver. The same people who had originally criticized her now praise her. Women especially get a sense of ease and comfort around her. “Sometimes they get too comfortable,” Samia notes. “They start talking too much and disregard that I’m working.”

Samia notes that it’s gratifying to make a profession out of her hobby, and she finds nothing strange about her job: “People have walked on the moon! It can’t be shocking to have a female bus driver.” She loves driving the roads of Jerusalem. “It’s the best place there is,” she notes.

When asked about the burdens of the political conflict in the city, she acknowledges the despair of living under occupation yet chooses to maintain a victorious attitude: “It’s funny that they [the Israelis] are doing everything to get us out of here, yet we persistently stay! It makes me smile to see how we will never despair. We are here to stay.”