MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Now to Pakistan, where a train line is changing the lives of the women who ride it. The train is the Orange Metro line in Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #1: The train is arriving. Please avoid running towards the platform and train doors and stay behind the yellow safety line.
MARTIN: The 17 miles of track cut an arc through Lahore, and when the Orange Line opened six years ago, it offered a safer way to travel through the congested city. NPR's Diaa Hadid hopped aboard to see its impact.
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DIAA HADID, BYLINE: The doors slam behind Fatima Idris (ph) as she hops in. She's heading to class, studying to be a personal trainer. She says most public transport in Lahore is chaotic, but this...
FATIMA IDRIS: Cleaner, safer, best organized.
HADID: She says the metro is clean, organized, stops at every station. Most importantly, it's safe for women.
IDRIS: A lot safer for ladies, especially to get (ph)...
HADID: Most women in Lahore rely on public transport - buses, rickshaws. And in case studies, women report feeling unsafe. Some report assault. Idris gestures around the segregated section. A woman stretches out her legs on the floor. Another discreetly breastfeeds her toddler. College students are deep in their phones. Idris says there's less harassment here.
IDRIS: Harassment (speaking Urdu).
HADID: Idris says, "that's why so many girls are traveling alone," like Kinza Saadi (ph), who sits beside Idris. She veils her face. You can only see her eyes. They're smiling.
KINZA SAADI: If men are died, it's more easier.
HADID: She says the metro segregated section is good, but the thing that would really make women safe is if all men disappeared.
SAADI: It's heaven. Heaven.
HADID: We reach the next stop.
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AUTOMATED VOICE: Next stop, Sultanpur Station.
HADID: Irum Shehzadi (ph) settles into a seat. She's just visited her sister.
IRUM SHEHZADI: (Speaking Urdu)
HADID: Shehzadi tells NPR producer Xari Jalil that's a trip she now makes once a month because it costs 70 cents. On a rickshaw, that trip would cost $3.60.
SHEHZADI: (Speaking Urdu)
HADID: She says for a working mom who earns $21 a month inflating balls at a toy factory, this is life-changing.
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AUTOMATED VOICE: Next stop is Baghbanpura Station.
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HADID: At Baghbanpura Station, house cleaner Praveen Bibi (ph) limps in. Bibi guesses she's around 70. She just had a hospital checkup. Says her heart is sick.
PRAVEEN BIBI: (Speaking Urdu)
HADID: She says it's her first time on the Orange Line. There's AC. She's pleased by how cool it is. It's over 110 degrees outside. She says, "at home, we've only got a fan. And if there's no power, we just lie down on the floor to keep cool."
BIBI: (Speaking Urdu)
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AUTOMATED VOICE: We are now at Lakshmi Station.
HADID: A few stops later, Zarin Faisal (ph) walks in. She is returning home after accompanying her mother for dialysis. She does this about four days a week.
ZARIN FAISAL: (Speaking Urdu)
HADID: Faisal says on the metro, women don't fight for seats.
FAISAL: (Speaking Urdu)
HADID: Men stand up to let women walk through - very gentlemanly.
FAISAL: (Speaking Urdu)
HADID: She says, "people behave better on the metro than on buses. Maybe because it's well lit, not too crowded and there are patrolling guards."
FAISAL: (Speaking Urdu, laughing).
HADID: Like many folks here, Faisal credits the metro's success to Maryam Nawaz Sharif. She's the chief minister of Punjab Province. Lahore is the capital city.
FAISAL: (Speaking Urdu, laughing).
HADID: In fact, Sharif didn't build the metro. Her uncle did with a Chinese loan before becoming prime minister, a job her father also held. Today, Maryam Nawaz Sharif is also following their playbook, building big-ticket projects like a new cancer hospital. Like them, she's also being criticized by some for prioritizing showy infrastructure instead of tackling Punjab's crippling poverty and pollution. But political analysts say by deploying that playbook, Sharif is signaling she wants to follow her father and uncle to the very top.
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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER #2: Passengers, the train has arrived at the terminal station.
HADID: We hop off the train with Faisal. She tells us Maryam Nawaz Sharif has also promised to build two more metro lines. Clearly, she says, Sharif's doing this for votes. But even if it is for votes, it's a good thing.
Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Lahore.
(SOUNDBITE OF TOTORRO'S "DESTINY'S CHIVES") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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