You may have seen your fair share of crazy behaviors on Indonesians roads, but have you seen a woman driving a motorcycle with her entire face obscured by black cloth?
That very image was recently captured in a viral tweet. From the point of view of somebody filming from inside a car, we approach the female rider who appears to have her black hijab being pushed back by the wind and shrouding the front of her helmet.
As the car overtakes the rider, we see that the getup might have been deliberate, as the rider doesn’t seem to be at all bothered by the black cloth that is obscuring her entire face.
Does she have a third eye? We wouldn’t count that out. Or perhaps she was able to see through the thin piece of cloth.
For her and everybody else’s sake, we hope that she was able to see clearly.
Speaking to Detik yesterday, driving expert Sony Susmana of Safety Driving Consultant Indonesia (SDCI) theorized that the rider used her hijab to shield her face from dust and sunlight.
“Because of the lack of knowledge about safety, many drivers fashion [items] for their own benefit,” he said.
“It’s likely she was worried that her face would be tanned from sunlight exposure.”
We should also point out that it looks like the rider was wearing what looked like oven mitts or very large gloves, giving weight to Sony’s theory that she wanted to avoid getting tan lines.
As far as the law and road safety guidelines go, do pull over slowly and carefully if anything obscures your vision on the road.
