‘Put outside’: Bus driver allegedly berates woman for not wearing a mask over her religious face veil

Despite wearing a mask, a woman was publicly berated by a bus driver for wearing hers underneath instead of above her religious face veil.  

In a Facebook post uploaded last Friday (Jan 30), which has since gone viral, the woman recounted how she had boarded a bus from Pasir Ris Drive 6 with her three children when she encountered the female bus captain.

As she tapped her ez-link card during boarding, the bus drive allegedly pointed at her niqab and yelled: "This one cannot wear!"

The woman immediately pulled aside her veil to show that she indeed had a mask on, as she would with any other safe distancing ambassador. However, she claimed the bus captain repeatedly shouted at her still.

"Put outside! Put inside who can see?"

It was only after the woman asked the driver "who say cannot wear face mask inside [sic]" did the latter stop yelling, before proceeding to drive.

Speaking with local news site Plan B, the woman said the bus captain's actions had also made the other commuters uncomfortable.

She added that this was the first time she was publicly scorned since moving to Singapore a few months ago.

"I was deeply affected," she shared. "My hands were shaking and I couldn't calm myself.

"I kept asking myself, why couldn't she ask nicely," she said, "why did she have to shout?" 

A representative from Go-Ahead Singapore, the public transport operator that oversees the bus service, later called the woman to apologise.

In a statement to AsiaOne, a Go-Ahead Singapore spokesperson expressed their regret for the upset caused, acknowledging that the captain's approach and message delivery required improvement.

The bus captain had explained that she wanted to verify with the commuter on the use of a face mask upon boarding.

"She understands that the requirement was met when the commuter displayed her face mask and no further communication was necessary."

The spokesperson added: "We are making every effort to ensure that there will not be a recurrence of this incident."

rainercheung@asiaone.com