A women-only car wash has opened in the Daghestani city of Kizilyurt. The owners of the car wash said it was created with female customers in mind who feel more comfortable using such services without the presence of men.
The founders of the car wash said in a promotional video that demand for the service has exceeded expectations. The equipment has been adapted for customers’ convenience: in particular, the water pressure in the spray guns is significantly lower than at most standard car washes.
The women-only facility has been added to an existing car wash business. Its owners say the site also includes areas for passenger vehicles and separate spots for washing lorries.
The owners also highlight the possibility of washing cars in enclosed areas.
‘Sometimes someone arrives and there are people standing around, others come up and want something, which creates inconvenience. Here, you simply open the gate, drive in, close it behind you and wash your car in peace’, the owners explained.
The Kizilyurt car wash is believed to be only the second project of its kind in the North Caucasus, following in the footsteps of a similar business that opened earlier in Grozny. In 2021, entrepreneur Milana Usmanova launched the women-only complex Lady Lone in the Chechen capital, where men were not permitted to enter. In addition to the car wash, the complex included a café, beauty salon, tailoring workshop, as well as a karaoke venue and cinema.
‘I’ve been driving for eight years, and there was always a problem: I wasn’t allowed to refuel the car, and I wasn’t allowed to go to a car wash because my husband didn’t want me talking to unfamiliar men. I constantly had to drive a dirty car because my husband didn’t always have time to wash it’, Usmanova told journalists at the time.
Only women work at Usmanova’s business. She has also said in interviews that while her original target audience consisted exclusively of Muslim women, in practice, women of all faiths use the car wash.
In recent years, businesses aimed exclusively at women have appeared in several regions of the North Caucasus. These include sports clubs with women-only hours, women’s fitness centres, beauty salons, and educational facilities. Owners of such businesses generally explain their popularity by referring to the region’s cultural and religious traditions. Women-only taxi services, in which all drivers are female, have also gained popularity.
At the same time, women-only venues exist in other parts of Russia as well. In Moscow and Saint Petersburg, women-only cafés and bars have opened at various times, while the Belarusian capital Minsk is home to an establishment known as the Women's Beer House.
