February 6, 2008, - 2:35 pm
So Much For The Saudi’s New “Expanded Freedoms” for Women
By Debbie Schlussel
In the last few weeks, Saudi Arabia has made several announcements proclaiming that the country would expand rights and freedoms for women. For example, they would soon be allowed to drive and rent hotel rooms on their own.
I didn’t write about it, because I think it’s cosmetic baloney designed to enhance Saudi PR, at a time when the mainstream media is finally, belatedly covering absurd treatment and sentences for women who are gang rape victims, etc.
And even the women who may eventually get expanded rights don’t and won’t hate us any less. They aren’t less anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, anti-American, and pro-Bin Laden than their male Saudi counterparts. So what’s the point?
My thinking was, yet again, proven correct. Reader Aunti Dhimmi sent me this story from Saudi Arabia’s own government-sanctioned, official English-language daily newspaper. A Saudi businesswoman landed behind bars for the crime of drinking coffee at the evil Zionist-owned Starbucks with a male colleague who was not her hubby. Shocker.
Same ole’, same ole’ in good ole’ Saudi Barbaria, er . . . Arabia:
RIYADH, 5 February 2008 – A Saudi mother of three, who works as a business partner and financial consultant for a reputable company in Jeddah, didn’t expect that a trip to the capital to open the company’s new branch office would have her thrown behind bars by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice. [DS: Also known as the mutawa’een, or religious police.] . . .
Yara, who has been married for 27 years, said she spent several hours in the women’s section of Riyadh’s Malaz Prison, was strip-searched, ordered to sign a confession that she was in a state of “khulwa” (a state of seclusion with an unrelated man) and for hours prevented from contacting her husband in Jeddah.
Her crime? Having a cup of coffee with a colleague in a Starbucks. . . .
Yesterday Yara and her colleague found themselves in trouble with the commission. One moment they were sitting together discussing brand equity and sovereign wealth funds; the next moment she found herself in commission custody.
Shortly after they took their coffee and Yara opened her laptop, a member of the commission approached the two and demanded the man step outside.
“Then (the commission member) came to me and said: ‘You need to come with us. This man is not a relative,'” she said. . . .
Yara found herself locked in the back of the GMC. [DS: General Motors, The Official Vehicle of Saudi Exremism.]
“The next thing I saw from the window was that we were approaching a place with a sign written on the outside: Malaz Prison,” she said.
Inside the prison, Yara recounts being taken to a cell with a one-way mirror. On the other side was a sheikh. . . .
“They stripped me,” she said. [DS: Hey, I thought Muslims were so concerned with modesty of their women. Only when we Infidels are involved.] “They checked that I had nothing with me and threw me in the cell with all the others.”
Meanwhile, Yara’s husband Hatim, an executive director of a prominent company, was in Jeddah when he received a phone call. . . . He booked the next flight to Riyadh and, after some strings were pulled, Yara was out of jail. . . . “I know this has nothing to do with the country.‚Äù [DS: Riiiight.]
The Syrian colleague was still in custody by the time Arab News went to press. He is a senior financial analyst, who is described by acquaintances as a devout Muslim whose mother teaches Qur’an recitation to children.
In some ways, this is just desserts for these people who are so devout in this hateful, violent religion. Note that this woman was well-connected. If she weren’t, she’d be rotting in prison and we’d never know about it. Not that it matters. They’re apologists for this stuff, after the fact, anyway.
What a joke of a people, a country, a religion. And Gloria Steinem is where . . . ?
Tags: bin Laden, Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, commission member, David Lunde, director of a prominent company, DS, executive director, General Motors, Gloria Steinem, Hatim, Jeddah, Malaz Prison, official, partner and financial consultant, Riyadh, Riyadh's Malaz Prison, Saudi Arabia, senior financial analyst, Starbucks, Vehicle
Well, for the record: The Saudi government never announced any intention of allowing women to drive. That bit of news came from the The Telegraph in the UK and it’s wrong. Also, women already allowed to register at hotels on their own. That change was made three weeks ago. You are right that this one change is cosmetic, probably in attempt to satisfy the United Nations’ mandates for female equality.
Now for this from you:
“And even the women who will eventually get expanded rights don’t and won’t hate us any less. They aren’t less anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, anti-American, and pro-Bin Laden than their male Saudi counterparts. So what’s the point?”
I’m sorry, I didn’t see your interviews with Saudi women who have these views. I don’t see any examples from you about your Saudi acquaintances being anti-American and pro-Bin Laden. Oh, wait, you don’t have any Saudi acquaintances and if you conducted any interviews of Saudi females, you wouldn’t have made that statement.
But I will email your post to my Saudi female friends so they can share a good laugh and shake their heads at American xenophobia.
Then we have this gem: “In some ways, this is just desserts for these people who are so devout in this hateful, violent religion.”
I never thought I’d see the day where a well-educated female activist such as yourself would wish physical and emotional abuse on woman who committed no crime but was kidnapped by vigilantes and strip-searched. Rather cold-hearted, don’t you think?
Regards,
Rob Wagner
http://13martyrs.blogspot.com/
[13M: TIRED OF YOUR LYING ABOUT MY WORK, MY ACQUAINTANCES (ABOUT WHOM YOU HAVEN’T A CLUE), AND YOUR APOLOGISM FOR SAUDI ARABIA AND ISLAM. YOU ARE A STEP FROM BANNING. AS I NOTED, IT WAS IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS ABOUT THE HOTELS. YOU NEED TO GET GLASSES AND/OR LEARN READING COMPREHENSION. AND YOU ARE RIGHT–HOW DARE I SAY THAT THE SAUDI PEOPLE ARE EXTREMISTS WHO HATE JEWS AND CONTRIBUTE TO HOMICIDE BOMBER TELETHONS. THE NERVE OF ME. I MUST INTERVIEW EVERY SINGLE LAST UNBATHED SAUDI IN THE DESERT TO BE ABLE TO MAKE THIS DETERMINATION. JUST LIKE I’LL HAVE TO COMMIT SUICIDE TO KNOW THAT IT’S NOT A FUN ACTIVITY. AFTER ALL, THE SAUDIS ARE A PHILO-SEMITIC, PRO-WESTERN PEOPLE, INCLUDING THE MOST FAMOUS 15 OF THEM WHOM WE MET IN SEPTEMBER OF 2001. YUP, THEY ARE SUCH A MODERATE PEACEFUL PEOPLE THAT IF THERE WERE FREE ELECTIONS TOMORROW, BIN LADEN AND HIS HENCHMEN WOULD NEVAH EVAH COME TO POWER. STUPID ME. THANKS FOR SETTING ME STRAIGHT.
**** UPDATE: BTW, I MAKE NO APOLOGY FOR WISHING HARM TO THOSE WHO WISH MY DESTRUCTION. THE “TURN THE OTHER CHEEK” PHILOSOPHY IS NOT ANYTHING I BELIEV IN. DS]
13 Martyrs on February 6, 2008 at 3:12 pm