Men only
So she goes into Starbucks in Riyadh, the first Starbucks she’s seen in months; she ignores the flickering eyes of the man behind the counter, the stares of the men in the cafe, she sits down in an armchair – only to have the counter man hiss in her ear “You can’t sit here. Men only.” Oh right – of course; how stupid of me. Men only. Not men only in men’s toilets, but men only everywhere. Men only in the world. Women shoved into nasty little boxes round the back; women shouted at; women told to get out, get out, get out. Women treated like filthy foul sluts for merely existing. Women monitored, watched, glared at, chased, bullied, threatened.
I spent my days in Saudi Arabia struggling unhappily between a lifetime of being taught to respect foreign cultures and the realization that this culture judged me a lesser being…The rules are different here. The same U.S. government that heightened public outrage against the Taliban by decrying the mistreatment of Afghan women prizes the oil-slicked Saudi friendship and even offers wan praise for Saudi elections in which women are banned from voting. All U.S. fast-food franchises operating here, not just Starbucks, make women stand in separate lines. U.S.-owned hotels don’t let women check in without a letter from a company vouching for her ability to pay; women checking into hotels alone have long been regarded as prostitutes.
Why is Saudi Arabia considered ‘moderate’? I keep wondering that. Only yesterday, during some BBC discussion of the kickback matter, the official voice called SA ‘moderate’. What’s moderate about it? It funds global fundamentalism and it treats women like dirt – what exactly is moderate about it? Just a kind of alliance with the US? Is that all? Is that enough? (Answer: no. If that’s all that’s meant, ‘moderate’ is the wrong word. Perhaps more is meant? But what? No direct links with Hizbollah? Is that enough?)
I shouldn’t be flippant, but I couldn’t help myself;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiIQoxbgTpw
Flippancy welcome, Don. That was really funny, and perfectly apt.
OB, looks like you forgot the link to the article.
Oops. Bugar. Fixed now.
“When they see a woman walking alone here, it’s like a wolf watching a sheep. ‘Let me take what’s unattended.'”
That is deeply twisted. And they think that sexual apartheid is actually in the interest of women!
Why wasn’t Francine riding a burcycle?
Who considers Saudi Arabia moderate? Besides the occasional BBC voice. It is a clearly totalitarian state. The Starbucks incident is, uh, par for the course. If you want to read about the mindset of the Saudi establishment, you should check out this interview with the head of the State police force to wipe out vice and irreligion,
Sheikh Ibrahim Al-Ghaith. Here’s a handy bit of q and a:
Q: What is the commission doing to catch sorcerers in Saudi cities. And what is their fate after they are caught? Could you tell us how many of them were caught this year and their locations? And what about the magic spells that are thrown into the Red Sea? How are these spells broken?
A: The commission plays a large role in capturing people who practice sorcery or delusions since these are vices which affect the faith of Muslims and cause harm to both nationals and expatriates. The commission has assigned centers in every city and town to be on the lookout for these men. As for their fate, they are arrested and then transferred to concerned authorities. The commission also has a role in breaking magic spells, which are found in the sea. We cooperate with divers in this aspect. After the spells are found, they are then broken using recitations of the Holy Qur’an. We do not use magic to break magic spells, as this is against the teachings of Islam as mentioned by the Supreme Ulema. But we use the Qur’an as did the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).”
Moderate, I think, simply means that Britain and the U.S. have carte blanche to sell the weapons of mass destruction to the Saudis, a process that is infinitely speeded up by paying massive bribes to selected Saudi royals. It is all about jobs. Jobs. Jobs.
“After the spells are found, they are then broken using recitations of the Holy Qur’an. We do not use magic to break magic spells…”
What a relief! Recitations, not magic.
Sounds like a Python skit.
It is a great pity that “The Religious Policeman” blog isn’t running any more, though I think it can still be read.
The deranged paedophile Mahmud stated (sorry, quoted an illusion/angel):
“Women are inferior to men, and subject to their orders.”
This has to be rejected.
I’m also suprised, that in those islamic states, that women don’t start carrying automatics under their robes.
A few hundred or thousand dead religious police might make them stop and think.
“Who considers Saudi Arabia moderate? Besides the occasional BBC voice.”
Well – Tony Blair? I have to assume? Much of the UK government? Bush and much of the US administration?
And the BBC reportorial voice is representative of something, surely – it’s not just some random person in a pub.
In other words, there clearly is some sort of establishment consensus that SA is indeed ‘moderate’ and I really am curious as to how that flies. I suppose it’s the same kind of establishment consensus that hugged every fascist it could find during the global war on Godless CommOnism – except it’s weirder in this case, given Saudi Arabia’s funding habits. I know all this is obvious, but it’s still deeply weird.
Moderate in the minimally defined sense of unlikely to invade their nearest neighbours I think. In traditional Cold War realpolitick terms that and oil is about all that matters, domestic repression be damned.
Well it does matter, of course, but it certainly is minimal – especially given the funding issue.
Depressing stuff.
PM – you mean, unwilling to admit that they are funding the invasion of their neighbor. Since the Saudis were the main funders for the jihadists who rolled back the soviets in Afghanistan, and are currently (through private sources) the main funders of the Sunni insurgents in Iraq, I guess we have to slice that minimally even thinner. Moderate just means – they are tyrants who are on our side. Which is why Blair, with a perfectly straight face, could go to the Gulf states, who have never had any kind of election, and declare that there has to be a democratic alliance against Iran – which not only has elections, but in which – as against, say, the U.S. – the person with the most votes automatically wins.
Moderate? Is this a trick question? Who ever thought the Saudis are moderate in any sense?
I cannot help but feel that the question would be better put as “Remind me why these vicious extremists are supposed to be our friends, and when I voted for someone who could pretend that?”
Perhaps a search through the speeches of Jimmy Carter and WJ Clinton might reveal a decent attitude to the oppression in the Kingdom.
Sheesh. ‘Moderate’.
“Who ever thought the Saudis are moderate in any sense?”
The dang Beeb, that’s who! I mean to say – if they can just drop that in an unmarked reportorial-adjectival way, as if it were common knowledge and uncontroversial, surely that must be in some sense an establishment view.
Bastards. Fokking Pinochet all over again. We need another Spanish judge.
<> “Why wasn’t Francine riding a burcycle”? <>
Simply because she is awaiting the “design plans” of one such burcycle.
B&W team have been asked by a highly reputable firm to put forward suggestions for one – and it has stalled on matter. B&W will not be satisfied with anything less than a steel cabin to encase Francine and her abominable ilk. But, the authorities say it is too strict.
Watch this space. You know when the barmaid is sober she licks up to, two -you know who [o+o] on the computer.
Ref “burcycle”
Might I also suggest the ‘bumbrella’ – to be secured from the lower back, via a belt, and to point out on the rearwards perpendicular to make *absolutely* sure no one can see any wanton curveture of the rear.
That’s not necessary, you just use the garment described in the article, that conceals the woman’s body so completely that you have to see which way her shoes are pointing to know which way she is facing. Now that’s thorough!
Aye, OB thats thoroughly thorough though, but where does the snooping nose fit into all of this? Says I sniffingly?
Women aren’t allowed to have noses in Saudi Arabia. They protrude, and give men ideas, so they are of course planed off the face in infancy.
Shouldn’t women have to wear shoes whose toes look like heels, so that men don’t go wild imagining that a breast or two are pushing the fabric seductively toward them? That’s only fair, innit?
Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. that is it! Sure, it is as plain as the elooooooooooooooooooooongated object on my face. Protude…erm..like phallic symbols? Yes, yes why ever did I not, beforehand, come to that conclusion?
OB, yes but just in CASE…
I must take a PLANE ride to Riyadh. I can then say afterwards that I SAW it all happening at Starbucks with my own eyes. Only! Burrr, how NOOOOOOOOOOOSEY!