Christina Dalcher on what people don’t know about Islamist countries:

I was there when a group of academics who dared to criticize the government for not being democratic were removed from their homes in the wee hours and not heard from afterwards.

I was pressured into putting a religion on my visa because ‘atheist’ would be problematic.

I heard women speak of the safe houses that were set up to help Filipina maids who had their passports taken by their employers and who were regularly beaten by same.

I knew that if I dared to call someone an idiot (or, worse, an ‘animal’), I would go to prison.

I was told (by engineer friends) of oil field workers dying during Ramadan while white-collar professionals traveled to Austria for a month.

I know that women in court were not permitted to cross their legs.

I had students tell me Hitler was their hero and not blink an eye.

I was forbidden from using any academic materials that came from Israel or that were written by a Jew.

I met people with PhDs whose fathers hired Indian expats to research and write their dissertations.

I (and the rest of the faculty) were told that no local student would fail a course.

My requests for books on Semitic linguistics were ignored by the university library.

Oh, and forget about traveling to another state for a medically necessary abortion — try another country. I don’t like any of that, and I don’t find it racist to say so.

It sounds like Saudi Arabia – the Filipina maids who had their passports taken by their employers and who were regularly beaten by same is an item I’ve read about that hellhole of a country. The rich people leaving the country during Ramadan sounds very Saudi, too.

And it sounds utterly hellish.