Debbie Schlussel: So Much For The Saudi's New "Expanded Freedoms" for Women
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.” [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 . . . ?
Posted by Debbie on February 6, 2008 02:35 PM to Debbie Schlussel