Life for Saudi women is a constant state of contradiction

 

What’s it like being a Saudi woman? A common question I’ve come to expect from outsiders – even fellow Arabs. The restrictiveness of the guardianship system, gender segregation and a persistently sexist culture add up to create an exotic and mysterious lifestyle that is difficult to not only explain but also to comprehend. READ ON

 

 

16 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

16 responses to “Life for Saudi women is a constant state of contradiction

  1. Pingback: Libya, Saudi Arabia and Middle East unrest – 29 September 2011 | WorldNews2GO

  2. the king should give right to women in Saudi Arabia to drive car immediatly

  3. Pingback: Libya, Saudi Arabia and Middle East unrest | Greediocracy

  4. Firstly extremely glad to hear from you. Secondly…wow…I am dumb stuck by the contradictions. The lashes with the right to vote despite not being allowed to drive. Crap…my brain hurts. I’ve read some folk blaming religion. Yet my theological readings find this not supported. “Saudi exceptionality” indeed. Saudiwoman is it simply men…men who across all countries have clung to their power as a babe clings to the breast…the latter grows up naturally, the former with great tantrum? Religion is one reason but if they didn’t have that there’d be some other justification? I don’t ask this as an anti man thing but simply a historical fact that men have wanted to hold on to the power

  5. ali

    Here is a simple fact: Different groups have different ideas of how KSA should be and they take the law in their own hands to show it. There is too much confusion and “compromise” in legislation to make it come even near “normal”.

  6. We live in KSA = Kingdom of Sexist Arabia. So the question ‘what is it like being a Saudi woman?’ is very much like ‘ What is it like being discriminated against for your gender?”.
    And as for the King’s decree, it’s a good step to have women members on the Shura Council although I don’t expect much from the Council.

  7. Jerry M

    Sexism isn’t unique to either Saudi Arabia world but gender segregation and the guardian system is. Until that is done away with for adult women there cannot be any concept of women’s rights.

  8. But, me, I saw the saudi women understanding their way of life as the best way to win paradise and I saw them happy. I asked many saudi women about if they will like to see more rights for women in Saudi Arabia and they all reply only one thing, they will like to see women driving car.

  9. What Is the Point. Saudi Women, or Saudi Arabia ? Perhaps like the Russian Republics, Saudi Arabia is many things to many People. The Koran tells us all Arabs are Brothers ( and Sisters ? ) Yet Politics makes Backsliders of us all. Personally I. Believe Saudi Women has the right Idea; But between the Idea and the Action. Someone once told me that Socialism has been tried and found wanting in the Arab World. But I. tell you that something like a Totalitarian Muslim Socialist Republic is what One really Sees when one looks into ones Imagination concerning the possible Future of Mankind. The Universe is Perfect, It Is Man who Is as Mr. Spock would say the ” Illogical ” one.

  10. Sue Bingham

    Interesting article and it’s great to see you posting again. Always thought provoking! 🙂

  11. brad c.

    Is it really as simple as being about power?

  12. brad c.

    Love. Forgiveness. Starting new. Its what we can do right now. But we never let anyone disrespect us.

  13. Jack Ripper

    All the “progress” that Saudi women are making is not progress at all. They are still mired in the 15th century because of one thing and that is the totalitarian idealogy that is called Islam! This bullshit that propagates itself as a religion is used by the fundamentalists and the ignorant to put women and people that do not beleive the bullshit down.

    WOMEN…..Get rid of Islam and free yourselves!!!

  14. Islam really has nothing to do with how women are treated. Whatever is happening in Saudi is for the most part due to the society. The society itself is not right in some aspects. The scholars know this, and the people know this. They fear the consequences of giving more freedom to women, because men are not tamed. This is unfair of course. But time will deal with this issue as it goes by. How long it will take however, is something I don’t know.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s