Treatment of women in Saudi Arabia

[aneeshm]

An extremely interesting, if depressing account of the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia. It's authored by an Australian doctor and his wife (also a doctor) who spent five years in the country. It's a chronicle of what they have observed.

Link

I'd request people who want to comment in this thread to first read through the link. It's illuminating.

[chequita guevara]

It's probably not much worse than the treatment of women in India.

[Lorizael]

If by "illuminating" you mean "the same stuff we've been hearing for years." Yeah, treatment of women in Muslim countries sucks. What else is new?

[Elok]

If by "illuminating" you mean "the same stuff we've been hearing for years." Yeah, treatment of women in Muslim countries sucks. What else is new?

Well, for one thing, the Pope isn't Catholic, since Jesus stole all of his good ideas from Swami Shreeshnapumapan. The Pope is Hindu and doesn't know it. And bears do crap in the woods, but the crap left by Indian bears is superior in nutrient content and consistently yields better crops when used as a fertilizer.

[Dinner]

I need to know more about the origins of Hindu culture to make an informed decision.

[aneeshm]

Well, for one thing, the Pope isn't Catholic, since Jesus stole all of his good ideas from Swami Shreeshnapumapan. The Pope is Hindu and doesn't know it. And bears do crap in the woods, but the crap left by Indian bears is superior in nutrient content and consistently yields better crops when used as a fertilizer.

WTFElok?

[Felch]

Your link requires registration to a Richard Dawkins forum. That tells me two things.

1) You overestimate our enthusiasm. No way in hell am I going to register for a site, when you could just quote the relevant text in your post.

2) The source has a blatant bias. Any information taken from it should be doubted until confirmed by other sources.

[Traianvs]

Felch, you haven't even read the article since you're telling us you haven't registered.

Dawkins has an opinion on religion sure, but that doesn't mean that any account of his about Saudi women is wrong by definition. While the layer of atheism might be superfluous to you, his facts could be correct.

What's your beef with Dawkins by the way? Well if you're not religious that is, because if you are then never mind

[Kuciwalker]

Let's start with the fact that Dawkins is a raving loon, and he's also really annoying.

[Gibsie]

Someone just post the damn text so save us registering.

[Traianvs]

Lame comment.

Why is he a raving loon then, if he's simply enumerating all the arguments atheists in general tend to hold. So far I've seen him twice giving a lecture on Ted.com and for me he wasn't particularly annoying. Perhaps you're talking about his insistence of calling children of religious people 'children of catholic parents' instead of 'catholic children' for example?

[Elok]

Wow, he does that? What a douche. That's almost as bad as "person-first labeling" or whatever they call it.

EDIT: Wikipedia calls it "people-first language" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People-first_language :vomit:

[aneeshm]

I'm quoting it. It isn't by Dawkins, but by a user on the forum named Durro, who, with his wife, spent five years in the kingdom.

[Felch]

Dawkins has a social agenda. The website clearly exists to promote that agenda. Whether you agree with someone or not, you should be aware of when they have an agenda. It's something that separates a thoughtful person from a stooge. I'm not saying it's wrong, or that the way women are treated in Saudi Arabia is right. I'm saying that they've got a bias, and you should account for that.

[Dis]

I already know how women are treated over there. I used to know a woman who lived over there (and got an arranged marriage). I always took her stories with a grain of salt. I never knew if she exagerrated some of the details to elicit sympathy from me. But sadly, much of that was probably true.

Either way it's not our problem. We have no say in how they run their country. Their women are not our property. We cannot go in there and blow things up (the american way).