Comments on: Saudi Thought Police Bust Mom in Starbucks

By: A. A. B.

A. A. B. — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 21:30:16 +0000

Probably she is a "non-Saudi Muslim woman", since she is of Jordanian origin… Anyway, Saudi Arabia is on of the main problems of contemporary Islam. They have primitive crap in their heads, mistreat people on their territory and worse, they have lots of oil money and use it to brainwash people around the globe into their ideology.

By: Nihat

Nihat — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:15:09 +0000

wj, I didn’t mean to disparage you (I’d seen your point, which is not invalid). But I’m fed up with this face of Islam, and refusing to lend any legitimacy to it in any realm.

By: wj

wj — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:14:43 +0000

Nihat, I’m certainly not defending the behavior of the religious police! On the other hand, if you are somewhere that is known to have such things, it seems prudent to take any measures you can which might help keep them at bay. Not because there is any justification for their behavior, but because you are going to have to live with the consequences of their nonsense.

By: Nihat

Nihat — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 18:07:00 +0000

Yeah, she engaged in immoral behavior while looking like a ‘non-Saudi Muslim woman’. She should have known better.

By: wj

wj — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 15:56:12 +0000

It has been my observation (in 2004, just for reference) that women’s attire in Saudi Arabia falls into 3 categories:
- Saudi women — totally covered, except for an eye-slit.
- non-Saudi Muslim women — head scarf, but face bare
- non-Muslim women — bare headed (although still in floor-length, long-sleeved dresses)

And I have seen non-Muslim women, travelling about Riyadh on their own. Even going into government ministries alone. In one particular case, the Ministry of the Interior Data Center. (I believe she was consulting on some technical issues.) And the Ministry of the Interior not being one of the (relative) bastions of liberalism in the country.

So perhaps Ms. Yara made a tactical error in wearing a head-scarf.

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By: Claudia

Claudia — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:42:33 +0000

I remember years ago there was an issue about an American woman who got trouble in Saudi Arabia because she didn’t want to wear the veil, and also wanted to be able to drive for herself without a male accompaniment.

Oh, and she was an General in the army.

I don’t remember her name, but I remember she had an amazing record, and was tough as nails. She was still forced to "submit" as a lesser female to men she could probably kill with her bare hands without breaking a sweat, because she happened to be stationed in Saudi Arabia.

By: redfish

redfish — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:28:59 +0000

and she was patronizing an american business establishment