But Didn't You Say...

Why, yes. Yes, you did. You said that "the West wants the world to believe that everything is rosy... particularly for women. ...look at the figures released by their own competent institutes and universities and you can see that the percentage of women being battered and abused in their own homes and outside is shockingly high. How can they talk about women's rights and privileges when they cannot even lead peaceful and normal lives?" I'm pretty sure I called B.S. on it when it was said. If I didn't, I'm calling B.S. on it now. The only - ONLY - reason that statistics on this side of the world didn't come near matching those in the West is because for so long domestic abuse was kept very, very quiet here. Now that it is out in the open, the statistics here are "shockingly high." According to this a shelter in Jeddah receives 90 cases of family violence every month. That is just Jeddah; no mention of Riyadh or Dammam or anywhere else. Yeah. People read papers and surf the interwebs. They see how much domestic violence is happening and it is NOT just in the West. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!

The irony. A group of "vice cops" have been attacked. It all started when "an unrelated young couple was arrested walking together." [Oh, no. Can't have that now!] Then a group of three women attacked members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice... The women stormed the office... and took pictures of the incident on their mobile phones. [Expect black-mail photos, later.] One of the women claimed to be a relative of the arrested woman. Later a young man wnet into the office and claimed to be a relative of the girl. A couple more men joined him later. "The screaming and chaos ...led to a huge gathering, allowing the young couple to escape." Yep. Doing a heck of a job there.

A man has married his daughter off to two different men. He is going to jail for it, just for a short time, and will receive 40 lashes. Apparently marrying off your 20-year-old "spinster" daughter to two different men really isn't that big of a crime. Not so sure I'd feel that way if I was the daughter, but I'm not, so... And, why is it that men here can have four wives but women can only have one husband? How is that fair?! [No one ever said life was going to be fair.] The man, along with witnesses to the marriage - the same witnesses were present at both "marriages" - have also been punished with a "lesser sentence." File this one under: Only in Saudi.

Slavery. Alive and thriving in the Middle East. When you have workers and you don't pay them, they are slaves. Just another 250 disposable workers who clean the streets. Nothing to see here folks. Move along...