I think it’s fair to say that many of the rules that govern women in Saudi Arabian society seem quite a bit harsh to us in the west. I’m confident that many of the things females have to accept in that country would not work too well with women in the United States. I only say this as experience has taught me how American women react in certain situations.
One thing that amazes me is that in Saudi Arabia women are not allowed to drive. I can’t imagine such a thing. It would be a struggle to be home watching football and run out of beer in the third quarter of a close game. When I have experienced such an upsetting situation my wife has come to my rescue and made a life-saving trip to the beer distributor. Sure it requires a sufficient amount of begging, pleading and a promise to accompany my wife on her next shopping trip, but it’s always worth it in the end. It really wouldn’t matter in Saudi Arabia because Muslims aren’t allowed to drink alcohol and don’t watch football.
It is required for all women to have a male guardian such as a father, uncle, son or brother who controls their life. They need such a guardian just to apply for a passport. If a woman is divorced or a widow her son then becomes his mother’s guardian and she would need his written approval for anything. I bet it’d be interesting if that was ever tried in this country.
“I need you to write a letter for me to get a passport.”
“I’m sure there’s some chocolate chip cookies involved with this somewhere.”
“You’ll get your cookies; now write the letter.”
“Does this mean that the new video game system I want will come with cookies?”
“Do you want your nude baby pictures on the internet? I could have a website specifically dedicated to that if you want.”
“Not need for such a website; one passport letter coming up.”
Then there is the fact that women in Saudi Arabia must be covered from head to toe and only expose their eyes. This would entirely change the concept of girl watching.
“Wow, did you see that girl in the hijab and abaya? I think she just took my breath away.”
“That’s nothing, just look at the girls over there with the eyes. Each of them has two and just watch how they can blink.”
“If somebody ever put that on a poster they’d make a lot of money.”
“I agree.”
Women and men are extremely segregated in public. If you go to a McDonald’s in Saudi Arabia men and women have separate entrances and eat in separate areas of the restaurant. Women are forbidden from going to restaurants alone. Even movie theaters are segregated. I guess that means if you wanted to take a girl out on a date to a movie and a restaurant she’d have to send you a text at the end of the night to let you know if she enjoyed herself, because you’d never be able to see her.
With that type of control over women there is one interesting aspect of Saudi Arabian society that I find very fascinating. Lingerie shops are staffed exclusively by men. Women are able to do their shopping at malls but because of segregation of the sexes in the work place, female sales assistants can only work at the women-only floors at certain shopping centers. It would just boggle the mind to see a man in a lingerie shop discussing the benefits and drawback of spandex and elasticized lace to a woman covered from head to toe. Interesting how that would be acceptable, but a woman working with him in the lingerie shop would be forbidden.
It’s also okay for a man to have up to four wives in Saudi Arabia, but women can only have one husband. I don’t envy such men at all. Four wives would mean you’d have to hear about everything bad that happened during your wife’s day four times. Instead of just one woman telling you to mow the lawn and fix things around the house you’d hear it from four different women. That would also mean four sets of in-laws to deal with during the holidays. The females complaining about you spending too much time watching sports on the weekends would quadruple. I don’t even want to think what life would be like with four women trying to decide on a restaurant to go to after seeing a show.
I will be the first to admit that I know nothing about Saudi Arabian culture. I’m certain the things they do which seem strange to me probably fail in comparison to the things I do they view as odd. I know we’re very different. It took our country hundreds of years to clear the way for women to begin reaching their full potential. I bet Saudi Arabia could only benefit from clearing such a path for the women in their country.
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