Saudi Arabia

The laws regarding gender and the Medical profession are way beyond dumb! First,doctors of either gender are prohibited to treat the opposite sex. Now here's the clincher: No woman doctors allowed! Basically the female population is SCREWED! What we, Americans should do is to bring all female from SA to the U.S. where they'll have equal rights and see how the SA men cope w/o their wives, sisters, mothers and daughters. Maybe the men will stop mistreating the woman-MAYBE- if not they'll be very lonely men out there.

[ogb]

You have to consider the different culture and religion. Lots of women are in their traditional role and don't want anything else. Saudi's are very rich, so I guess you'll find no government to intervene.

[Ada_Doom]

In addition, Saudi has quite a lot of oil, which, as we saw when Saddam invaded Kuwait, has a great influence on the actions of Western nations.

Islam is incredibly unfair on women, but as ogb says, it's a different culture, and we shouldn't try to superimpose our standards onto their culture. I study in a town with an enormous Muslim population, and it always upsets me to see the women walking round completely covered, in some cases even with a veil over their eyes. Most of the immigrants who don't assimilate, and never learn English are women as well. http://www.dumblaws.com/ubb/frown.gif

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Heaven is where the police are English, the cars are German, the chefs are French, the lovers are Italian and everything is organised by the Swiss. Hell is where the chefs are English, the police are German, the cars are Spanish, the lovers are Swiss and everything is organised by the Italians.
The man is a God (http://www.jpwsfc.org)

[ogb]

The lacking will of integration is another topic. If they want to live somewhere else, they have to assimilate and can't simply take over their country standards into the new country.

[RayH]

The Islamic countries of the Middle East are completely feudal. Our Western dependance on their petroleum keeps us from decrying their system! Afghanistan makes both Saudi Arabia and Iran look fairly modern.

In South Asia (like Indonesia and Malaysia), there seems to be a more modern form of Islam.

[Ada_Doom]

That's true Ray, but then again, Afghanistan is an exception, even amongst Muslim states - the Taliban make Ayatollah Khomeini look like a forward-thinker. I once read a quote, I think from Michael Palin, saying that "Saudi Arabia looks like America, but that it behaves like Russia" (this was during the USSR days.). That is a fairly good assessment IMO, the middle Eastern nations are happy the way they are - at least the Sheiks and Emirs and whatever are happy - and they don't welcome interference from anyone!

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Heaven is where the police are English, the cars are German, the chefs are French, the lovers are Italian and everything is organised by the Swiss. Hell is where the chefs are English, the police are German, the cars are Spanish, the lovers are Swiss and everything is organised by the Italians.
The man is a God (http://www.jpwsfc.org)

Hopefully with more Russian Oil we won't have to deal with the ME as much. Even at the height of our countries differences Russia and the US played by the "accepted" western rules of war (to include espionage etc., not in regards to the Geneva convention mind you more along the lines that neither willfully targeted mass amounts of civilians). So what I'm saying is that I'd rather deal with Russia for Oil then the ME anytime. I have met alot of people from the middle east at college and most are good people but they don't really represent the entire middle east. Mostly the academic elite. And most of those either leave the ME for the western world or they are already living fat off the cow in ME.

In all honesty though I don't think the Western world will ever be able to really deal with the rest of the world in a way we once envisioned or the way sunday school and elemantry school taught us as kids. Basically, the for that to happen they are going to have to adobt capitalism and representative democracy with some form of human rights quarantee for its citizens for that to happen.

[Phreakmeister]

Originally posted by ogb:
Saudi's are very rich

No. Saudi-Arabia is a very poor country. There are only a few people, who are extremely wealthy. But the vast majority of the people is poor. And besides that, the economy is very unstable. So when the oil reserves dry out, Saudi-Arabia will drop to the level of countries like Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, etc.

[Sephirstein]

Yep...All the Saudi oil is owned by rich and greedy princes. The only way to improve living conditions in Saudi Arabia would be through democratization.

[Phreakmeister]

Originally posted by barbiegirl:
The laws regarding gender and the Medical profession are way beyond dumb! First,doctors of either gender are prohibited to treat the opposite sex. Now here's the clincher: No woman doctors allowed! Basically the female population is SCREWED! What we, Americans should do is to bring all female from SA to the U.S. where they'll have equal rights and see how the SA men cope w/o their wives, sisters, mothers and daughters. Maybe the men will stop mistreating the woman-MAYBE- if not they'll be very lonely men out there.

As what do they see transvestites? Males because of the d*ck, or females because of the behaviour?

[ogb]

Originally posted by Phreakmeister:
As what do they see transvestites? Males because of the d*ck, or females because of the behaviour?


It's quite interesting how you're spending your leisure time http://www.dumblaws.com/ubb/wink.gif, but in Saudi-Arabia I wouldn't wonder if a transvestite would walk around without d*ck or other important parts of the body. I even wouldn't wonder if it had the death penalty as consequence there.

[Phreakmeister]

Well, let's say a transvestite manages to get dressed as a woman so well, that noone sees the difference (Ru Paul, eat this), and she (or should I say he?) breaks a leg? What happens then?

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Do you believe in death after life?

[Sjax]

I dont think the saudis approve of crossdressing either

[Phreakmeister]

Then as what would he/she be convicted? Male or female?

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Do you believe in death after life?

[Serendipity]

A man trying to pass himself off as a woman in SA need only dress in burka, which covers the whole body except the eyes (usually). As for how they should be punished, I suspect the problem is hypothetical anyway http://www.dumblaws.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[ogb]

I'd also wonder if you found a transvestite in Saudi-Arabia.

I'm pretty sure, if this were to occur, that they'd be treated as a man. However a transvestite acts, does not prevent them from being recognised officially as a man.
How it works with a trans-sexual though would be interesting to know. Is a trans-sexual officially recognised as female?

[Phreakmeister]

Over here he/she is, but I have no idea how they think about that in Saudi-Arabia

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Do you believe in death after life?