Shopping With Dignity in Saudi Arabia

Buying knickers is the least of Saudi women's problems

The Guardian

Saudia Arabia's ban on men working in lingerie shops is just another bizarre triumph for conservatism

I'm outside a women's clothing store in Saudi Arabia whose display window is straight out of a Nevada cathouse. Headless mannequins curl and squat suggestively, fitted into racy little numbers that any self-respecting strumpet wouldn't be caught dead in.

Lycra, tartan, and patent leather, replete with networks of zips, clasps, buckles and chains, clash in a dazzle of ridiculously tacky ensembles. On the rails inside are split-crotch knickers, tank tops with glow-in-the-dark nipple caps, and pre-ripped fishnet stockings.

But I'm watching a drama unfold across the way, in a store of far more obstinate virtue. It sells nothing but abayas, the ankle-length black gowns favoured by women in the Gulf states. Or at least it was selling them. Two members of the notorious Saudi vice squad, or mutaween, are now busy shutting it down.

Apparently the store's abayas weren't black enough. The whimsical guardians of morality had glimpsed a flash of colour on a sleeve trim or hem.

The merchandise that only seconds before was tastefully displayed in the store window, is hastily shoved into plastic bags for confiscation. Meanwhile, the shop selling bordello apparel across the way is, remarkably, left untouched.

After slapping a quarantine sticker on the front window of the abaya store, the two mutaween, distinctive for their furrowed brows, traditional long white shirt with a hem ending just above the cankles, and bushy beards, stride off.

Saudi Arabia is beginning to implement a law that says shops selling frilly nighties or even the standard M&S-style cotton combos will not be allowed to have male shop attendants. This is to spare women the humiliation of being served by the standard Pakistani gent behind the counter in nearly every store.

Within a couple of years, or so we have been told, the scandalous spectacle of men selling women's clothes may be a thing of the past, and this could pave the way for more jobs to be open to women.

As with the right-to-drive campaign, the lingerie shop issue has been adopted by well-meaning activists as a cause célèbre. Hundreds of kvetching feminists have been posting on message boards wishing Saudi women the right to "shop with dignity".

The reality is that given cultural mores, most women wouldn't be seen trying on underwear in the shops anyway. And by creating yet another hype around the issue of the libidinous energies of men and women coming into contact – this supposed step forward is actually just another bizarre triumph for conservatism: through the creation of yet another women-only zone. 
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Happy New Year Wish From Saudi Arabia

Lebanese Witch Gets Death Penalty in Saudi Arabia

Have you ever wondered how The Saudis Catch "Witches"?

Do They give them the Scales Test, The Water Test or Look For Witchmarks? ...

Nope! ... None of the Above!

All The Saudi's Do Is Set Up A "Sting" and Take The Witch into custody during the Hajj!

Children, Open Your Textbooks To Page 137 ... Cutting Off A Thief's Hands And Feet

The Arabic school textbooks which show children how to chop off hands and feet under Sharia law

Mail Online

Barbaric textbooks handed out in Saudi Arabian schools teach children how to cut off a thief's hands and feet under Sharia law, it has emerged.

The shocking books, paid for and printed by the Saudi government, also tell teenagers that Jews need to be exterminated and homosexuals should be 'put to death'.

Recent editions were obtained by the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, D.C., which says they should raise fears in the West over the use of jihadist language.

Barbaric: These textbooks handed out in Saudi Arabian schools teach children how to cut off a thief's hands and feet under Sharia law

The books were published and handed out to 9th and 10th-graders despite Saudi Arabia's promises to clean up textbooks in the kingdom.

Ali Al-Ahmed, director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs, told Fox News: 'This is where terrorism starts, in the education system.

'They show students how to cut (the) hand and the feet of a thief,' he said.

The textbooks were printed for the 2010-2011 academic year and translated from Arabic by the institute.

In one, for ninth-graders, students are taught the annihilation of the Jewish people is imperative.

One text reads in part: 'The hour (of judgment) will not come until the Muslims fight the Jews and kill them. There is a Jew behind me come and kill him.'

School prayers in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where children learn how to chop off the hands and feet of thieves, it is claimed

According to the translations, women are described as weak and irresponsible.

Mr Al-Ahmed said the textbooks also call for homosexuals to be put to death 'because they pose a danger at society, as the Saudi school books teaches'.

Mr Al-Ahmed said: 'If you teach six million children in these important years of their lives, if you install that in their brain, no wonder we have so many Saudi suicide bombers.'

The Saudi Embassy in Washington D.C. was approached for comment, but there was no immediate response.

Saudi school children playing football on an artificial pitch in the evening to avoid the heat in Jeddah

Shaitan Made Me Do It!

Saudi beheaded for murder while drunk

Google News

RIYADH — Saudi Arabia beheaded a man in the kingdom's southwest on Tuesday after he was convicted of killing a drinking partner while they were consuming alcohol, the interior ministry announced.

Sultan al-Asiri, a Saudi, was beheaded by the sword after he was found to have shot dead another citizen, Mufreh Asiri, "as they met for drinking intoxicants," said the statement carried by state news agency SPA.

The beheading, which raises to 72 the number of executions in Saudi Arabia this year, took place in the southwestern city of Abha.

In September, Amnesty International called on the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom where 140 people were on death row to establish an "immediate moratorium on executions."

The rights group said Saudi Arabia was one of a minority of states which voted against a UN General Assembly resolution last December calling for a worldwide moratorium on executions.

Rape, murder, apostasy, armed robbery and drug trafficking are all punishable by death under Saudi Arabia's strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.

Amnesty says Saudi Arabia executed 27 convicts in 2010, compared to 67 executions announced the year before.

Hey Faisal: Shoulda Used A Condom! ... HIV In Saudi Arabia

More than 1,000 new HIV cases found in Saudi

HIV Saudi Arabiab ... Boston.com

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — A Saudi health official says 1,121 new HIV cases were detected in the kingdom last year.

The official Saudi Press Agency quotes deputy health minister Ziyad bin Ahmed as telling an HIV/AIDS conference Monday that the new cases include 439 Saudi citizens and 682 non-Saudis.

Bin Ahmed said that since 1984, 16,334 people have tested positive

for HIV, the virus associated with AIDS. Among them were 4,458 Saudis, 83 percent between the ages of 15 and 49. 

Men outnumbered women by a ratio of four to one.

Saudi Arabia's conservative Muslim society considers talking about sex as taboo, and treats AIDS patients with contempt.

Some clerics consider the disease as God's punishment for prohibited sex.

New Saudi Law: No Filming Porn In Front of Religious Police

Saudi religious police HQ targeted by sex maniacs

Tried to create a sex video right in front of the police headquarter signboard

Emirates 24/7

Three Saudi men parked their car close to the headquarters of the Gulf Kingdom’s feared religious police late night, got out and started having sex with a woman accompanying them just in front of the massive police signboard.

They were filming themselves with the aim publicising the shot to defame the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most influential law enforcement authority in the Muslim nation.

The three were half way through their operation when one of them noticed the security camera next to the signboard in the capital Riyadh. They stopped filming, headed for the camera and smashed it before fleeing the scene.

In the morning, Commission members going to their offices were surprised to notice that the security camera was badly damaged.

But examination later showed the film inside was intact and it contained clear shots of the three men while having sex with the girl.

“Within three hours, two of those men were captured and a search is still under way to find the third man and the girl,” Sabq newspaper said.

“Commission members also found a Kalashnikov machine gun with one of the arrested.”

"Bashir" ... or "Walid" or "Place Name Here" ... The Wife Basher

Muslim that bashed his wife fears he will now be bashed

A DEVOUT Muslim fears violent retribution for getting drunk and bashing his wife, a court heard yesterday.

Herald Sun
Waleed Almazyad, who is sponsored by the Saudi Arabian Government to study accountancy in Melbourne, is supposed to adhere to strict sharia law, which bans alcohol.

But Melbourne Magistrates' Court heard that, after sharing five bottles of beer with university mates one night, he returned home and bashed his wife.

Defence lawyer Carolene Gwynn said Almazyad had to deal not only with shame. There had been two known incidents of severe bashings being meted out to conservative Muslims who drank alcohol in breach of religious laws, she said.

Almazyad, 35, pleaded guilty to assault after hitting his wife several times in late 2009.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Brooke Sheers said at one point Almazyad, who the court heard had never drunk alcohol before, dragged his wife by the hair.

She smashed a vase over his head, inflicting a scar beneath his eye.

"She did quite well for herself ... he does have a permanent reminder," Ms Gwynn said.

Almazyad faced being sent back to Saudi Arabia if convicted.

Magistrate Ian von Einem noted that a conviction would also see Almazyad's wife and children sent back to Saudi Arabia early.

He placed him a good behaviour bond, but warned him against committing further violence

Saudi Arabia to Ban "Bedroom Eyes"

Saudi women with attractive eyes may be forced to cover even them up, if resolution is passed

• Islamic state fears effect of 'tempting' eyes on men
• Says it 'has the right' to issue repressive edict
• Women must already cover their hair and wear full-length black cloak

Mail Online
Women with attractive eyes may be forced to cover them up under Saudi Arabia's latest repressive measure, it was revealed today.
The ultra-conservative Islamic state has said it has the right to stop women revealing 'tempting' eyes in public.

A spokesperson for Saudi Arabia's Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Sheikh Motlab al Nabet, said a proposal to enshrine the measure in law has been tabled.

'Tempting' eyes: Muslim women could be forced to cover up even their eyes if a 'right' of the Saudi state is enforced

Women in Saudi Arabia already have to wear a long black cloak, called an abaya, cover their hair and, in some regions, conceal their faces while in public.
If they do not, they face punishments including fines and public floggings.
They are also banned from driving by religious edict and cannot travel without authorisation from their male guardians.


In September, a Saudi women sentenced to 10 lashes for defying the driving ban was only spared when King Abdullah stepped in to stop the public flogging.
Also in September, the king announced that women would be given the right to vote for the first time and run in the country's 2015 local elections.
The CPVPV, which employs around 3,500 religious police, has repeatedly been accused of human rights violations.

Founded in 1940, its function is to ensure Islamic laws are not broken in public in Saudi Arabia.

In 2002 the committee refused to allow female students out of a burning school in Mecca because they were not wearing the correct head covering.
The decision contributed to the toll of 15 people who were killed in the fire.

United States Denies Asylum to Gay Saudi Diplomat

Jerusalem Post

Man could face execution under Islamic rule; Saudi Arabia canceled the diplomat's passport after his sexual orientation was revealed.

BERLIN – The United States government denied political asylum to Ali Ahmad Asseri, the former first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, last week to avoid disrupting US-Saudi relations, according to a Saudi-American blogger and journalist based in Brazil.

Asseri argued that if he returned to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia he would face execution because the country’s radically fundamental form of Islam mandates the death penalty for same-sex relations.

The Saudi-American journalist and blogger, Rasheed Abou-Alsamh, appears to have been the first writer to report on the asylum rejection. The possible deportation of Asseri to Saudi Arabia has electrified blog observers of the case over the last few days.

The Jerusalem Post’s e-mail and telephone attempts to secure on Saturday aconfirmation and comment from the US State Department’s Middle East press section were not immediately returned.

In an e-mail response to the Post on Saturday, Abou-Alsamh, the Saudi-American blogger whose personal website "Rasheed's World" first broke the story about the denial of the asylum application, wrote, "As far as I know the US government has not yet officially commented on Asseri's denial of asylum, but from comments that I have read after I wrote my post, it seems that political asylum cases are often denied in first instance and then approved later when the applicant appeals." 

He added: "I do think the US government is afraid of unnecessarily annoying the Saudis, especially now with all of the turmoil that the Arab world is going through because of the Arab Spring revolts."

Abou-Alsamh, who has written for The Washington Times and other US-based publications, reported on his website that Ali al-Ahmed, a Saudi dissident in Washington, said in a phoneinterview that “This was a political decision by the Obama administration, who are afraid of upsetting the Saudis.”

“His initial interview with Homeland Security was very positive, but then they came back and grilled him for two days after they found out that he had worked in the public prosecutor’s office in Saudi Arabia,” Alsamh continued.

“He had been an inspector to make sure that judicial punishments, such as lashings, were carried out within the law – not more, not less. They then accused him of participating in a form of torture,” Ahmed said on Abou- Alamh’s website.

Ahmed said that Asseri intends to appeal the denial of his application and the process could meander its way through the judicial process over the next few years.

Last year, the US news organization MSNBC first reported on Asseri’s decision to remain in the United States. According to an article from the MSNBC national investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff: “Ali Ahmad Asseri, the first secretary of the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles, has informed US Department of Homeland Security officials that Saudi officials have refused to renew his diplomatic passport and effectively terminated his job after discovering he was gay and was close friends with a Jewish woman.”

In addition to his sexual orientation, Asseri’s friendship with a female Jewish Israeli appears to be a factor for concern if he returns to Saudi Arabia. Riyadh does not recognize Israel’s existence and there are no diplomatic relations between the two countries. The Saudi Kingdom’s media and educational books are steeped in hatred of Israel.

Stuart Appelbaum, a prominent gay rights activist in New York and head of the international trade union Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, wrote the Postby e-mail on Friday. “If the United States government refuses to grant asylum to a gay diplomat because it is afraid of the Saudi reaction, then the US will become complicit in his fate. It is exactly because of how Ahmad might be treated on his return to his homophobic and brutal land that the United States should grant him refuge.”

Appelbaum played a key role in the New York State legislative decision to pass a marriage law for same-sex couples this year.

Dr. Phyllis Chesler, a New York-based expert on gender relations, wrote the Post on Friday, “This is further proof that the Obama administration’s foreign policy is one of self-destructive appeasement and that despite its presumed commitment to civil rights and human rights, that commitment does not extend to Muslim women, Muslim dissidents, or Muslim gays – nor does it extend to the right-of-survival of religious minorities (Christian, Jewish, Bahai, Zoroastrian) or to apostates.

“This decision refuses to countenance the reality of Islamic gender and religious apartheid and has chosen a ‘hands off’ policy vis-a-vis Saudi Arabia’s persecution of ‘out’ gay men,” Chesler wrote.

Saudi Arabia’s government policy of lethal homophobia has sparked outrage over the years from some human rights activists.

The subject of state-sponsored murder of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities across the Muslim world has been a long neglected human-rights issue, according to NGO Monitor, the Jerusalem-based watchdog organization, which monitors the role of NGOs in the region, including Israel.