A Whole New Spin on "WALL-MART"

I really try my best to present a balanced view of Saudi Arabia, but there are certain times when some issues just drive me batty.  Gender segregation here is taken to such an extreme here that it tends to create many more problems than those they are trying to resolve - not to mention making Saudi Arabia look like an absurdly backward place where men are not held accountable for their actions, and the blame and punishment is usually aimed at women.  Weddings are segregated affairs, restaurants have separate entrances and dining areas for families and single men, even many private family gatherings I've attended have been segregated.

At a local mall event, notice how the men and women are mostly segregated, left and right.

The latest edict regarding gender segregation comes from the Minister of Labor Adel Faqieh, who has been seen in the past as a rather progressive guy because of his support of women in the workplace.  But now from the Saudi labor department there is a new order that requires the building of 1.6 meter high walls inside businesses to separate working men and women.  Yeah – you heard that right.  Now keep in mind that these working Saudi women are already completely draped in black cloaks, hair completely covered, and many also wear veils over their faces.  

Is this way of dress alone not enough of a barrier?

When I first moved to Saudi Arabia five years ago, there were no women working in sales positions in stores or malls - because they weren't allowed to.  In fact most women in the kingdom were restricted to working in female only educational facilities or in the medical field, where mostly foreign women have been permitted to work as nurses or lab techs side by side with men.   Saudi women in medicine generally are doctors or researchers.

Nowadays Saudi women work in lingerie shops.  Men can only enter these shops when accompanied by female family members.

It was bad enough – and downright creepy - that women here in Saudi Arabia were forced until recently to purchase their undies from men, when the women organized and demanded that women be put in these types of sales positions, including lingerie and cosmetics shops.   Their voices were heard and the King ordered that these salesmen be replaced with women.  It was a huge victory for women in Saudi Arabia.  This eventually led to women being employed in supermarkets, department stores, and women’s clothing shops. 

Saudi female cashiers in the supermarket chain HyperPanda here in Jeddah

Shopping here in Saudi Arabia - at grocery stores, malls, and even small shops - has always been mixed and has never been gender segregated.  As a friend of mine pointed out recently, this "problem" that exists now seems to stem from the fact that women are the ones earning the money instead of just spending it.   It was always okay here when men were the workers and women were the customers, but now that women are working in fields that were formerly dominated by men, the religious bigwigs are suddenly having tizzy fits.  

Why is it okay for this type of gender interaction, but not when the female is the one behind the counter?

In a group discussion about this new development to prevent gender mixing in the workplace, one participant said:  For a country with such high religiosity, it appears that the Saudi adult citizens cannot be trusted to behave with morals and manners in the most basic social and community settings.  I call this a RED FLAG ... Obviously something is desperately wrong. When people are raised with such strict religious laws, norms / values and the government's actions repeatedly imply that Saudi citizens lack basic self-control and are not capable of social interaction with the opposite sex for fear of combustible consensual sexual intercourse, molestation, or rape ... Where else in the world does such a problem exist? Seriously! What is taking place in Saudi society and its institutions that would cause the Saudi government to assume that its citizens' behaviors are so spiritually bankrupt?

Is it better for Saudi women to just beg instead of working a real job?

So exactly what has prompted this move from the Ministry of Labor?  Since women began working in other venues a few short years ago, I would ask - have there been incidents or problems with working women being harassed or complaints about men they work with?  None that I am aware of have been reported in the news, although one article I read vaguely hinted that there have been complaints, but nothing specific.  

Or does it perhaps have to do with the deadly threats from 200 members of the country’s religious police force causing a ruckus in late December 2012, whereby these “Men of God” told the Minister of Labor that if he didn’t do something to stop Saudi women from mixing with men in the workplace that they would pray that Faqieh gets cancer and dies?  Nice, huh?  Especially sweet coming from "Men of God."

 

I think I have a much better and easier solution.  Why not give the men in Saudi Arabia a chance to prove that they can behave themselves around women in the workplace?  And if they can’t manage to do that, then just FIRE THEIR ASSES!!!  

Child molester, torturer and murderer Sheikh Fayhan Al Ghamdi

I'm getting off topic here now, but what I really want to know is:  why aren’t these religious guys (who are so concerned with protecting morality and female virginity) focusing on more important things that pertain to women and children here?  For example, why aren’t they totally unhinged about the recent ruling in the case of the Islamic preacher, Sheikh Fayhan AlGhamdi?  Al Ghamdi brutally raped and tortured his own five year old daughter in December of 2011.  She remained in a coma in the hospital and finally succumbed to her horrendous injuries some 10 months later, in October 2012.  

The judge in the case has recently ruled that the few months Al Ghamdi spent in jail was enough and all he has to do now is pay the family of the victim “blood money.”  Here in Saudi Arabia, the so-called "justice system" in place is along the lines of “an eye for an eye” and provides for financial compensation paid to the heirs of the victim.  In this case, the girl’s family or heirs would include her own father who heinously killed her.  However, the paying of blood money should only apply when the killing was unintentional.  It was obvious that the injuries suffered by this poor girl were not an accident. 

So why isn’t the religious establishment here in Saudi Arabia demanding Al Ghamdi’s head on a platter instead of concerning themselves with such trivial matters as building barriers to separate men and women in the workplace?   I don’t get it.

For more reading on these subjects: 

From Al Arabiya News:  Saudi labor minister faces 'deadly prayers' from angry clerics

From Al Arabiya News:  "Wall-Mart?" Saudi shops to build sex segregation walls

From Sabria S. Jawhar:  A commentary on Saudi society and religious bullies

From Saudi Woman, Eman Al Nafjan:  Rest in peace, Lama

From Omaima Al Najjar:  Islamic preacher gets away with murder

Mad Traveler's Quick Look at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Toni Riethmaier, manager at the beautiful Il Villaggio Restaurant here in Jeddah, sent me this video which he had a hand in producing. 

It is a lovely short film shot around the city of Jeddah, showing the Corniche area which runs along the Red Sea coastline and the old part of Jeddah called Al Balad. 

The video also shows a few of the sculptures around Jeddah, which I have highlighted many times on my blogs. 

It's interesting to note that the guide of the video is a man dressed casually in a T-shirt and shorts - acceptable attire for men here, while women must cover up everything but their faces and hands.

It's a great quick look at the city I live in. 

SAUDI ARABIA: Boredom + Lack of Activities = Unacceptable Behavior & Stupid Choices

A big problem that exists in Saudi Arabia is the lack of  activities for the youth here.  As a result, many young men end up creating their own forms of "fun."  I felt sickened and angry when I saw this video of these young Saudi bullies who seemingly have no respect for others or the property of others. 

The First Muslim - by Lesley Hazleton

Lesley Hazleton is one of those fascinating oddities (for lack of a better word) that I would just love to sit down with to share a drawn-out dinner and a good bottle of wine. British and Jewish by birth, American and agnostic by choice, Ms. Hazleton is an author who writes fervently about religion.

But she is so much more than an author. Ms. Hazleton is a journalist who reported for many years from the Middle East, a trained psychologist who applies her professional insight to all her work, a blogger who writes as The Accidental Theologist, a passionate political junkie, an educator, lecturer, and artist, a car enthusiast, and an airplane pilot – who lives on a houseboat in Seattle. That houseboat sometimes, she asserts, noticeably sinks deeper into the cold waters of Lake Union from the heaviness of all her research books when she is in the throes of her latest research.

She is not easy to describe in simple terms. The author has described herself in her own introduction of her biographical book about Mary as “a Jew who once seriously considered becoming a rabbi, a former convent schoolgirl who daydreamed about being a nun, an agnostic with a deep sense of religious mystery though no affinity for organized religion.”

In 2011 Ms. Hazleton was asked to speak at a meeting of the Women’s Zionist Organization of America.  The subject of her discourse was “What’s a nice Jewish girl doing writing so much about Islam?” In her talk she said, “Islam did not attack the US on 9/11; eighteen people with a particularly twisted and distorted idea of Islam did. The Jews do not shoot Palestinian farmers in the West Bank; Bible-spouting settlers with a particularly twisted and distorted idea of Judaism do.”

Her thirsty quest for answers has led her on an incredible journey exploring religions, politics, cultures, and history. She has read and studied the Quran, the Bible, and the Torah and has researched and written books about Muslims, Christians and Jews. “Her characters are figures who have been trapped, untouchable, in amber for decades by organized religion,”says writer Paul Constant of The Stranger, in his September 2011 Stranger Genius in Literature article about Ms. Hazleton for Seattle’s news, arts and entertainment newspaper.

Lesley Hazleton wearing an abaya in Abu Dhabi in 2012

One of Hazleton’s previous books about Islam, After the Prophet, explores the continuous epic conflict and bitter split between the Shia and Sunni. Another of her books, Mary: A Flesh and Blood Biography of the Virgin Mother, exemplifies Hazleton’s ability to vividly bring her subjects to life in a way that history books never could. In Hazleton’s book Jezebel: The Untold Story of Israel’s Harlot Queen, she manages to dispel the questionable accusations that gave this misunderstood historical figure, whose name is synonymous with evil, such a bad rap.

Says Hazleton, “The fact that few people do actually read the Quran is precisely why it’s so easy to quote, that is, to misquote phrases and snippets taken out of context in what I call the ‘highlighter version,’ which is the one favored by both Muslim fundamentalists and anti-Muslim Islamophobes.”

“Unfortunately many Muslim believers do not bother to think by themselves but leave it to others. Especially those young people who are brain washed and made to act as human bombs. Nothing could be more un-Islamic, starting with the fact that suicide is strongly forbidden in Islam,” she stresses.

Her latest book is called The First Muslim and is due out on store shelves on January 24th.  It is a biography about the life of the prophet Muhammad.

When asked what she found most surprising in her research for this book, she answered, "What struck me most was how much more remarkable Muhammad's life was in reality than in legend.  I can't claim that this was a surprise, however, because legend tends to flatten someone out into two dimensions.  Yes, even Muhammad.  I felt that if I accorded him the integrity of lived reality, with all its very human trials and dilemmas, then I could really appreciate not only what he achieved, but how." 

Regarding the common belief in the Muslim faith that Muhammad was illiterate, Ms. Hazleton says, "I don't know for sure if he was illiterate.  The Quran was transmitted orally, and I don't see what literacy or lack of literacy has to do with it.   As a well-traveled traders' representative, it seems reasonable to think that he may have had some basic literacy skills, if only to keep records.  But the main point is that illiteracy -- or rather, to use a less judgmental phrase, lack of literacy -- was no barrier to knowledge in an oral culture.  In an oral culture such as that of seventh-century Arabia, words lived on the tongue and in the heart, not on the page.  The spoken word thus had more power than it generally does today." 

In an interview in Religion Dispatches Magazine for her new book,  Ms. Hazleton talked about her inspiration in writing the book:  "There was a terrific story to be told here: the journey from neglected orphan to acclaimed leader—from marginalized outsider to the ultimate insider—made all the more dramatic by the tension between idealism and pragmatism, faith, and politics."

The First Muslim is an offering from Riverhead Books. Click here to read an excerpt of the book (the opening chapter). 

Lesley Hazleton is scheduled to speak at Town Hall Seattle on January 24, 2013.   Future appearances include March 9 at Seattle University at the Search for Meaning book festival and on March 23 at Rutgers University at the Muslims for Peace conference.

To read additional articles about The First Muslim:

A book review by Tamam Kahn, herself an author on a book about Muhammad and his wives called Untold.

An interview in Religion Dispatches Magazine.

The video below is when Lesley Hazleton spoke in October 2010 about her experience of reading the entire Quran - filmed at TEDxRanier.  It's less than 10 minutes long - and well worth your time.

When Religious Debate Becomes a Capital Offense

I find the religious aspect of living in Saudi Arabia very confusing.  Muslims tell me all the time that questions are encouraged in Islam, yet getting satisfactory answers is an entirely separate matter.  I have also found that when I ask questions, people often seem offended or insulted at the thought that I would question something they believe in.

Then there are reports in the news that I find puzzling too, that definitely seem to contradict Islamic teachings.  For example, Islam permits marriages of Muslim men to women of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish faiths, yet a Muslim man was recently arrested in Mecca for letting it be known that he wanted to marry a Jewish woman.

With Islam being the predominant religion of the Middle East - and the only one permitted in Saudi Arabia, so much so that it requires religious police to keep everyone in line - I find it peculiar and troubling that the rate of depression in Middle Eastern countries is excessively higher in this part of the world, according to a just released study by the World Health Organization.  I can't help but wonder if this has some correlation to the ultra-strict religious choke hold on life here. 

I believe in freedom of religion.  I dislike it when others try to impose their religious beliefs on me.  I also abhor the wars, the killing and the violence, and the oppression of women that people around the world commit in the name of religion.  And I think it's a very sad day when a person is jailed and could even face the death penalty for encouraging discussions about religious beliefs.

The following article  appeared on the Human Rights Watch website on Dec. 22, 2012...

Saudi Arabia: Website Editor Facing Death Penalty 

Encouraged Peaceful Religious Discussion

(Beirut) – Saudi authorities should immediately drop all charges against the detained editor of a website created to foster debate about religion and religious figures in Saudi Arabia.

On December 17, 2012, the Jeddah District Court, which had been hearing the case against the editor, Raif Badawi, referred it to a higher court on a charge of apostasy, which carries the death penalty. The charges against him, based solely to Badawi’s involvement in setting up a website for peaceful discussion about religion and religious figures, violate his right to freedom of expression.

“Badawi’s life hangs in the balance because he set up a liberal website that provided a platform for an open and peaceful discussion about religion and religious figures,” said Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Saudi Arabia needs to stop treating peaceful debate as a capital offense.”

A member of Badawi’s family told Human Rights Watch that during the December 17 hearing, Judge Muhammad al-Marsoom prevented Badawi’s lawyer from representing his client in court and demanded that Badawi “repent to God.” The judge informed Badawi that he could face the death penalty if he did not repent and renounce his liberal beliefs, the family member said.

Badawi refused, leading Judge al-Marsoom to refer the case to the Public Court of Jeddah, recommending that it try Badawi for apostasy.

Prior to the December 17 hearing, Badawi had been charged with “insulting Islam through electronic channels” and “going beyond the realm of obedience,” neither of which carries the death penalty. A different judge, Abdulrahim al-Muhaydeef, presided over five sessions of the trial but was replaced without explanation for the December 17 hearing by Judge al-Marsoom.

Saudi law derives from principles of Islamic Shariah, which are not codified and do not follow a system of precedent. As a result, individual judges are free to interpret the Quran and prophetic traditions – the two agreed-upon sources of Shariah – as they see fit.

With the exception of a few crimes – including the capital offense of apostasy – judges essentially can interpret offenses to fit facts rather than assessing whether facts fit a clearly defined offense. Saudi judges also frequently convict people who engage in peaceful criticism of religious or political authorities on vague charges, including “going beyond the realm of obedience.”

Security forces arrested Badawi, a 30-year-old from the port city of Jeddah, on June 17. Badawi in 2008 was co-founder of the Free Saudi Liberals website, an online platform for debating religious and political matters in Saudi Arabia.

On the website, Badawi and others had declared May 7, 2012, a day for Saudi liberals, hoping to garner interest in open discussion about the differences between “popular” and “politicized” religion, Su’ad al-Shammari, secretary general of the website, told Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch had previously called for al-Badawi’s release on the grounds that his arrest violated his right to freedom of expression.

Based on a royal decree issued by King Abdullah in April 2011, all crimes related to insulting Islam by electronic means fall under the jurisdiction of a judicial council in the Ministry of Information. The council has the authority to refer cases directly to the king, who may “take measures in the public interest,” including referring cases to court.

The judicial process against Badawi has not made clear what words or activities provoked his prosecution. However, international human rights law provides broad protection of the right to freedom of expression. It permits restrictions only in narrowly defined circumstances, such as speech that constitutes incitement to imminent violence. International norms provide protection for speech about religion, including speech that some may find departs from commonly held beliefs or insults a religion or religious group.

Saudi authorities have harassed Badawi since he founded the website. In March 2008, prosecutors arrested and detained him for questioning but released him a day later. In 2009, the government barred him from foreign travel and froze his business interests, depriving him of a source of income, a family member told Human Rights Watch.

His father and a brother have publicly distanced themselves from him and declared him an unbeliever, and members of his wife’s family also filed a suit in a Jeddah court to have him forcibly divorced from his wife as an apostate. His wife and children are living outside of the country.

“Instead of protecting their citizens’ right to freedom of expression, the Saudi government has gone all-out against Badawi, to punish him and intimidate others who dare to debate matters of religion,” Goldstein said. “The authorities should drop the charges against him.”

7th MIT Pan-Arab Conference

Press release:

22,000 jobs needed per day to combat the high unemployment rate in the Arab world -

MIT AAA conference to address employment and innovation in the region

06 January 2013

The MIT Arab Alumni Association (MIT AAA), with the lead sponsorship of Sadara Chemical Company and its parent companies, the Dow Chemical Company and Saudi Aramco, is convening world and regional industry leaders this month in Dubai to address the future of manufacturing and economic development in the Arab world. The 7^th MIT Pan-Arab Conference: Manufacturing for Jobs, Growth and Diversification will be held at the Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi on January 19-20, 2013.

According to a recent IMF study, the Arab world must add 22,000 new jobs per day until 2020 and manufacturing is a key sector which can accelerate the growth and development needed to tackle this challenge.

Regional and global leaders speaking at the 7^th MIT Pan-Arab Conference include:

1.     His Excellency Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Saudi Arabia

2.     His Excellency Abdullatif Al-Othman, Governor, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority

3.     His Excellency Ahmed Chami, Former Minister of Industry, Trade, and New Technologies, Morocco

4.     Mohamed Al-Mady, Vice Chairman and CEO, SABIC

5.     Jim McIlvenny, Senior Vice President, The Dow Chemical Company

6.     John Rice, Vice Chairman, GE and President and CEO, GE Global Growth and Operations

7.     Homoon Kang, Vice Chairman, Samsung Electronics

8.     David Steel, Senior Vice President, Samsung Electronics

9.     Motassim Al-Maashouq, Vice President, Saudi Aramco

10.  Martin A. Schmidt, Associate Provost and Professor of Electrical Engineering, MIT

11.  Joe Saddi, Chairman, Booz & Company

12.  Amer Majali, Chief Commissioner, Development and Free Zones Commission, Jordan

13.  Azzam Shalabi, President, National Industrial Clusters Development Program, Saudi Arabia

14.  Ahmed Yahia Al-Idrissi, Executive Director, Mubadala Industry

15.  Professor Fred Moavenzadeh, President, Masdar Institute of Science and Technology

16.  Professor Stefan Catsicas, Provost and Executive Vice President, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

17.  Ziad Al-Labban, CEO, Sadara Chemical Company

18.  Gassan Al Kibsi, Director, McKinsey & Company

19.  Dr. Hani Shammah, Head of Private Equity, National Bank of Abu Dhabi

20.  Nader H. Sultan, Senior Partner at F+N Consultancy and Former CEO, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation

21.  Zuhair Allawi, President, Dow Saudi Arabia

22.  Badr Al-Olama, CEO, Strata Manufacturing

23.  Abdulrahman Al-Ubaid, Founder and Managing Director, Saudi Development and Innovation Group

Mr. Talal Kheir, President of the MIT AAA, said: “The Conference will focus on the future of manufacturing and its potential in meeting two of the Arab world’s most pressing demands: job creation and economic diversification. The objective of the conference is to bring together leaders in technology, policy, industry, education and finance to discuss innovations and showcase solutions that have the potential to significantly impact today’s global manufacturing challenges.”

Topics addressed at the two-day conference will include institutional, regulatory, and macroeconomic issues pertaining to manufacturing; education, training and innovation in manufacturing and their impact on employment, entrepreneurship and investment opportunities; plus models for a globally competitive Arab manufacturing sector.

Conference delegates will include senior government and industry leaders from the Middle East, Europe, Asia and North America, MIT faculty, students and alumni, as well as regional business leaders and professionals. Registration is still open at http://www.mitpanarabconf.org/

-ends-

About MIT Arab Alumni Association:

The MIT Arab Alumni Association (MIT AAA) was established in order to bring MIT to the Arab World and to bring the Arab World to MIT. MIT AAA’s vision is to promote the highest interests of humanity, to support science and technology education in the region, and to facilitate education of the diverse MIT community in the region.

Since its inception in the late 1990s, MIT AAA has pioneered and developed a regional conference model for which it received the MIT Presidential citation. These high profile regional conferences bring together the MIT community from Cambridge, as well as alumni/ae and prominent leaders in the Arab region to the different countries in which the conferences take place: Cairo (2000), Amman (2001), Beirut (2002), Dubai (2003), Tunis (2004) and Abu Dhabi (2009) have been recent venues.

For more information kindly contact:

Rabih Riman

PR Manager, entourage

Mobile:         +971 55 414 929 6

Email:           rriman@entourageintl.com

Website:       www.entourageintl.com