Like this.
The laughably prestigious University of Qassim in Saudi Arabia held one of the biggest women’s rights conferences in the Arab world last year. Ironically, the institution managed to hold the event without the advice or attendance of a single woman.
This reminds me of an incident when I first started dating the women I eventually married. An international conference had a discussion on women’s issues without a single woman on the panel. To protest this omission, some women crashed the event bare breasted. I told my wife I didn’t think the nudity made for a particularly effective protest and wondered what had motivated it.
“Obviously a case of tit for tat,” she replied without missing a beat. That’s one reason why we’re married.
I’m not sure that looks all that different from the women’s conferences our Congress holds; the only difference is that the men dress a bit differently.
I love that blue shirt guy, he looks like a very ineffective Where’s Wally / Waldo?
And seriously, that’s outrageous.
This would be laughable, if not for the consequences that flow on from this mentality. I guess contemptible is better?
What a disgusting culture…blergh….
Why, it looks quite a lot like a Congressional hearing on birth control. Or a Congressional subcommittee considering restricting abortion coverage. Or a different Congressional panel deciding to ban abortions after week 20.
So I’d point and laugh about how ridiculously clueless those Saudis are, but…
Saudi Arabia is still ranked 127th out of 136 countries for gender parity.
Good grief, there are 9 countries that are worse….
Good grief, there are 9 countries that are worse….
carole @3
It still took me the better part of a minute to pick him out, and that’s after you mentioned him.
But I see it’s a standing-room kind of crowd, women must be popular in those parts!
I had the same thought as davem: there are countries that are WORSE?
Also, ditto everyone who says this looks disturbingly like our Congress’s panels on women’s rights here in USA.
rq @8
ineffectiveeffective then :)I like to think that they’re really women disguised as men, a la, the stoning scene in Monty Python’s LIfe of Brian.
Of course it’s a women’s conference, you can tell because all the men are wearing pink headscarves. To show their support for breast cancer patients, or something.
I guess that’s due to the imense wealth of the country, allowing for medical care for everybody and such things
To be fair, given the relative value of men’s and women’s testimonies in Saudi, if it was all women they’d need four times as many attendees for their opinions to have the same amount of merit. Maybe it’s a space issue.
This is a bit of a tangent but I came across this story.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/supreme-court-lets-stand-ruling-that-firing-woman-for-breastfeeding-not-sexist-because-men-can-lactate/
My mind still can’t understand how anyone can use this as an argument. Basically this has to be male privilege saying that women shouldn’t complain about breastfeeding because men can lactate. These people have never had to wake up in the middle of the night just to pump because their breasts hurt from the engorged milk
Interesting material for an in-depth study of Women’s Rights in Saudi Arabia is this doctoral thesis (University of Wollongong, NSW)
Educational Rights for Women in Islamic and International Rights Law…
Interesting look into the world of Islamic jurisprudence…
This is one of those cases where reality trumps fiction. If somebody told a joke like this, everybody would criticize it for being unrealistic.
Don’t worry everyone. All these men love their wives and mothers, so they can’t really be sexist.
Change Saudis with spoiled rich dudes and you’ll be able to indulge in all the pointing & laughing you want.
Jermaine: My father is a women’s rights activist.
Bret: Your dad?
Jermaine: Yeah
Bret: Not your mum?
Jermaine: No, Dad wouldn’t allow it.
check out the dude in the front row covering his ears. hear no “evil” or something, i guess.
There is a movement to ban Saudi Arabia from the Olympics and other sports events. We used to ban South Africa for less.
Worse than Saudi Arabia? I’m guessing at Yemen and Oman first of all.
Really, it’s fine. Prominent Atheists think that maybe women’s rights conferences are just a man kind of thing. You know, inherently. So we can’t expect many women in the upper echelons.
Somewhere in that audience is a man who would argue the topic of women’s rights lacks that estrogen vibe.
Saudi Arabia may be only 127th because the scale is on gender _gap_ not absolute and
1. Most Saudi men have far fewer rights than men elsewhere (for instance men and women are equal in neither having the vote).
2. Saudi women can and do get an education, they just can’t do anything with it.
Erp,
One correction: Saudi Arabia does have occasional local elections in which only men can vote. Women are supposed to legally be getting the right to vote this year, but we know how that’s actually going to pan out in such a hideously misogynistic society.
But you’re right about Saudi men having fewer rights than men in a lot of other countries.
Slightly off topic: I hate using the term Saudi like that. Saudi comes from the current ruling dynasty, the house of Saud. It makes sense to call the country Saudi Arabia, but not to call the people from that country Saudis. I guess we could say Arabian, but that seems to be too close to Arab, which could imply the ethnicity and not the nationality.
“This is a bit of a tangent but I came across this story.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/supreme-court-lets-stand-ruling-that-firing-woman-for-breastfeeding-not-sexist-because-men-can-lactate/
My mind still can’t understand how anyone can use this as an argument. Basically this has to be male privilege saying that women shouldn’t complain about breastfeeding because men can lactate. These people have never had to wake up in the middle of the night just to pump because their breasts hurt from the engorged milk”
As is often the case, the full story is not as simple:
http://www.snopes.com/info/news/menlactate.asp
Well, to be fair, this photo was taken in 2012. Last year they allegedly invited two women to participate… Progress! #bitter_sarcasm