Strangely enough, just as Islamophobia seems to be reaching new heights here in the States, my boss is in Saudi Arabia. She was invited some months ago, to give workshops at two different women’s campuses on topics such as student motivation, active learning, planning for teaching, and so forth.
It’s a great opportunity, of course. But as she prepared for this trip, I was surprised by some of the things I learned about Saudi Arabia. I knew it’s a strictly regimented society, and that gender roles are somewhat constrained. I knew, for example, that women have to be covered head to toe when they go out in public. (And my boss had an interesting time purchasing the necessary garments here.) I was not familiar, however, with the system of male guardianship. I gather that women cannot travel freely or do many things without approval of a male guardian.
More to the point, my boss is not able to go outside without a male escort. That’s got to be tough for an American woman to accept. I’ve been trying to imagine how I would feel in that scenario.
As I scanned recent news headlines coming out of the Kingdom, I couldn’t help but goggle at these bizarre headlines.
- SAUDI ARABIA: Cleric in hot seat after calling for women to give men breast milk to avoid illicit mixing
- SAUDI ARABIA: Women threaten to breastfeed drivers if they aren’t allowed to drive
Meanwhile France has banned veils for women in public. It’s a very strange world we live in.
Anyway, my thoughts, and those of my co-workers, are with my boss at this time. (She reports that they have made her feel “right at home,” and she is finding a striking similarity between the concerns there and on our campus.) It’s truly an honor and a privilege for her to have been invited to this faraway place. I hope she reaps a maximum amount of cultural enrichment and personal development from the experience.
Photo: Desert wind at night by Cary Bazalgette, licensed under Creative Commons
Well, I guess we already knew she was a Broad, but as we can see, she is also
a Tuff Chick.
The Zionist Propagandists control the repeated mass-media chants about Islam.
Saudi is in the Bastardized position of having to play the Oil market game as a
kind of neutered, spoiled rich-kid eunuch, sucking Western Ass for a few more
Lamborghinis, Private Islands, White girl sex slaves, etc…
Your Boss ought to go do a comparative visit to so-called Israel, to the real street,
not the academic wanna-be elite.
I bet your boss wouldn’t appreciate being called a broad.
Oh damn, I didn’t see that Jack beat me to the joke.
Hey Bart,
Nice to read your kind thoughts while I am away (for only one more week now). All I’ll add on Day 7 of my visit is this–they make me feel “right at home” on the women’s campuses where there are only women present and we are 100% walled in with a guard at the single entrance (there is actually a door to campus). Outside of this wall it is a whole different story.