Keep Women Drivers Off The Roads Says Guadian Columnist

The Guardian publishes an article by a Saudi Arabian man about women drivers. As you will be aware women can't drive.... and in Saudi Arabia it's illegal too.

 [pause for laughter].

Anyway the Guardian has published this article about by a Saudi man about how women in the kingdom don't really want to be allowed to drive because... well I didn't really follow the line of reasoning. I'm just too flabbergasted that a mainstream paper that has been publishing countless articles suggesting that western society is insanely misogynistic recently would actually publish something like this.

Sample quote after surveying female students:

I offered them anonymity in their answers, but even so, some wanted to be recognized.

Exactly how they could be recognised while wearing sacks over their heads wasn't explained.

The Lesser Crime

I wonder what the Saudi authorities are most annoyed about- the gay sex, the drinking or the murder. This quote says a lot about our immigration laws too:

Jonathan Laidlaw QC, prosecuting, argued that if he was convicted and recommended for deportation after serving his sentence he would be able to claim asylum in Britain by arguing that his life was in danger, whether or not he actually was gay.

Oh great, commit a murder win asylum!

Saudi Hypocrisy.

Saudi Arabia is outraged at the human rights violations of its citizens:

President George W Bush will face a frosty reception today during a visit to Saudi Arabia amid anger at America's continued detention of the kingdom's citizens at Guantanamo Bay.

I don't know anything about the individuals involved here, although 'being Saudi citizens' seems to me to be pretty strong circumstantial evidence of involvement in violent jihadism. However for Saudi Arabia to complain about its citizens being mistreated by a foreign government shows an almost complete lack of self awareness. In any sane world Saudi Arabia would be the last country on Earth to take seriously over human rights claims. The urge by Western governments including the UK's to suck up to Saudi Arabia is puzzling. The obvious answer is that we do so because we need their oil, which is true but ultimately they need to sell oil even more than we need to buy it. Saudi Arabia will sell us oil regardless of how we behave because they have no alternative other than poverty and squalor.