It appears that ministers in Saudi Arabia have been watching Federico Fellini’s City of Women. The Saudi government has resolved the conflict of having women in the workforce but not allowing them to intermingle with men. No, they have not granted equal rights. They are building them their own city.
The Saudis are building an industrial city that will allow only women. A female-only zone is scheduled to open in the Eastern Province city of Hofuf next year with other such zones planed for Riyadh, the capital.
Hofuf will have only women — some 5000 — working in the textile, pharmaceutical, and food-processing industries. The idea was put forward by women to allow them to work given the 78 unemployment rate (not surprising when you cannot come into contact with a non-relative male without facing public flogging). The government has assured that they will be staying “consistent with the privacy of women according to Islamic guidelines and regulations.” Of course, they will still have to ask a male relative to drive them to the city since women are still not allowed to drive in the Kingdom.
Here is what the Kingdom can expect:
Source: ABC
This story was misreported. http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/saudi-women-only-city-look-again-0022319
City of Men was an interesting flick. I know a guy who did contract work in The Kingdom. He said you can read about stuff like this but you can’t understand just how screwed up this country is w/o living there.
Oh my…. Camelot in the making……
Perhaps the Saudis were instead watching SNL’s “La Dolce Gilda” and thought it best afterwards to segregate women from men.
http://videos.theonion.com/avclub_video/2009/snl/SNL_031309-02.flv
(Sorry your player might not show this, it requires a compatable movie player.) Not easy to find this video.
OH OH,here comes a new conspiracy theory for the IslamoFacists .
A famous thief or tribal leader called the old man in the mountains was very effective in ruling his terrain by force fear and intimidation. The word assassin comes from Hashish. The old man would train his assassins, and prior to sending them out, he would load them up with hash get them high and let them bed his concubines. ……… Don’t you see it folks!!! That is what this “new” city is for. A send off ground for the doomed bombers. Legend has it the assassins of old were so delighted by their hash, and sex induced experiences … Plus the promise that if they die they will immediately return to these ecstatic delights…. the assassins of old were all extremely hopeful to die during a successful mission !!!
Obviously this is the true secret purpose of this women only town.
I heard the name of one of the establishments is the TOKE and POKE…
…. then you leave and go for BROKE M effer.
My cynicism is high tonight, I just watched on the History 2 channel a story on IslamoFascism. There was a total Wack-a-Doo woman interviewed that had outrageous views on the 1.5 billion practicing Muslims that left me astounded and disgusted. She gives speeches, and sells books promoting her hate. How long till she starts a hate theory similar to my bogus one… and gets morons to believe it.
“City of Women” is an excellent choice Professor, so would be a double feature with “The Handmaiden’s Tale”.
I don’t know if I’m disgusted or hopeful.
This may be a good thing in the long run. Like women entering the job market during WWII sowed the seeds of the feminist movement. Any crack in the prison wall, no matter how small might let in a bit of sunlight.
A WWI era song expressing the anxiety about the possible dissatisfaction of rural American males, “How ya’ gonna’ keep em’ down on the farm, after they’ve seen Paree?” comes to mind and was also applicable to post WWII American females.
Disgusting idea.
It’s like Plessy v. Ferguson all over again, but much worse.
Our friends at the federal government, such hypocrites some are. We enact an economic embargo many years ago against South Africa for the apartheid practices but we are in bed with Saudi Arabia.