Saudi Historian Says U.S. Women Drive Because They Don't Care If They're Raped

[rpannier]

A Saudi Arabian historian trying to justify the nation's ban on female drivers says women who drive in other countries such as the United States don't care if they're raped and that sexual violence "is no big deal" to them."

Saleh Al-Saadoon claimed in a recent TV interview that women can be raped when a car breaks down, but unlike other countries, Saudi Arabia protects its women from that risk by not allowing them to drive in the first place, according to a translation posted online by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

"They don't care if they are raped on the roadside, but we do," Al-Saadoon said on Saudi Rotana Khalijiyya TV.

**********get ready for the big ***

Since the rape argument didn't seem to be convincing anyone, Al-Saadoon tried another approach, claiming that women are treated "like queens" in Saudi Arabia ....

snip

"There is a solution, but the government officials and the clerics refuse to hear of it," he said. "The solution is to bring in female foreign chauffeurs to drive our wives."

**********************

Yes, women who drive don't care if they get raped. So, not driving protects them from rape. So, we should hire female drivers to protect them from being raped by male chauffeurs...

My curiosity is... 'What exactly is he an historian of?'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/09/saudi-women-drivers_n_6649896.html

[Exhibit A]

1. Driving makes it easier to avoid rape.

I had a lot of really scary early mornings in college, waiting for buses in questionable parts of town. Stranger rapes were reported in the campus area on a regular basis, despite that scenario accounting for such a small percentage of rapes overall. I had a stalker who would follow me off the bus no matter what stop I used, cuss at me for not talking to him, and once actually tried to grab me. If I'd been in a car, I would have been a lot less vulnerable.

[merrily]

6. We can solve that by forbidding you to leave your home at all unless accompanied by a male relative.

[Ilsa]

12. And yet women get raped at home, too.

The worst place, IMO, because your safe place never feels safe again.

[merrily]

14. Very true. My home has been invaded by several times, usually by accident, believe it or not.

Without realizing it, I was one of the first people to move into the building, which had been converted from commercial to residential. Contractors working on the conversion had been storing some of their stuff in my apartment and did not realize someone had moved in. Apparently, they still had keys or were given passkeys by the doorman. So, they'd show up at my apartment first thing in the morning, looking for a ladder or something, just as I'd be getting ready to go to work.

Once, I walked out of the shower nude, to find two of them just outside the bathroom door, chatting with each other. I screamed and they ran out. I think we were almost equally horrified at that moment, but I never felt safe again, especially since the building manager and doorman continued to allow people in without my advance knowledge if someone showed up I was at work. Finally, I sued. but even that did not stop the building manager from accessing my apartment whenever he thought he had a reason. (His idea of a reason included spying on a neighbor.) It was a horror show, and the fear lasted long after the events ceased.

Getting raped at home is on a whole different level, though, especially if your rapist is a relative or trusted visitor. Unimaginable.

[IronLionZion]

17. Yup, a similar situation happened to me in a college apartment

the building's management sent workers just about every day one summer for who knows what and didn't seem to care that I lived there. I'm male so I was more worried about theft or them forgetting to lock the door when they left, which happened often.

[Ilsa]

30. It was a stranger.

He had probably been watching me for several days.

[Turbineguy]

2. This man

could have a great future in the republican party.

[jmowreader]

3. Sounds like they have a raping problem rather than a driving problem to me

If you're so fucking concerned about women getting raped in your country, sir, get your headsmen busy on all the rapists you've got over there. It appears to me they're falling down on the job.

[Exhibit A]

4. +1

[JDPriestly]

8. Right.

If Saudi women are in such great danger of being raped if they drive, it suggests to me that Saudi men are barbarians who cannot control their sex urge.

I'm wondering whether we should be allowing these oversexed Saudi men into our country. They sound dangerous to me. Perhaps we should refuse visas to Saudi men.

I don't want visas given to potential rapists and it sounds like Saudi men are a bunch of rapists.

Scary. Wow!

[Jamastiene]

32. I wish just one US president would saying something like this and

work to force the Saudi leaders to quit being such backasswards assholes when it comes to women's rights.

[merrily]

15. Most who fixate on the behavior of a rape victim as the reason for her rape have huge problems.

Astounding they ever got toilet trained.

[smirkymonkey]

23. Winner!

+1000

[eissa]

31. If your first instinct upon seeing a woman standing next to a broken down car

is to rape her rather than help her, then it's your men who have a problem.

I can think of no fate worse than being born a Saudi woman. Holy shit

[merrily]

5. No Saudi women get raped? No women got raped before cars were invented?

[ChosenUnWisely]

7. Well that just clears things up!

[rpannier]

9. Well Saadoon looks like it rhymes with maroon

[get the red out]

10. Please keep in mind

That these people are our great friends and only fund appropriate terrorism, and their religious police only beat women that deserve it and our country will love them forever, says big oil, one of our corporate rulers.

[merrily]

16. At the same time, though, who is ready to cut down dramatically on driving, air conditioning,

heating, etc.?

President Carter tried to tell us.

[get the red out]

18. I wish for renewables

If it weren't for "big oil", we could be WAY on our way to having those as the go-to energy source.

[merrily]

19. We are on our way, though not always as quickly or as wisely as we could be.

And it should have begun once Carter warned everyone, if not sooner.

The oil "shortage" during his administration should have sounded a warning bell that all America should have heard and continued to heed every day. Instead, he is still often called (mostly by Republicans) one of the worst Presidents. Amnesty on his inauguration day, sounding the warning about dependence on foreign oil, not going to war over the hostages, yet getting them back alive (which never would have happened if he had gone to war). If he had done only those three things in his four years, he would still merit heaps of praise. Oh, and add being truly devout, yet managing a high degree of separation of church and state, also very important to me, though not as important as avoiding war.

[get the red out]

20. I agree

But I still have no plans of curtailing my criticism of Saudi Arabia or the US kissing their ruler's asses while women there are considered NOTHING more than a possession, maybe even less.

[merrily]

22. I don't think you should curtail it.

[jtuck004]

11. For all our talk, we really don't care how you treat women. Got any more cheap oil?

Because we could have a lot more influence if we didn't care more about sitting our fat asses in lazy boys and watching how you mistreat women on cable and instead told you we would rather be cold and hungry than do business with you.

Even it if cost us money. Or cause us not to have to worry about attacks from the criminals and thugs others call terrorists.

Actions by Americans always speak louder than the words coming out of their two faces.

[Enthusiast]

13. Clearly this Saudi Arabian historian is a fucking idiot.

And he isn't much of a historian.

[stevenleser]

21. And the conclusion of this kind of logic is that we should lock everyone up in cells so they dont

get hurt in any way.

The stupid is painful on this one.

[Major Nikon]

28. He should have said they treat women like princesses

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/01/23/dont-forget-the-late-saudi-kings-jailed-princesses/

[Pooka Fey]

24. This guy's premise is Kryptonite level stupidity at work

This level of 'stupid' lowers the general intelligence of the room. You can't debate or educate 'stupid' at this level, you need to basically call in an exorcist.

Grammar note : normally, the sentence goes "this level of stupidity..." , but we're so low down on the scale of evolution here, I have to mangle English grammar to make my point.

[hifiguy]

36. This is the kind of "reasoning" that makes everyone who hears it

10 IQ points dumber just by being exposed to it. Weaponized stoopidity.

[Pooka Fey]

37. LOL

"weaponized stoopid"

[MindPilot]

25. So women who drive poorly maintained cars are asking for it?

Nothing says "do me now" like a puddle of steaming antifreeze.

This "historian" sounds like he's got a perfect resume to be a Fox News commentator, with an extra helping of double plus stupid.

[Iggo]

26. ...," he fantasized.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

27. That's great coming from someone who probably has to keep himself

from jumping on a woman if she shows an ankle or a wrist. Seriously, how fucking old are these jagoffs?

[whatthehey]

29. This is a first for me

Both in academe and in society I have been deeply concerned with religio-lunacy for over three decades. While not believing a word of it, I've long normally been able to identify the theological and doctrinal bedrock from which the lunacy springs. Here however I am at a loss. Other than the basic ideas of seclusion/purdah, which are only incidental to the negation of driving no more than they are to the negation of strolling through the park alone or the negation of taking up public poetry reading in mixed company, I'm failing to see the connection even in Wahhabi terms between driving per se and rape.

[abakan]

33. Ok I may be dim but I don't see

What one thing has to do with the other. Can anyone explain it? I drive and I care if I get raped but I think I'm less likely to be raped driving down the road at a rapid rate.

[rpannier]

39. Makes the guy who worried about the rumble seat in early US cars

almost seem sane and thoughtful

[StevieM]

34. What a lovely man. (eom)

[hifiguy]

35. Saudi Arabia =

the anus mundi. Sounds like this manlike object has a severe case of recto-cranial impaction. Pretty much like everyone else in that gawdforsaken hellhole of a country.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

38. And they can't open a bank account in a regular bank because male tellers would rape them

across the counter. American women can walk into any bank unaccompanied by a male and don't care about getting raped in a bank and in fact look forward to a teller helping them with a deposit or withdrawal.

[KamaAina]

40. Todd Akin is Saudi?

I had no idea!