Yep. Suppression.

. . . and Sophistry!

I am surprised even given the circumstances you describe. Meeting as a single white western male in public with a Saudi female could get you arrested no? deported?

I thought eating/drinking places were segregated males/family. Do you go in the family section and pull the curtain over.

Meeting them in their homes? even more risky.

I was in Riyadh early 2000's. Any of the above would have been a complete no-no.

What do your Saudi female friends work as?

It probably *could* but again, my experience is that it doesn't as long as there's a degree of care about where the meeting takes place.

In terms of family sections, it really depends on the place. Many of the higher end places are not as segregated as you describe; Riyadh is a bit more severe than Jeddah in this regard in my experience.

All that said, while these things are possible, I don't want to give any specific details on a public forum, particularly that could lead to the women being identified or the meeting places being watched!

It's ok, he just throws his abbaya on along with niqab - and meets up with his crew wherever and whenever he wants to.

Makes you wonder why we went to Afghanistan when Saudi does things like this and half the 911 hijackers were Saudis...

What irks me the most is the general silence of western feminists over female oppression in the Arab/Muslim world. Seems they are happy to blame Western men for something their grandfathers might have did but are silent over the lashings, stonings and second class status of their sisters in Saudi.

N.

I don't think there is a general silence - I've seen plenty of outrage about it - but the problem is, when many women in those places actually support that oppression, do western feminists hurt their cause by attacking such practices?

This is actually what's playing out right now in France over the burqa ban.

thought they all were Saudi bar one from UAE

Maybe, but Bush and Blair convinced me that they were of Iraqi, Afghani and Pakistani origin.

I am confident that Bush junior III, once in power, will realise the mistake and will do true justice – Aye hang on! he is planning to invade Iran

I stand corrected...most of the hijackers were Saudi. I believe there was one or two Egyptians as well.

In any case all were from countries we haven't invaded or threatened for some bizzare reason. The OPEC cartel really runs things in the world.

N.