# Great US ally Saudi Arabia arrests woman for shocking photo **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 14, 2016, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660 "2016-12-14T03:30:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/81 "2016-12-14T21:05:27Z")
> [@CatandMouse](#): > > That’s a pretty outrageous thing to say to someone you don’t know. If this woman has other options right now, please make them known. We’re in the Pit, which by the way wouldn’t exist if we could only insult people we knew. On this board you have to be judged by your posts alone and your post came across as harsh and unfeeling. Also dumb: what the hell does female genital mutilation in some African states have to do with this? That came across as oh we can’t criticize the Saudis because some Christian countries have barbaric practices too. You richly deserved every epithet I threw at you. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/82 "2016-12-14T22:33:09Z")
> [@CatandMouse](#): > > The poster wasn’t discussing flavors. > > She was discussing how sharia law is applied. For example, Turkey is Muslim-majority, but have more of a secular system vs Saudi Arabia where sharia plays a dominant role. There are also mixed systems where sharia law is not dominant, but plays a significant role in the nation’s legal system. Oh really? That’s fascinating. Now go fuck a cactus. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/83 "2016-12-14T22:56:50Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Oh really? That’s fascinating. Now go fuck a cactus. A saguaro, for realism. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/84 "2016-12-14T23:09:18Z")
> [@Nawth\_Chucka](#): > > A saguaro, for realism. Now you’re just needling him. ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/85 "2016-12-14T23:24:12Z")
> [@CatandMouse](#): > > I have no idea of why you would have a problem with that term. It simply means sharia plays a dominant role in Saudi Arabia’s legal system. Cite that this is a term that actually exists? ---
**Author:** ![CatandMouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@CatandMouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CatandMouse)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2016, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/86 "2016-12-14T23:35:37Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > We’re in the Pit, which by the way wouldn’t exist if we could only insult people we knew. On this board you have to be judged by your posts alone and your post came across as harsh and unfeeling. Also dumb: what the hell does female genital mutilation in some African states have to do with this? That came across as oh we can’t criticize the Saudis because some Christian countries have barbaric practices too. > > You richly deserved every epithet I threw at you. I’m sorry that facts bother you so much. There is a misconception that female genital mutilation happens only in Muslim countries, otherwise Politifact wouldn’t have created a page about it. Criticize all you want, that’s not going to help that poor Saudi woman, and I doubt TrumpCo is going to do anything since he’s a big fan of Shariah law. > **[The time Donald Trump praised Shariah law in Saudi Arabia](https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/09/time-donald-trump-called-saudi-arabia-good-place-get-divorce/)** > > Because it made it easier for men to divorce their wives ---
**Author:** ![CatandMouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@CatandMouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CatandMouse)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/87 "2016-12-15T00:24:32Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > One of these days, they might get dragged kicking and screaming forward into the 14th century… Hopefully, but it’s going to be a slow process. Just recently 14,000 Saudi women signed a petition [calling for an end to the country’s male guardianship system, and women are now allowed to vote.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/12/13/a-saudi-woman-tweeted-a-photo-of-herself-without-a-hijab-police-have-now-arrested-her/?utm_term=.1075e9e75b8f) ---
**Author:** ![CatandMouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c89c15/32.png) [@CatandMouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CatandMouse)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/88 "2016-12-15T00:59:36Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Oh really? That’s fascinating. Now go fuck a cactus. I’ve never treated you with disrespect. In fact, I have not treated anyone on this forum with disrespect. Normally I treat others with the same respect they’ve shown me. But lately I’m in no mood to be ugly, so you’ve just won a spot on my ignore. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/89 "2016-12-15T02:00:01Z")
> [@Jane\_Smythe](#): > > I have lived and worked in the ME (not Saudi) for seven and a half years. I work with Middle Eastern people every day. Saudi is a full sharia nation. The people I know don’t agree with that but accept it. It is another culture from the US or the West, and it is my belief, having lived around the world, that we must accept other cultures as they are. If we demand every other culture or country live by our standards, we would not have any allies or very few. > > You will note that Saudi does not demand we live by their standards. Something to think about: the freedom that Western women have leads to thousands every year being abducted, raped, and murdered. I don’t think that we should change in anyway the freedoms Western women have: certainly I expect them for myself, but the point is that a culture like Saudi Arabia would say the freedoms women in our culture have lead to a lot of danger for them. > > I don’t think this woman should be arrested for what she did, but it is against the law in Saudi, so she knew what she was up against. We hear only the worst things about Saudi culture and form an understanding about it by those worst things. It’s just like other cultures knowing only the worst things about America and forming an overall opinion of the country by those things. Just like any other culture huh. Just like those cultures where they “honor kill” rape victims, or practice forced female circumcision (mutilation) or any other abomination. OK, if you say so. Maybe if those assholes weren’t backward fucked up scumbags, doing horrible shit, we wouldn’t hear about it??? ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/90 "2016-12-15T02:23:04Z")
just to ask jayne a question south Africa practiced apartheid until the us artistic community(among others ) got involved in helping to eliminate it and free mandela … should everyone have rolled over and said … well that’s just how they do things… ? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/91 "2016-12-15T04:50:02Z")
Oh, for fuck’s sake people. We have three trolls in this thread, and you’re all giving them ample material. Okay, so it’s probably one troll playing three personas, but still. ---
**Author:** ![Jane\_Smythe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f04885/32.png) [@Jane\_Smythe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jane_Smythe)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/92 "2016-12-15T05:22:10Z")
> [@lilihob](#): > > You are joking? Right? > This is a meta joke about how a right on, middle class, kumbaya, white privilege, woman would think. > I have a maid and a nanny, I demand feminist rights, and my husband Adrian MUST share all child care evenly. > But female oppression, genital mutilation, sharia law, that’s culture. > Hey, I have a culture too. > It says that another culture that doesn’t let a woman have the same rights as a man, and won’t let her leave unless the man that owns her gives permission, is wrong. > Now, whose culture are you going to argue with? > Trick question. > Mine, because it sounds a hell of a lot like yours. > Self hating, right on liberal caricature. It’s not a matter of whose culture is right: it is a matter of the fact that cultures are different and you have NO RIGHT to dictate what someone else’s culture should be like. You have no right to dictate customs, values, and morals in another culture. If you think you do, then you are deeply wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/93 "2016-12-15T05:30:27Z")
Dictate, no. Scorn, mock, ridicule, criticize… you betcha. ---
**Author:** ![Jane\_Smythe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f04885/32.png) [@Jane\_Smythe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jane_Smythe)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/94 "2016-12-15T05:31:10Z")
> [@CatandMouse](#): > > This woman has 3 choices, a) she can move, b) she can accept sharia laws & abide by them, c) or she can stay and fight, risking more lashes & even death. > > Female genital mutilation is also common in Christian countries, btw. > [PolitiFact | Fact-checking Reza Aslan on Bill Maher's 'not very sophisticated' rant on Islam](http://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/oct/02/reza-aslan/fact-checking-reza-aslans-retort-bill-maher/) Female genital mutilation is not common in most modern day Arab cultures. The vision most Americans and Westerners have of Islamic culture is very skewed by bigotry, ignorance, and lack of critical thinking skills. For example: most modern day Christians do not abide by the primitive tenets of Christianity, like stoning adulterers. Most modern day Islamic cultures also do not abide by the primitive tenets of Islam. Those with full sharia law, such as Saudi, generally do, but most do not. Also keep in mind that Saudi is a small country with a small population. Compared to the total number of Muslims on Earth, only a very tiny minority live in Saudi, in the whole of the ME as a matter of fact. You all assume that all Muslims do things that only sharia law countries do. That’s like saying all of America is exactly the same as Wyoming, which is the least populated US state. In fact, most of the country is very different from Wyoming. Saudi has a population of 29 million. The world population of Muslims is 1.6 billion. ---
**Author:** ![Jane\_Smythe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f04885/32.png) [@Jane\_Smythe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jane_Smythe)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/95 "2016-12-15T05:33:17Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Oh, for fuck’s sake people. We have three trolls in this thread, and you’re all giving them ample material. > > Okay, so it’s probably one troll playing three personas, but still. Who is a troll? Just stating an opposing position is being a troll on this message board? ---
**Author:** ![Jane\_Smythe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f04885/32.png) [@Jane\_Smythe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jane_Smythe)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/96 "2016-12-15T05:36:35Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > just to ask jayne a question south Africa practiced apartheid until the us artistic community(among others ) got involved in helping to eliminate it and free mandela … should everyone have rolled over and said … well that’s just how they do things… ? You are making a false analogy. Sharia law is the law of Islam, the original law, and the law, therefore, of Muslims, who are more than 99% of the population of Saudi Arabia. Apartheid was a law of the European imperialist government, of the invaders and oppressors over the indigenous people. Totally different thing. ---
**Author:** ![Jane\_Smythe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f04885/32.png) [@Jane\_Smythe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jane_Smythe)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/97 "2016-12-15T05:45:19Z")
> [@CatandMouse](#): > > Hopefully, but it’s going to be a slow process. Just recently 14,000 Saudi women signed a petition [calling for an end to the country’s male guardianship system, and women are now allowed to vote.](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/12/13/a-saudi-woman-tweeted-a-photo-of-herself-without-a-hijab-police-have-now-arrested-her/?utm_term=.1075e9e75b8f) And keep in mind that in the West, up through Victorian times, which ended early in the 20th century, women where the property of men. Women were ‘chattle’. The term chattel comes from a Middle English word meaning “property.” It is commonly used to refer to degraded or enslaved people; those seen as property. It is only within the past 100 years that women in the West have gained such freedoms as they have nowadays. Islamic culture and religion are many hundreds of years younger than Western culture. In the ME, most of these countries were primitive cultures up until oil was discovered in the mid-20th century. I am surprised that people on this board seem to have a world view with such a limited perspective. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/98 "2016-12-15T05:47:02Z")
> [@Jane\_Smythe](#): > > You are making a false analogy. Sharia law is the law of Islam, the original law, and the law, therefore, of Muslims, who are more than 99% of the population of Saudi Arabia. > > Apartheid was a law of the European imperialist government, of the invaders and oppressors over the indigenous people. Totally different thing. How so? The Afrikaners had been there since the 1700s. How many generations of local ancestors does one have to have before one can participate in the country’s government? ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/99 "2016-12-15T05:53:36Z")
> [@Jane\_Smythe](#): > > You are making a false analogy. Sharia law is the law of Islam, the original law, and the law, therefore, of Muslims, who are more than 99% of the population of Saudi Arabia. > > Apartheid was a law of the European imperialist government, of the invaders and oppressors over the indigenous people. Totally different thing. So the difference is that Sharia law is a system of savagery and bigotry that is 1000 years older than apartheid. And therefore even more fucked-up and removed from modern reality. Who could argue with that? In fact, I think I would like to subscribe to your newsletter, _The Trolling Bigot_, for more delightful insights like that. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2016, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660/100 "2016-12-15T05:56:23Z")
actually no the original religion of the middle east was a mix of Judaism, byzantine orthodox and what became the catholic church Islam was a rebuttal to what Mohamad considered the spiritual corruption of said byzantine empire and how they treated the parts of the middle east they conquered (sources said used the mideast as their version of Bangkok and treated the natives worse than dirt ) but in the house of saud’s case when they were trying ot take over no one but an almost dead obscure branch of Islam was the only support they could get and they cut a deal … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-us-ally-saudi-arabia-arrests-woman-for-shocking-photo/774660.md?page=6)