Can’t Beat ‘em? Join ‘em!
3 April 2006 by King Retard
Here’s an interesting story out of Saudi Arabia.
RIYADH (Reuters) - Tired of playing second fiddle to men in conservative Saudi Arabia, five women decided if you can’t beat them, join them.
Al Watan newspaper said the five women underwent sex change surgery abroad over the past 12 months after they developed a “psychological complex” due to male domination.
Women in Saudi Arabia, which adopts an austere interpretation of Islam, are not allowed to drive or even go to public places unaccompanied by a male relative.
The newspaper quoted a senior cleric as saying the authorities have to fill what he described as a legal vacuum by issuing laws against sex change operations.
An interior ministry official told al Watan such cases are examined by religious authorities, and sometimes by psychologists, but those who undergo sex change are never arrested.
Good for them. Now they can do all of the daring things men take for granted, such as showing their faces and hair, driving, and going outside without a male relative.
3 April 2006, on 5:18 pm
That’s just fucked up.
3 April 2006, on 6:52 pm
I know. I can’t find anything to say ditto.
3 April 2006, on 6:52 pm
I mean, “except” ditto…
3 April 2006, on 8:12 pm
After reading this post, I went out on an errand without thinking twice about it; had to go do it, took a break, jumped in my car, and drove.
I just now realized I wouldn’t be able to do that if this were Saudi Arabia. First of all, I wouldn’t be allowed to wear my “masculine” pants, or have my hair cut so “boyishly short.” Even if I did, I couldn’t simply walk out the door looking like this, turn my face up to the sun, and feel the breeze on the back of my neck. Let alone own a car that I could drive around by myself in with no one to watch where I was going or what I was doing - heck, I might go have sex with a man I wasn’t married to!
How sad that life for one of the sexes has become so unbearable in a part of this world in the 21st century that some individuals have to change their nature-given gender just to enjoy the liberties I take for granted. I love being a woman, even when faced with sexism; I can’t imagine wanting to change. These people must be so desperate to be willing to go through not only the physical trauma of a sex change, but the reactions/backlash/punishment of their families, friends, and government as well.
Not a positive statement on either their community or their religion…
3 April 2006, on 8:23 pm
Furthermore, Eve, you are a woman free to declare yourself an atheist (for now!). They’d probably kill you for that (since rejecting Islam is punishable by death under sharia law, as we saw in Afghanistan recently).
3 April 2006, on 8:51 pm
“Not a positive statement on either their community r their religion”
You would think that they would just leave and find some place in the world to live in freedom. It’s not like anyone would recognize them. It just amazes me that this is the best idea they can come up with. Where do they get the money for the operation?
3 April 2006, on 9:05 pm
Yeah, if they can get out and get the operation, can’t they just get out? And good point. Where does the money come from?
I read this remarkable article on Saudi Arabia in the New Yorker a while back:
http://www.lawrencewright.com/art-saudi.html
Typical of the New Yorker, it was the most in-depth, remarkably revealing piece about Saudia Arabia I have yet come across. Well worth printing and reading.
The ending of the piece was remarkable… And a reminder that everyone in that country is oppressed.
And Hasan Hatrash [an aspiring musician who saw absolutely no future for his art in a kingdom that bans music -- and practically every other human pleasure you can imagine] wrote to say that he’d gone to Malaysia for a vacation. One day in Kuala Lumpur, he was invited to play with a band. “I had the time of my life, and the number of chicks who wanted to talk to me was more than I could handle,” he reported. “The good news is, they invited me to play with them in their second gig at a bigger club on Sunday. Wow! Finally, I’m living!”
He decided not to go home.
4 April 2006, on 1:57 pm
jimmer, Sean: Hmmm. I hadn’t thought about that; if these are women with enough freedom to fly in and out of SA, and enough money to get a sex change, then why not simply relocate in a freer part of the world?
*sigh* Maybe they’re just transgendered individuals who actually *like* living under “sharia” law - as men, that is. The injustice then would be their religion’s call to find some way of stopping and/or punishing them for the sex change, short of arresting them, it seems, instead of simply letting them live with whatever genitalia they prefer and can afford.
Sean: *Music* is banned in SA???
4 April 2006, on 2:03 pm
“Maybe they’re just transgendered individuals who actually *like* living under “sharia” law - as men, that is.”
I would be totally fascinated by a study of that kind and would read the hell out of any of it, if it is available.
4 April 2006, on 6:16 pm
That’s just fucked up.
That was the first thing that entered my mind after reading this.
4 April 2006, on 7:02 pm
Marcus, so would I.
Yeah, star; I’m back at that’s-just-fucked-up, too.
4 April 2006, on 9:53 pm
I heard a song about 8 yrs ago. The detachable penis. Apparently this guy lost his detachable penis and was looking for it everywhere. I sure hope those women have theirs securely fastened. I too am at That’s just fucked up. Proof maybe of how their diseas er ah religion is insidious.
5 April 2006, on 6:07 am
“Sean: *Music* is banned in SA??? ”
Sort of. All mustic that isn’t Islamic gospel music is banned. There’s no popular radio. The only singing that’s allowed is by Imam’s for religious services or prayer.
I saw a piece on this on some PBS show once. Am American born Muslim went back to Saudi Arabia (where his parents were from) with a guitar and sang contemporary music - about Allah - and they told him what he was doing was a sin.
5 April 2006, on 6:08 am
You also can’t drink, if you’re female you can’t smoke, there’s no dancing, there’s no partying and there’s no sex (unless you’re married). No wonder these people are so willing to blow themselves up. The amount of pent up frustration and boredom would make me want to kill myself too.
5 April 2006, on 4:37 pm
Sheesh - everything new I learn on this thread just keeps sounding worse and worse.
5 April 2006, on 4:50 pm
Re: “Detachable Penis.” That song is a staple of our local alt rock stations and has been for years. It’s particularly funny if you grew up in New York City and get the reference where he finds some street vendor trying to sell it amongst his other junk wares at St. Mark’s Place.
5 April 2006, on 4:53 pm
Eve: Sheesh - everything new I learn on this thread just keeps sounding worse and worse.
jimmer, Sean: “Detachable Penis.”
Except that. I mean, I know it sounds bad to guys, but it’s funny. And a good illustration of freedom of speech here in the USA - when the fundies aren’t trying to squash it. After hearing about SA, I really need that!
5 April 2006, on 5:09 pm
The band is named King Missile. Here are the lyrics:
http://www.anysonglyrics.com/lyrics/k/kingmissile/detatchablepenis.htm
5 April 2006, on 5:29 pm
I remember that song fondly. I even remember MTV running the video, although it may have been on Beavis and Butthead.
5 April 2006, on 10:37 pm
No music! Well that squares it then. No wonder these fuckers are crazy.
10 May 2006, on 10:07 am
hey people, peace,,,,,,
just wanted to say, i’m living in saudi, music is not illegal, there are many musicians here, the things is that western music is not that popular, and hey women can smoke, where the hell did you get all that news from guys??? i know its kinda bad here, but its surely not as bad as many people are saying….
cheers
10 May 2006, on 12:30 pm
“and hey women can smoke”
Wow they can smoke. That really makes up for all of the other stuff they can’t do.
10 May 2006, on 12:50 pm
We got the news from reputable magazines like the New Yorker — known to be the best fact-checking publication on the planet.
10 May 2006, on 12:58 pm
“music is not illegal, there are many musicians here,”
This directly contradicts a documentary done by PBS. Forgive me, but I’m much more likely to believe that, instead of a random poster to a blog.
10 May 2006, on 1:27 pm
I have read in many reputable sources that only religious music is allowed.
10 May 2006, on 1:49 pm
“I have read in many reputable sources that only religious music is allowed. ”
Right. According to the documentary I referrence (which I’m looking for online now) . Or at least it’s not a sin. Music like we think of it, is. There’s no Saudi Idol, is what I’m saying. they don’t consider that “music”.
10 May 2006, on 2:06 pm
Well, this bit on National Geographic’s web site is much different from what I have read:
http://tinyurl.com/lelgz
It says that some of the younger generation even listen to R&B and gangsta rap. Freedom of musical expression is not condoned across the board, and there does still seem to be quite a bit of contention, but this is different from what I have read over the years. Maybe this is a very recent revolution?
Here is what the New Yorker said just two years ago (linked to above):
“Life in the kingdom changed after the 1979 attack on the Grand Mosque. Wahhabi clerics, with their fear of outside influences, waged war on art and the pleasures of the intellect. Music was the first victim. Umm Kulthum and Fairouz, the songbirds of the Arab world, disappeared from the Saudi television stations. A magnificent concert hall in Riyadh was completed in 1989, but no performance has ever been held there. The Islamic courts have even banned the music played when a telephone call is placed on hold. There had been some movie theatres, but they were all shut down.”
Again… Maybe some very recent changes??
Lya: was that PBS documentary an episode of Frontline, perhaps?
10 May 2006, on 3:14 pm
Even despite the music issue, what I find interesting is that women smoking is supposed to be evidence that a lot of the misogynistic practices described do not occur.
5 June 2006, on 2:06 pm
hey people, peace,,,,,,
just wanted to say, i’m living in saudi, music is not illegal, there are many musicians here, the things is that western music is not that popular, and hey women can smoke, where the hell did you get all that news from guys??? i know its kinda bad here, but its surely not as bad as many people are saying….
cheers.
Yes, people who live there do not realize how repressed they really are. Just recently 20 died drinking bad alcohol, see http://plancksconstant.org/blog1/2006/04/20_saudis_die_after_drinking_p.html and there is a huge undergound for it: http://plancksconstant.org/blog1/2006/04/what_muslims_do_when_they_need.html
You cannot live as a modern person, but you have no clue about that. Animals born in a zoo do not know they are caged.