Saudi Restaurants Begin Banning Single Women

Various restaurants around the kingdom have objected to ‘shocking’ behavior which includes flirting, smoking and using a mobile phone.

Sun, November 30, 2014

A Saudi Arabian woman on her cell phone. Saudi restaurant owners have begin to ban single women for objectionable behavior including use of a cell phone.

In another blow to women’s rights in the desert kingdom, Saudi Arabian restaurants have begun to ban single women from entering their premises. The ban has also been extended to  women not accompanied by a male guardian.

Signs in various restaurants around the kingdom have begun popping up announcing the ban. Restaurant owners claim that women in restaurants have been behaving in “a shocking way,” according to one blogger who supported the ban.

The objectionable behavior included flirting, smoking and using a mobile phone. Local media Al Marsad reported a typical remark written by one blogger who wrote: “She would come in alone and focuses on her mobile from which emanates loud music.  She then takes out a cigarette and upsets other guests who may call in the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. This could cause problem for the restaurant. So the best thing is to keep women away from restaurants unless they have a male custodian. That way the restaurant is not shut down because of the misbehavior of an adolescent or mentally unstable woman.”

Other disagreed, writing, “This is utterly ridiculous. This means that a hungry woman who wants to eat something needs a male custodian to enter a restaurant,” Harraq said. “This is so shameful. Such attitudes are not accepted from any Muslim regarding anyone, let alone a hungry woman who wants to eat something and who will sit in the family section of the restaurant. She is a human being and she has feelings and emotions.”

Speaking to Al-Hayat, one Saudi woman said that restaurants and cafes are the two of the main sources of recreation for women in the kingdom. “If they’re going to ban us from entering restaurants, where are we supposed to go?” she asked, requesting that any restaurant that bans women should be boycotted.

Rights groups expressed outrage over this new phenomenon, which they said were illegal. “These signs are against the law and reflect the personal opinions of the restaurant owners,” said Khalid Al-Fakhri , secretary general for the National Society for Human Rights. “Restaurants should come up with alternative solutions if it’s customers are behaving inappropriately.”

Saudi Arabia has one of the world’s most dismal records for women’s rights. Women in the kingdom are forbidden to be in public without a male guardian. Most sports activities and professions are forbidden to them. Saudi Arabia is also the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.

Meanwhile, despite the requirement for women to wear burkas in public, sexual harassment of Saudi women remains rampant (see video below):

Posted on 30 Nov 14 by Clarion Project

Turkish Deputy PM: Women Shouldn’t Laugh in Public

Hundreds of women posted photos of themselves laughing to protest remarks that women should refrain from laughing in public.

Tue, July 29, 2014

Pictures uploaded by Turkish women to social media

The Deputy PM of Turkey Bülent Arınç said today that women should refrain from laughing in public, because it’s immodest. In response to Arınç’s remarks, hundreds of Turkish women posted pictures of themselves laughing on social media platforms.

Arınç, who spoke at an Eid el-Fitr gathering yesterday said, “[The woman] will know what is  [forbidden] and not haram. She will not laugh in public. She will not be inviting in her attitudes and will protect her chasteness.”

Following Arınç’s remarks, hundreds of women protested by posting pictures of themselves laughing on Twitter and other social media sites like Instagram.

Esin Uzun @kurukuyukugu Follow Günün anlam ve önemi kahkaha ise, size en iffetli kahkahamı yolluyorum;) #iffet #kahkaha 1:43 PM – 29 Jul 2014

Sevim Gözay @SevimGozay
Follow
gülüyoruz afedersin.. #kahkaha
3:17 PM – 28 Jul 2014
57 Retweets 1,304 favorites

Arınç chided Turkish women saying, “Where are our girls, who slightly blush, lower their heads and turn their eyes away when we look at their face, becoming the symbol of chastity?” he said.

This is not the first time that a member of PM Erdogan’s AK Party expouses misogynist views in public.

Erdogan himself announced plans to crack down on abortions and Caesarean section births. In 2008, he gave a speech on International Women’s Day in the city of Usak in which he advised women to have at least three children, but he said that he preferred that they have five.

In 2010, he told a group of women’s rights activists who he invited to Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul: “I don’t believe in equality between men and women.”

Posted on 29 Jul 14 by Clarion Project

[Editor’s Note: This does not necessarily entail the beliefs, thoughts, or theories of the local Act chapters or the National Act office…they are my beliefs, thoughts and/or theories. Seems that satan, through Islam (the son of perdition {satan’s “son”, the anti-Christ}) is working on commanding complete control over the earth by pushing off ridiculous things like this, that goes against the True Gos, Hashem, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (which let humans know that a merry heart does good like a medicine), laughter is one of the best medicines there is, and it shows that one has freedom. With this new “law” it shows control…]