Why would any women want to live in the Middle east?

[Charlie P]

In Israel they beat you for not giving your seat up to a man. In other parts of the ME they lash you for adultery or getting raped,now this.[/b]
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Two weeks before Yara, an American businesswoman, was arrested by Saudi Arabia's religious police for sitting with a male colleague at Starbucks, she said she strolled past the very same cafe with another businessman: Neil Bush.[/b]
Bush, President George W. Bush's younger brother and CEO of the education software company Ignite!, was in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, speaking at an economic forum hosted by King Abdullah for hundreds of influential business leaders.
Yara, who does not want her last name revealed because of safety concerns, is a managing partner at a Saudi financial company. She went to hear Bush speak, and she said she invited him later to tour her company's offices, to give him a sense of what life was really like for women living in the capital.
"I was boasting about Riyadh, telling him it doesn't deserve its bad reputation," she said. "I told him I never experienced any harassment. I'd had no trouble as a woman. It was business as usual."
But on Monday, Yara learned that she had been wrong. She was thrown in jail, strip-searched, threatened and forced to sign false confessions by the kingdom's "Mutaween" police.
"When I was arrested, it was like going through an avalanche," she said. "All of my beliefs were completely destroyed."


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[/align]Yara's crime: sitting with a male business partner in the "family-only" section of the Starbucks -- the only area of the café where women and men can sit together. In Saudi Arabia, public contact between unrelated men and women is strictly prohibited.
Yara, who was born in Tripoli, Libya, to Jordanian parents, grew up in Salt Lake City. She moved to Saudi Arabia eight years ago with her husband, a prominent businessman.
The 37-year-old mother of three said she had an "all-American" upbringing in Utah and lived most of her life in the U.S. before moving to Riyadh.
She described herself as secular, and apolitical. "I am anti-political," she said. "I have never advocated for anything in my life."
She said she made a point of wearing an abaya and a headscarf, like most Saudi women, "out of cultural respect."
"I observed the rules and tried not to stand out in business settings," she said.
But on Monday, when the power failed in her company's offices, Yara and her male colleagues decided to use a nearby Starbucks, which has wireless Internet, as a temporary workspace.
She settled into a booth with a male colleague and opened her laptop. Moments later, she was arrested.
"Some men came up to us with very long beards and white dresses. They asked, 'Why are you here together?' I explained about the power being out in our office. They got very angry and told me what I was doing was a great sin," Yara recalled.
The men were from Saudi Arabia's Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a 10,000-strong police force charged with enforcing dress codes, sex segregation and the observance of prayer times.
Yara said they grabbed her mobile phone and pushed her into a taxi bound for Riyadh's main prison. There she was interrogated, strip-searched and forced to sign and fingerprint confessions of guilt.
Later, she was made to stand before a judge who condemned her behavior, telling her she would "burn in hell."
She said she spent hours in a filthy prison cell with dozens of other women who had been arrested by the religious police, before her husband used his political connections to secure her release.
She has since vowed to remain in Saudi Arabia and continue working, but she says she will never return to Riyadh and now travels with a bodyguard.
And her family is furious that the American Embassy hasn't done more to support her.
An embassy official said her case was being treated as "an internal Saudi matter" and would not offer further comment.
Starbucks was waiting to learn more about the facts surrounding the incident, a company spokesman said.
"œStarbucks was very concerned by reports that a customer was asked to leave one of our stores and arrested,"� said Brandon H. Borrman, a spokesman for the company.
"œStarbucks takes pride in respecting different cultures, and as a global company with locations in 44 countries, we recognize that religious customs, social norms and laws will vary among the communities where we work,"� he said.
Yara said she carries her American passport with her as a precaution. But on Monday, she said, her identification was confiscated by the religious police, who told her they didn't care about her citizenship.
She is taking medication to treat post-traumatic stress while she recovers from her ordeal at her family's home in Jeddah.
"Thank God they did not harm her more," said her husband, Hatim.
"The psychological impact is beyond description," Hatim said. "She's normally a very calm, stable woman. Now she's afraid to leave our compound

[BigTiny]

Something I noticed; she was a big fan of saudi before this happened, yet when her husband referred to their home, he used the word "compound" as the descriptive. They didn't just move in there after the arrest I'm assuming, so why live in a compound rather than a regular house if the place is so great?

[Aught Six]

Something I noticed; she was a big fan of saudi before this happened, yet when her husband referred to their home, he used the word "compound" as the descriptive. They didn't just move in there after the arrest I'm assuming, so why live in a compound rather than a regular house if the place is so great?

What's a regular house? Architecture varies around the world. We tend to spread out here because we have plenty of living space, but overseas people are a little more crowded. I'm sure you've seenrowhomes in American cities withwalled backyards.

Anyway, there's a lot of money to be made in Saudi Arabia. Lots of oil revenues, lots of businesses looking to expand and get a bigger piece of the pie.

[bergall]

ORIGINAL: Aught Six

What's a regular house? Architecture varies around the world. We tend to spread out here because we have plenty of living space, but overseas people are a little more crowded. I'm sure you've seenrowhomes in American cities withwalled backyards.

Anyway, there's a lot of money to be made in Saudi Arabia. Lots of oil revenues, lots of businesses looking to expand and get a bigger piece of the pie.

Two things I'm gonna say about this:

ONE:
a COMPOUND is a SECURED place where those in residence can somewhat relax and not worry about some
skunk-bag sawing off their heads with a boy-scout knife. So if the guy says he was going back to THE COMPOUND, take it that he is forced to live in a secured environment because of the subhuman population living OUTSIDE the compound.

TWO:
If a woman willingly goes to a place like that, then she better be aware of the law. In the USA she can
do what she wants and say what she wants and keep company with whomever she wants. Not so everywhere; more to the point, being "An American" does not necessarily impress the Saudis. American
expectations in this regard lead to resentment and boy oh boy can a bunch'a cops sure teach somebody what respect for the law is all about. I have no compassion for her because this entire incident is a result of either her ignorance or her arrogance. How does the song go? You dont spit into the wind...you don't pull the mask of the ol' Lone Ranger and you don't go to Starbucks with Jim....

[Aught Six]

a COMPOUND is a SECURED place where those in residence can somewhat relax and not worry about some
skunk-bag sawing off their heads with a boy-scout knife. So if the guy says he was going back to THE COMPOUND, take it that he is forced to live in a secured environment because of the subhuman population living OUTSIDE the compound.

Yes, this is the case in the Middle East. I've seen many normal looking suburban homes with concrete walls around them.

[bergall]

ORIGINAL: Aught Six

Yes, this is the case in the Middle East. I've seen many normal looking suburban homes with concrete walls around them.

Yeah; those walls tend to hold down the shrapnel and flying body parts...

[Canuck_Buck]

gentleman this is just so wrong, a man and a woman who are not married cannot drink coffee at startbucks together....she was bad and deserved lashings, friggin ho.....

[BigTiny]

My brother-in-law is a converted muslim (don't even get me started) and his wife is from pakistan. When he showed some pictures from their visit to her father's house, I noticed the walls around the house and 3 guys toting AK's at the gate. I asked my sister-in-law what was up with the walls and guns and she told me her dad had political enemies. All the while they kept telling me how great it was living in a muslim country. I have seen amway pyramid schemes pitched better.

BTW, they were over on an extended visit when the SHTF over in pakistan this last time. They were on a plane that night. It cut a month off their stay. They have never left the US in that kind of hurry, at least, not yet. Just remember, it's the religion of peace.

[kevin1]

"I observed the rules and tried not to stand out in business settings," she said.

Apparently not...

When traveling abroad the very first thing that is stressed is "Obey all of the local laws." You're not in America when you travel, they don't care who you are, you still have to obey the laws whether you agree with them or not.

[falcon]

Theroyal family that rules Saudi Arabia has allowed the Mutawa-the religious police, to run rampant. When I first went to work there in the early 1980s things were pretty calm. There were large sections of the country where women did not wear veils. In order to hold onto power and show just how pious they are, the royals have allowed the religious police to rule the country. The Mutawa have recently murdered several folks.

Every time an Arab dictator gets into trouble he turns to Islam to bail him out.Saddam realized he was in big trouble after he invaded Kuwait, so he turned his secular country into an mild Islamic state. Folks in Saudi are really getting fed up with the shenanigans of the religious police and the Saudi royals.

Yes, there is money to be made in Saudi and I am making some of that money. That does not mean that I have tolike the medieval theocracy that rules the place. A couple of my clients there are very well heeled and theyspeak out against the government.