If these orifices had mothers, I'll bet their opinions would be different...
Prominent Saudi clerics and academics warned Wednesday against calls for equality and increased rights for women, saying such efforts aim to make Muslim women more like "infidel" Western types.
| Oh, Lawsie! Oh, help us all! Not "infidels"? |
Efforts to give women greater rights are part of an anti-Islamic campaign spearheaded by the United States, said 130 Saudi sheiks and academics in a statement obtained by The Associated Press Wednesday.
| "If they ain't cattle, they ain't Islamic..." |
Women in Saudi Arabia are segregated in public places, they cannot drive cars, and they must be covered from head to toe in public in this strict conservative society.
| The sight of a Soddy woman's ankle is said to drive men insane. And Soddy men have all seen one... |
Islamic laws protect women and their rights, the statement said.
| "You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to walk three paces behind your owner. You have the right to breed annually..." |
It said efforts to change such traditions are "a vicious campaign from (the Muslim community's) enemy, led by the American government, to divert it from its faith." U.S. criticism of Saudi Arabia's lack of democracy and support for militant Islam in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States have forced the government to open up somewhat. Newspaper and magazine articles and television programs began to discuss reform, and even host women, something that used to be taboo here.
| That's where they saw all those ankles, I'll bet... |
The statement said equality between men and women is not possible under Islam. "Any calls for absolute equality is an illegal and illogical call," the statement said. It said allowing women to drive, a repeated request in the kingdom, would lead to "many evils."
| "Them hussies'll be zooming off in all di-rections, just cruisin' for meat!" |
The religious establishment is one of the most powerful voices in conservative Saudi Arabia, which ascribes to a lunacy puritan form of Islam known as Wahhabism. |