Nadine,
You might be confusing Taliban and Afghanistan with Saudi although I admit I'm not very sure of this.
I think the problem is not with women leaving the house by themselves. As far as I know <and I may be wrong>, they're allowed to do that. What they are not allowed is, to walk with any man who is not their husband or their brother or their father. And that rule too is limited to a very few countries in the Gulf region.
Not arguing about the rights and wrongs of that belief, I don't support it either, but the intention is precisely not to let women get raped and harmed. No law supports rape, in fact it is considered the ultimate offence, on par with adultry....which again is absurd but lets not go there...
And the police are everywhere.....if you wanna test that, try wearing a half sleeved T Shirt and go shopping with a male colleague outside ARAMCO. 5 minutes is all i give you ! <g>
Women chooose to suffer rather than stand up for themselves. Its a feminine thing, everywhere in the world. Besides, being poor, they realy have nowthing to go back to in their own country.
When I left Dubai, we had a live in housekeeper from BanglaDesh. It was heartbreaking to see the way she cried when we left, coz we had to send her back. She said her family couldn't even feed her. she'd have 2 slices of bread for the day, and in our house she was used to eating whatever she wanted whenever she wanted in whatever form she wanted....
Most of the time they remain quiet, a prisoner of their circumstances. |
