BuffettNews.com

Posted: **February 8, 2008 6:11 pm**

.... you were born in the west? Ladies, in particular?

Wanna talk total lack of freedom? How's this?

I count my blessings I was born in a country where the word "freedom" means something.

U.S. Woman Strip-Searched, Detained for Stopping by Starbucks With Male Colleague

An American woman who was arrested and strip-searched by religious police in Saudi Arabia for drinking coffee at a Starbucks with a male colleague says she is determined to stay in the strict Islamic kingdom to challenge its rules.

The woman, identified only as "Yara," is the mother of three children. She was born in Libya to Jordanian parents and is an observant Muslim, but she was raised as an all-American kid in Salt Lake City. She and her husband have for years lived in Saudi Arabia, where she has her own business in the capital of Riyadh.

Yara, 37, went to the Starbucks on Monday with her business associate to get some work done and use the internet after a power failure shut down her office. While the two were sitting in the curtained-off family section of the Starbucks, the country's bearded religious police entered and arrested her for being with a man other than her husband.

Reports in the Saudi press say religious police detained her for immoral behavior, took her cell phone, strip-searched her, kept her from calling her husband and prevented her from seeing a lawyer.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/Sto ... 213&page=1

Posted: **February 8, 2008 6:16 pm**

They are starting to get with it - apparently they are going to allow a female to go to a hotel room and stay on her own

Posted: **February 8, 2008 6:17 pm**

Yes i do appreciate living here and the freedoms we have! That is pretty damned scary!

Posted: **February 8, 2008 6:27 pm**

The headline is very misleading...

While I don't agree with the way they treat women over there, why the need for the over the top headline?

Posted: **February 8, 2008 6:30 pm**

I really think it is what you are used to ..... the people over there probably think is totally bizarre some of the things we are allowed to do .... its how your brain is programmed in your upbringing - they probably dont see it to be a problem.

Posted: **February 8, 2008 6:31 pm**

creeky wrote:I really think it is what you are used to ..... the people over there probably think is totally bizarre some of the things we are allowed to do .... its how your brain is programmed in your upbringing - they probably dont see it to be a problem.

I've lived, briefly, in that part of the world.... the women absolutely see the poor treatment of women as a problem.

Posted: **February 8, 2008 6:32 pm**

SharkOnLand wrote:The headline is very misleading...

While I don't agree with the way they treat women over there, why the need for the over the top headline?

That's what I thought. The first sentence says they were at a Starbucks. If it's illegal to drink coffee, what is Starbucks doing there?

Posted: **February 8, 2008 6:34 pm**

chippewa wrote:
SharkOnLand wrote:The headline is very misleading...

While I don't agree with the way they treat women over there, why the need for the over the top headline?
That's what I thought. The first sentence says they were at a Starbucks. If it's illegal to drink coffee, what is Starbucks doing there?

They are on their way to world domination ... .they are popping up all over the place here .... I am standing my ground and go to an aussie owned place

Posted: **February 8, 2008 6:35 pm**

I've removed the headline..... that's not the point.... yeah, the press is going for sensationalism, so what's new.... surely you can see past that to the point of the article....

Posted: **February 8, 2008 6:38 pm**

<<<<personally thinks drinking coffee is a crime - it is a drug - caffeine is bad for you

(what else do you expect from a person that had to get through the withdrawls to get caffeine free

)

Posted: **February 8, 2008 6:48 pm**

As a U.S. citizen in a foreign country, you have to be respectful (or at the very least knowledgeable) of their laws. Even if they are completely ridiculous. Note: I do not condone their treatment of women, at all, just to be straight.

I find it completely despicable that they strip searched her when it's illegal for a woman to be with any man but her husband

That's completely terrible and uncalled for in my mind, and even counter-intuitive. I mean she can't be with a man other than her husband, but it's ok for a couple of guys to strip search her?

Posted: **February 8, 2008 6:58 pm**

She was with a man that wasn't her husband. She was lucky, they stone women for less in less civilized muslim countries.

Posted: **February 8, 2008 7:13 pm**

SharkOnLand wrote:As a U.S. citizen in a foreign country, you have to be respectful (or at the very least knowledgeable) of their laws. Even if they are completely ridiculous. Note: I do not condone their treatment of women, at all, just to be straight.

She's an observant Muslim who has lived in Saudi for several years. Until very recently, it was acceptable for work colleagues to sit in the "family" section of Starbucks and other restaurants.

Posted: **February 8, 2008 8:13 pm**

I kid you not.... When I was deployed to Qatar, we went into Doha (their capital) a few times and

.................I saw a pickup truck with a male driving, a goat strapped in the passenger side and his woman in the truck bed.

I had so many looks because I was lucky enough to sit shotgun because of 1 male and 3 ladies in the car with him.....

and I eat lefty.... it was so hard for me to eat right handed!

Posted: **February 8, 2008 8:27 pm**

To clarify, I was confused about the ABC News headline, not the BN thread title.

I don't claim to know anything about that culture, so I'm hesitant to tell them they should change. I can't imagine women would accept such a thing, but obviously they have no choice if they're born into it. And how can they do anything about it, when they have no voice? A vicious circle, hopefully change can come from within. But the more I read about Saudi Arabia, the less I understand about them.

Posted: **February 8, 2008 11:19 pm**

I don't give a damn about their culture or anything else. The way women are treated in some parts of the world is truly deplorable.

Posted: **February 8, 2008 11:35 pm**

The stories are not sensationalized fabrications
The Saudis are right up there with the Taliban as far as their f**ked-up , bass-ackwards record of human rights.

Don't forget Osama bin Laden and ALL the hijackers were Saudi-born.

Here's where I attach a pic of our f**ked-up , bass-ackwards POTUS holding hands with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia...

ladies?....

Posted: **February 9, 2008 12:34 am**

Hell yes I'm glad I'm born in the US!!!

And I think the atrocities heaped on women in other countries is horrible.

HOWEVER - I think instead of worrying about what goes on clear across the world the US needs to address the problems in our own country - like health care and affordable medicines. Fix the VA Hospital system, I mean after all it's been screwed up for like 40+ years

Posted: **February 9, 2008 7:54 am**

Wino you know wrote:I don't give a damn about their culture or anything else. The way women are treated in some parts of the world is truly deplorable.

AMEN

Posted: **February 9, 2008 7:58 am**

Shudder! There's a life I can't imagine having to live

I'm so glad I live in Michigan. You could be cuddled up to a man who's not you husband and everyone would just assume you were cold

BuffettNews.com

Aren't you glad....?

Aren't you glad....?