I just saw the same article about half an hour ago and had roughly similar thoughts: an example of equity of some sort.
But if you look a little deeper, I think it's still heavily anti-woman. I bet that the punishments for the 57 accused are not anywhere near as serious as perhaps those for women in a similar position.
FWIW, even my Arab friends in the Gulf region have told me they look at the Saudis as nutty when it comes to their gender issues. If you look at Bahrain, the UAE and such, they're much more moderate on such things. Yes, there's the covering up of women - even in the mall of Dubai, but at least the women are allowed to go skiing in Ski Dubai. They have head-to-toe-covering ski wear, of course, but it's still possible.
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I just saw the same article about half an hour ago and had roughly similar thoughts: an example of equity of some sort.
But if you look a little deeper, I think it's still heavily anti-woman. I bet that the punishments for the 57 accused are not anywhere near as serious as perhaps those for women in a similar position.
FWIW, even my Arab friends in the Gulf region have told me they look at the Saudis as nutty when it comes to their gender issues. If you look at Bahrain, the UAE and such, they're much more moderate on such things. Yes, there's the covering up of women - even in the mall of Dubai, but at least the women are allowed to go skiing in Ski Dubai. They have head-to-toe-covering ski wear, of course, but it's still possible.