The State visit

I rarely recommend the Independent but today there is some decent coverage of the indecent State visit by King Abdullah to this country. You can read the main article here where you can read about the torture rooms, the oppression of women and the Saudi government's financial support for hardline Maddrassas across the globe.

Saudi Arabia is apparently the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive a car.

Do you remember this news from 2002? A fire broke out in a girls school in Mecca, but the school was locked at the time of the fire. However when the students tried to escape the blaze, Saudi Arabia's religious police stopped them because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress. "15 girls died in the blaze and more than 50 others were injured. According to the al-Eqtisadiah daily newspaper, firemen confronted police after they tried to keep the girls inside because they were not wearing the headscarves and abayas (black robes) required by the kingdom's strict interpretation of Islam. One witness said he saw three policemen "beating young girls to prevent them from leaving the school because they were not wearing the abaya". The Saudi Gazette quoted witnesses as saying that the police - known as the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice - had stopped men who tried to help the girls and warned "it is a sinful to approach them". The father of one of the dead girls said that the school watchman even refused to open the gates to let the girls out. "Lives could have been saved had they not been stopped by members of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice," the newspaper concluded. Most of the victims were crushed in a stampede as they tried to flee the blaze. The school was locked at the time of the fire - a usual practice to ensure full segregation of the sexes."

If you want to learn more about life in Saudi Arabia I can recommend The Religious Policeman a blog by a Saudi Arabian now living in London. The blog was last updated in June 2006, but the articles on it are a good insight into life in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Also recommended are Stilettos in the Sand, a blog that gives the views, often trenchant, of an American woman living in Saudi Arabia and Saudi Jeans that gives the views of a twenty something Saudi man.