h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

First of all, very nice, informative article. I'm sure it would be helpful to anyone going there.

The punishment for drug smuggling is very good and appropriate.
But the adultery/prostitution if you're found in a car with a man
thing is stretching it. I know its part of Islam, but I would love to know what's behind all these very strict, apparently some impractical and overbearing, regulations.

But, nice article.

peace,

While the West (Christian) generally regard man as the active seeker of sex and the woman as more passive, this is a western concept. To the Arabs in Saudi, it is believed that any two persons of opposite sexes will inevitably have sex and the women will be as aggressive seeking it as the men. The belief gives rise to the reality. Obscene phone calls are made by women in Saudi, more ofthn than men. I do not mean to make Saudis sound more promiscuous than Westerners, they are not. But the basic concept of aggressory and quarry is a Western one; so when a woman IS interested in a little action, thay are much more overt and agressive (given a safe place to pursue it). This is one reason that the sexes are kept separate. Islam protected the rights of women to some extent, about a thoudsand years before any similar protection was extended to women in the West. A man can NOT leave his property away from his wife or daughters - there is a strict percentage that each receives. Forty percent of businesses in Saudi are owned by (but not openly run by) women. Behind the scenes women can be very powerful. Bedouin women in the desrt that I met were less circumscribed - they need to work and the veil interferes. in the central regions, however - north of Riyadh (the Qassim) things are VERY strict. In any case, this view of the equal desire for sex on the part of both sexes is part of the reason for the segregation of sexes that you queried, and alas- it is the woman who produces the heir and so she gets the short end!