Saudi Arabia's national airline to introduce gender segregation after a string of complaints

[brooklynite]

Source: Daily Mail

Saudi Arabia's national airline is allegedly planning to separate male and female passengers on its flights, in accordance to strict rules enforced by the Gulf kingdom.

Gulf media report that Saudia will keep men and women segregated onboard, unless they are close relatives.

The move follows a spate of complaints from male fliers unwilling to allow other males to sit next to their wives and other female family members.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-2894229/Saudi-Arabia-s-national-airline-introduce-gender-segregation-string-complaints-male-passengers.html

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Maybe with a curtain down the middle of the aisle...

[cosmicone]

1. Upon check-in, everyone should be stripped

and asked to wear a burkha.

Then no one will know if it is a male or a female passenger.

[bluestateguy]

2. What a fine progressive forward looking religion

[nichomachus]

5. I'm pretty sure that's not what they're aiming for

They're into that "old time religion." We have a Christian church here in which women are not allowed to speak or ask questions. If they have any questions, they have to ask their husband or father at home and he will enlighten them on the word of god.

We also have a synagogue in which men and women have to sit in separate sections, which are divided by large curtains. The women can hear, but not see, the men praying. The men can neither see nor near the women because the women remain silent.

[Tace]

24. Here In Vermont, Separate Entrances For Males And Females On Old Meeting Houses

Two identical doors, right and left, on the front. I think they likely sat apart on either side too. There are lots of these little meeting houses in these parts. They were also used as schools during the week. One is my next door neighbor about a half mile down the road. Built around 1800 or so.

[nichomachus]

28. We had those on my Catholic grammar school

A door on one side with "Boys" chiseled in the granite above the doorway and the same for "Girls" on the other side.

[LiberalElite]

36. If I recall correctly

there was a time secular schools also had separate entrances for boys and girls.

[treestar]

41. In Bethlehem, PA

There is a Moravian graveyard. Tombstones for men are on one side and women on the other! Gotta keep them apart even in the afterlife!

[AtheistCrusader]

13. I'm sure a militant feminist will be along shortly to tell us this is 'beautiful'.

That's what happened to me last time, anyway.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1264&pid=5356


(For the record, I'm cool with militant feminists that are actually militant about actual feminism. Rock on.)

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

26. Some feminists would really approve of this?

This sounds to me like a further support for the cultural idea that women are the property of the male in this part of the world. Other men can't look at a man's wife's face and enjoy it because his wife's face is his turf, his property, hence the veil. And another man can't even nudge up against his wife's physical space within chatting distance because that belongs to him, too.

[AtheistCrusader]

31. I fully agree. And no, I can't imagine a feminist approving of this.

Yet in the referenced thread...

[nichomachus]

3. Then the ultra-Orthodox Jews will be able to fly on it too

Instead of causing a ruckus on US airllines.

[oberliner]

17. No they won't

This is Saudi Arabia Airlines we're talking about.

[nichomachus]

18. But could bring them together

Nothing like a mutual hatred of women to bring old enemies together

[oberliner]

20. You may have a point

The Haredim do have quite a lot in common with observant Muslims.

[nichomachus]

21. Like the bike lanes in Brooklyn

The Hasids forced the city to close down the bike lanes because they didn't want to see women in skimpy clothing riding on public streets.

[jwirr]

4. Get to the back of the bus ladies.

[LittleGirl]

6. wtf eom

[SoapBox]

15. Ditto the WTF

...and the clock keeps spinning backwards.

[LittleGirl]

46. it's disgusting eom

[Orrex]

7. Maybe the women will be forced to wear bikinis, like in America.

[heaven05]

8. 2015 and this brand of

religious nuttery still reigns supreme and basically I'm talking most religions..

[jakeXT]

9. I'm surprised that Saudi Arabia has a female pilot

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-27125689

[brooklynite]

39. Tucked away in the cockpit, away from the eyes of the male passengers...

[riderinthestorm]

47. Women can fly planes but aren't allowed to drive a car?!

[onehandle]

10. Our partners in peace.

Except for that whole financing 9/11 thing.

But that was just business.

[dbackjon]

11. They should be denied landing privledges in the United States and Europe

[Sam1]

12. I second that. But it

will not happen given the Roberts Court's decisions about freedom of religion.

[pnwmom]

14. That's what I was thinking.

We shouldn't be allowing them to practice sex discrimination in our airports.

[Sunlei]

38. These days Airline flights cost to much to be 'a privledge'.

[McCamy Taylor]

16. Sexists! They are calling all MEN sexual predators. Unacceptable.

[nichomachus]

22. Maybe they know what they're talking about

At least when it comes to Saudi men.

[nichomachus]

19. I had a friend who used to fly in and out of Saudi Arabia all the time

He said that leaving the country the women would come on in their burkas, etc. As soon as they left Muslim airspace, the women would go to the bathroom and come out in jeans and designer clothes, the alcohol would come out, etc. On the return trip, it was just the opposite. At a certain time, the women would re-burka and the alcohol would all be put away.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

34. A former roommate of mine had a friend who was a flight attendant on Saudi Airlines

(they hire only foreigners, because being a flight attendant is not considered a respectable profession for a Saudi woman).

She said the same thing, that as soon as they were out of Saudi airspace, the burqas would come off, to reveal the women in designer clothes, make-up, and fancy hairstyles. Nearly everyone would order drinks, too.

[LynneSin]

23. And people complain we are ending a boycott with Cuba

[Android3.14]

25. These folks apparently have corncobs up the corncobs up their asses

It's a plane.

Rather than separate the men and the women, how about they separate the complainers from actual human beings.

[Scairp]

27. Craziness

Will these people ever grow up and join the rest of planet Earth?

[nichomachus]

29. Probably will -- westerners did.

They're about 500 years behind us. We were doing the same shit as they are not that long ago. It wasn't that long ago, you could be burned alive for reading the wrong bible.

[RationalMan]

30. This could be interesting for their membership in the Skyteam Alliance

There are certain reciprocal benefits that alliance members give to their mutual passengers. So what happens when someone purchases a ticket on Delta from Detroit to Paris and connects to Saudi Airlines on to Jeddah in business class. That passenger is not going to pay a business class fare and not be able to select their seat from Paris to Jeddah. So will they allow them to reserve the seat but at the gate in Paris they will discover that they have too many men or women to be able to segregate and they are going to downgrade them to economy or deny them boarding?

This is why any form of fundamentalist religion creates havoc. Saudi joined the alliance because they thought it would help them in response to the successes of other Gulf nation airlines such as Emirates, Ethiad, Qatar, etc. The alliance would likely have preferred one of those carriers to Saudi but Saudi was what was available.

This could become very interesting if the alliance members deem Saudi to now not meet their membership criteria or that membership is actually more of a problem than a help.

[msongs]

32. great news, all those complaining Hasidic Jews can start flying saudi airlines :-) nt

[oberliner]

43. Slight problem there

Not sure that one is going to work out.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

33. What's really absurd is people like Coulter claiming Liberals should HATE the Muslims,.....

....because of the way the Saudis treat women but she says it on a station that's partly owned by the Saudis.

Oh yeah, Ann. Point out OUR "hypocrisy".

Besides, not ALL Muslims are that way towards women. The ones the Bush Family love certainly are.

[oberliner]

44. Is Saudi Arabia the only Muslim majority country where gender segregation is widely practiced?

Is it an exception more than a rule?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

45. It has established the Sharia Law the Right freaks out about....

Other countries in the region are not nearly as fanatical. They have morality police.

You know,....Rick Santorum's old job.

[niyad]

35. so what these woman-hating assholes are really saying is that, as men, they KNOW they cannot trust

other men to behave respectfully toward women.

makes me think of an old proverb "a man does not think to look under a bed unless he has hidden there himself."

[Sunlei]

37. Good to accommodate people.Thats the way it is in many countries with their public transportation

Travel to Dubai and the religions are separated, aswell as gender in some areas.

[samsingh]

40. their movement back to the 11th century continues

[SunSeeker]

42. That's one airline I will never fly. nt