OMG What just happened in Saudi Arabia?

So I just read that Women will finally be given the right to drive in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In June 2018 while they sort out the details.

Accidental penetration? Really? Seriously? Anatomy lessons anyone???

I dunno but I've never been "Accidentally" penetrated.  Mostly unless the position is absolutely perfect, most men need to guide their penis to get it to go in anywhere. That's the experience of most women.I've never had a friend say to me "OMG I was accidentally penetrated when Fred fell on me".  Statistically speaking it's about as likely as catching an STD or STI from a toilet seat

I don't know what kind of anatomy this poor girl in England had that she was "accidentally penetrated" and the guy who did it was acquitted of rape. Like WTF????

I'd like to accidentally fall with a 10foot pole up his ass....see how he likes it. I bet no one would believe me. For one I'm female, I'm not Saudi and I'm not a millionaire!

I think schools should offer basic anatomy. It seems many of the judges around the world today are woefully uninformed about female anatomy. What with the idiot who said if she didn't want to be raped all she had to do was keep her knees closed... Huh?  

Why should men do all the regulating.

In America men seem to want more and more control over women's bodies and reproductive rights. SOme of the laws in place to get an abortion in some states is sheer folly.

So in that spirit one lawmaker wants to regulate men's erections. Why not. They can decide if I can have a child or not, perhaps we can decide if they are allowed meds to get boners.

I love all the stupid rules this woman wants to make. Should wake up some men to make them realize that if they don't want their bodies regulated, perhaps they should stop regulating women's bodies?  I especially like the lawmaker who suggests all men who want boner pills have a mandatory rectal exam prior to any prescriptions.  I also like the idea that they have to wait for a few months, you know, just in case they might change their minds.....

While free access to safe abortions should be available to all women all over the world, I don't really think that easy access to Viagra is that important. After all I wonder how many men use it to rape or have non consensual sex?

Native women are the most invisible of all the Canadian women

For all the NIQAB and BURKA debates around election time, if people think that these are Canada's most oppressed women, you would be WRONG.

For starters the majority of those women who come to Canada who continue to wear face covering, generally chose to do this and are comfortable living this way. They are still a minority in comparison to Canada's women.

However if you talk about Native women, they are the most invisible, unimportant people in the face of Canada. In some provinces until recently they could be sterilized when they visited a hospital for health concerns WITHOUT EVEN BEING TOLD.Yep white hospital workers decide for them to remove their ability to have children.

When someone calls to report a native woman missing, usually the LEO's will generally hmmm and haw and say things like "But she probably just went to visit her mom in another rez" "But She went on a binge drinking and will come home" " But she probably just run away, you'll see she'll be back".

We all know that the first 48 hours after someone goes missing are the most crucial. Most of the time in case of missing aboriginals, the police never bother to check until it's been weeks, months.  They really don't care.
There are so many missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada and no one cares  but other indigenous people.

Nobody takes them seriously if they report issues with the police. Who you going to believe, an invisible woman or a police officer.   Hopefully they will have an inquiry about the native women in Quebec that are being sexually harassed by the QPP in the Val d'Or area.

How about that

I saw this image earlier today and had to share. It's only.men who lose control ... women don't.[Or very very rarely. I've never witnessed it!]  I've never felt the need to touch or grope a woman I found attractive... ever.

Yet I when I was 11-12-13 years old I remember HATING going to school because I could not walk in hallways without random boys just groping. If it wasn't my tiny boobs. .. it was crotch grabs. 

I don't ever recall having a woman feel me up randomly without asking. This rape culture that puts all the blame on the victim has got to stop.  When a woman looks like she's being manhandled or victimized we should all fucking speak up. It's 2015 people and most of us do not live under ISIL rule!

Severe lack of Women in some professions!

When I went to Concordia in Computer Science back in the 1980's I was in the 5-10% of women in that program.

The sad thing is, things really haven't changed much. Some engineering programs may have from 15-20% women, but that's the most they might have.  There are now more women in computer science especially in black box programming... maybe 40%

And then I read an article that there was a BOYS ONLY robotics program offerered in an Ontario public library. I get that many girls might not be interested but to make it boys only?????  I was so unimpressed.

Well thankfully one little girl and her mom started a petition and now girls can join. BUT WTF? I would have fought to make that program gender free no matter what!!!!

Canadians are the nicest people on earth.

With that stereotype in mind, I want to say that all Canadians should be entitled to dress as they please. Be it topless at the local beach, or covered from head to toe in  a Niqab.

I've read all sorts of arguments pro and con. Many from females from North African and middle eastern backgrounds. For some it is the sign of a backwards patriarchal oppression, to others, it is a choice to not be seen as a object to be lusted over.  Personally I do not want anyone to decide how much or how little I should wear and I certainly should not be doing it for others.

Yes many women who did not wear a veil in their country wear one here in Canada, why? Because they are free to do so. Free to wear one without labeling the woman as being anything more then a Muslim woman. I've read plenty of intelligent, articulate females who felt completely comfortable being invisible in society. That for them being noticed is the equivalent of being seen like a sex object. Being invisible as a sex object does not mean they are just invisible. Many of the middle eastern women I've met over the past 10 years are incredibly driven and from their own steam, not because men impose their views on them.

Of course what most non-Muslims do not know is that men should be modestly dressed as well and to be honest, I've met few middle eastern men who go around in wife beaters and tiny shorts. The majority tend to wear baggy clothes, and few go around half naked.  Lets just say as a Quebecois, I have never been offended by a middle eastern man too scantily clad. It's been the local French Quebecois, in their tiny speedos, with the large overlapping bellies that have left me somewhat traumatized!

If i lived in the middle east I would probably never leave my house without a scarf on my head. I burn so easily in the sun, being covered would be logical.  Here in Montreal, if I just go to work, I don't cover my head, but if I go camping or canoeing or spending the day outside, I wear something on my head, because I don't want to have fried brains.

I'm rambling, but logically to get back to the nice Canadians, well if we are some of the nicest people on earth, we should not let ourselves get indoctrinated by islamophobes. We should continue to be just as nice INCLUDING to our Muslim sisters, whether they chose to be "westernized" and just blend into a crowd of Montrealers, or be very visibly invisible, by wearing a Niqab in Ottawa.

When I visited Lebanon some of the Lebanese I met often asked me if I was surprised to see highly covered women walking with very uncovered women. It did not surprise me, as I have seen it in Montreal. One of my favourite random photos of the Printemps Erable, is one of a Muslim girl posing with a bare chested girl at a protest.

That is my point. Montreal can be like that. We can be nice Canadians. There is room for women in Niqabs in Canadian society. Isn't that what a mosaic is about?

Before anyone gets all offended, there is  room for the Hasidims in Canadian society, there's room for the Mennonites,  there's even room for the Mormons of Bountiful, there should be room for women in Niqabs. I don't expect any of these groups to be in large numbers in the Canadian Mosaic, but in existence and respected nonetheless. 

Interesting

I've been a feminist since I was a little girl. Not one of those women are better types, but I have strongly felt that women can do anything they set their mind to.  Also strongly feel women should get equal pay for equal jobs.

I've seen how women are affected by media. Most women I run across have all sorts of hang ups related to how society perceives how we should look or feel or act.

 I don't spend a lot of time looking at ads. Try for the most part to block them out. Certainly most of the ads featured in this clip would not get me to go out and by the product.

Women and Islam.

This woman is very articulate and explains why as a feminist she converted to Islam. People seem to find it ludicrous that a western woman would convert to Islam but she makes a good case for it.

I'm not looking for a new religion, and my research into Islam was done back the summer of 2006. However I had concluded back then that Islam was not the issue when it came to women's rights or treatment.

I've met articulate intelligent independent women who embrace Islam, both here in Montreal and in my travels in the middle-east.  

Driving for the women of Saudi Arabia?

Saudi  Prince Alwaleed bin Talal makes a good case as to why women should be allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. Good for him. Hopefully someone will listen and Saudi women won't be the only ones in the world not allowed to drive in their country!

Saudi women get the right to vote!!!!!

Sadly our Saudi sisters will not have the right to vote in current elections that will be held soon but they will get the right to vote next elections in 4 years. It might not seem like much but this is a huge step forward for Saudi women!!! 

Here's hoping that giving them the right not only to vote but also present themselves as candidates in the consultative assembly in the future also eventually gives them the right to drive :)

Here's hoping that this is not just an announcement that will be rescinded later!

Right to walk around bare chested

Women in parts of Canada have had the right to walk around bare chested for 20 years.  I know they have the right in Ontario and in BC, and in Ontario it has been 20 years.

It's not something I'm ever going to do, being a prude who's easily cold and with extremely white skin. I think my fear of sun burnt breasts is worse then having people stare at them :P

While I never plan on doing it, I strongly feel women should have the same rights as men in this regard.  I know plenty of men who have larger breasts then I do. Why should they be allowed to expose them and I can't? Mine are probably nicer to look at then those of men who's are bigger then mine :)

Along the same lines I'm also for the right of women to be able to breastfeed anywhere they see fit. Anyone who gets offended by this should go back and think long and hard about baby's health. It's fine in our society to eat in public, babies should have the same rights. Those who say women should breastfeed in bathrooms, should be sent to eat their lunch in the bathroom!

As far as I can tell only Ontario and BC allow the right for both men and women to be topless in public. This doesn't change the fact that there is a nudist beach at Oka Park and another near Meech Lake in Gatineau park, both in Quebec.

Women have it worst in Afghanistan

The top 5 worst countries to be a woman  in descending order are: Afghanistan, Congo, Pakistan, Indian & Somalia.

Most were shocked to find out there are worst places to be then Somalia.  I've just spent the past hour lost on Wikipedia looking up such things as FGC and other problems facing women of most of those countries.  Apparently 87% of women in Afghanistan have never been to school and are illiterate. Most women of the countries listed have little or no access to medical care. In Congo, there is so much rape, it's why it's up there on the list.

We need less straight white men who blog as lesbians and more people who help the condition of women in these countries, so that they can learn how to read and write, have access to a minimum of health care, be allowed to chose who they marry and who they have sex with,  and so they no longer get treated as chattel and get sold to the highest bidder.  One of the only ways to do it is via education.  Children in these countries, both boys and girls have to be taught human rights, and gender equality.

Of course not only in these countries. These are currently the worst in the world for woman's rights but not the only countries where women have few rights.  Saudi Arabia comes to mind as the only country where women aren't allowed to drive. I also hope that societies where men and women are constantly segregated eventually come to see that segregation is worse for people then mixing both genders together.

I know it takes time. I mean I remember when I was a little girl, there was a certain amount of gender segregation too. In large gatherings all the women would end up in the kitchen and all the men in the living room. Certain jobs women didn't do when I was little, but I was raised by women who believed women could do anything men could do. In fact I think my family was very disappointed when my dream of being a medical doctor didn't materialize.

My family can be proud to know that I've worked in a non-traditional job all my adult life. Including my boss  we are 22 under his supervision. Only 4 of us are women. 2 out of 13 in Software and Hardware Quality Assurance, and 2 out of 8 in scripting for SQA.  There are currently no women in the Software development team - they are probably around 50, and there are a few in ASIC and hardware, but we're talking 2 out of 40 or 50 men in each case. 

Some of the guys in software have been saying for year that their job environment is unnatural. That in real life there are much more women.  It's not the company who discriminates against women. Very few ever apply. When I get stacks of resumes from universities sometimes I get 2 out of 40 resumes from women. I do try to interview all the women who apply for my jobs, but it doesn't mean I'm going to hire them if they aren't the best candidate.  Like this summer, we have 3 male stagieres. I know we interviewed several women, but they didn't' impress me as much as these guys did. I have no regrets, these students are working out perfectly.

I'm always happy when I can not only hire a female, but when she comes from a country where women don't have much rights. Earlier this year I had a female student who was from Senegal. I hear the human rights there are better then in the countries I've listed above, but they still have a lot of work to do . I was glad to show her a work environment from Canada. I know that she gave me 100% of what she could do. She overcame language barriers and societal barriers in her stage. She was the first female student I had working for me who was also a mother of a small child. 

I admired her courage and determination. I found it sad, that she was so isolated being a full time student and married and mother of a 3 year old, that she is considering going back home after her studies are over. I hope for her sake she changes her mind by the time she is finished her education. I hope she runs into another engineering student with a small child that has similar responsibilities with who she can bond and feel part of Canadian society. No matter how hard a time she is having here, I know she would face discrimination in her country and may never be able to work as a engineer where as here in Canada she would be able to.