'Illegal' Saudi women's gym shut

[Flashermac]

RIYADH  Health authorities in Jeddah have shut down an "illegal" women's fitness centre attached to a hospital, closing one of the few venues where Saudi women are able to exercise, local media said on Wednesday.

 

[color:red]Although health officials have repeatedly blamed the high rates of heart disease and diabetes in the kingdom on poor diets and lack of exercise, health authorities said women's fitness centres were not allowed.[/color]

 

"Anyone who violates regulations governing the running of health facilities would be punished severely because this involves people's health," Jeddah health official Muhammed Abdul Jawad told the English-language Arab News.

 

The reports did not identify the Jeddah hospital affected, but a photograph in the Saudi Gazette showed an official sealing the club door with an announcement reading "Closed on the order of Jeddah Health Affairs."

 

While gyms for men in the gender-segregated conservative Islamic society are permitted, women's health clubs are forbidden, despite a clear demand shown by a surge in underground facilities in the past two years.

 

But last year a number of stand-alone women's gyms were shut, though some attached to or inside hospital premises continued to function.

 

The reports said the country's municipal and rural affairs ministry had recently closed two other gyms in the Red City of Jeddah and one in Dammam, eastern Saudi Arabia.

 

 

Woman's place is in the attic

 

[Flashermac]

Saudi girl, 13, sentenced to 90 lashes after she took a mobile phone to school

 

 

A 13-year-old Saudi schoolgirl is to be given 90 lashes in front of her classmates after she was caught with a mobile camera phone.

 

The girl, who has not been named, was also sentenced to two months in jail by a court in the eastern city of Jubail.

 

She had assaulted her headmistress after being caught with the gadget which is banned in girls schools, said Al-Watan, a Saudi newspaper. The kingdom's use of such punishments has been widely condemned by human rights organisations.

 

Three years ago 16 schoolchildren, aged between 12 and 18, were each sentenced to between 300 and 500 lashes for being aggressive to a teacher.

 

Under Saudi's Sharia or Islamic law, flogging is mandatory for a number of moral offences such as adultery or being alone in the company of an unrelated person of the opposite sex. But it can also be used at the discretion of judges as an alternative or in addition to other punishments.

 

Al-Watan said a court in the northeastern Gulf port of Jubail had sentenced the girl to 90 lashes inside her school, followed by two months' detention.

 

[color:red]The punishment is harsher than that dished out to some robbers and looters.[/color]

 

Saudi Arabia, a leading US ally in the Middle East, is an absolute monarchy controlled by the Al-Saud ruling tribe, and lacks any legal code.

 

King Abdullah has promoted some social reforms since taking the throne in 2005, but diplomats say he is held back by religious clerics and princes.

 

Cinemas and music concerts are banned, while many restaurants and even some shopping centres cater to families only, especially on holidays.

 

Religious police roam streets to make sure no unrelated men and women mix.

 

The Saudi court system is exclusively controlled Wahahbi/Salafi clerics, and bans the employment of non-Salafi citizens, especially as judges.

 

[color:red]Saudi Arabia is the world's leading country in the use of torture-by-flogging, public beheadings and publically crucifying condemned prisoners.[/color]

 

The country crucified two people in 2009, including one in the capital Riyadh during President Barak Obama’s visit last April.

 

In September, 20 Saudi teenagers who ransacked shops and restaurants were publicly flogged.

 

Newspapers reported that the teenagers received at least 30 lashes each in a public square.

 

[color:blue]Most of the hijackers in the September 11 attacks in 2001 came from Saudi Arabia.[/color]

 

 

Inshaallah

 

 

 

 

[Old Hippie]

Look, I am pissed off at women and annoyed by them as much as the next guy, but shit this is just plain stupid and wrong.

[cavanami]

Fark these azzholes! I am tired of hearing this crap...move on to the year 2010 or lie down and die!!!

[Bangkoktraveler]

The Saudis sound like the old fashion Jews of the Bible.

[unit731]

"The girl, who has not been named, was also sentenced to two months in jail by a court in the eastern city of Jubail.z'

 

As a former public school teacher, I am all for this.

 

[Old Hippie]

Well, you look at the Saudi extreme, and then look at some of the affluent suburban schools near me, where kids attack the teacher physically, simply because the teacher asked them to remove their ear phones. Which one works?

 

 

As for the Saudi treatment of women, while I am all in favor of keeping them in line and quiet, I can't help but think some of these robe wearers are just covering up for other issues. I think the Saudis are the result of not having any fun in life. If we could get booze and women in the same room with those ass hats at the same time, they might just mellow out a bit.

[Flashermac]

The Saudis sound like the old fashion Jews of the Bible.

 

 

The Bible developed over many centuries. It ranges from creation legends and questionable "history", through a period of increased civilised behaviour, finally ending with an egailtarian, pacifist, socialist Jesus.

 

The Qu'ran is locked in the 7th century, simply telling of Muhammad's wars first for survival and then for unquestioned supremacy - but also adding strict codes of conduct, dress, and gender roles which CANNOT BE CHALLENGED, not even today. Moderate Islamic countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia tend to ignore the "nasty" parts and concentrate on living in the present. The Saudis and the radical fundamentalists prefer to live as if they were still in the time of the Prophet.

 

I have Muslim friends and colleagues, but they all have something in common: they are not very religious. One said to me outright, "I'm a Muslim only because I was raised one." He is married to a Buddhist, likes his beer and shoots a mean game of pool. (He'd probably be stoned in Saudi Arabia!)

 

[robaus]

>>but also adding strict codes of conduct, dress, and gender roles which CANNOT BE CHALLENGED, not even today

 

... a bit like equally fuckwit orthodox Jews still living in the Middle Ages. I dare you or your missus to walk around Mea Shearim in Jerusalem in shorts or with bare shoulders on a 100F day.

 

You seem to delight in picking up these Islamophobic stories and posting them here calling them news.

 

It's this sort of hatred that created Abu Graib and leads to allied soldier casualties.

[Flashermac]

I was waiting for you to jump in here.

 

So it is Islamophobic to post such "stories", but not anti-Semitic to report on the Israeli military's actions in Gaza. I haven't heard of the Hassidim flogging or stoning anyone in Jerusalem/Al Kuds lately either. How do you compare a few thousand Jewish nutters with Saudi judges who have the power of life and death over their nation's citizens?

 

And it wasn't hatred that caused Abu Graib. It was putting morons in charge who would have done the same thing to anyone they had power over.

 

Seems to me you are the one with a hang up. If a "story" involves Muslims, it obviously cannot be "news".