Monday, May 23, 2011

Peripatetic Prince

Wow, that Alwaleed bin Talal (who has a major stake in right-wing Fox News, among many other high and low profile investments) sure gets around.

Update: While U.S. media are falling all over themselves to welcome moneybags Al, here's a window into what's happening, chick-wise, back in his homeland:
Samia is a surgeon who, as she says, is "supposed to be a grandma by now."
But she's not even married yet. As with many women in Saudi Arabia, choosing a husband was not solely up to her. Her father and brothers demanded that she marry a cousin, and, she says, beat her when she refused. For the past five years, she has lived in a shelter for battered women.
"I'm a surgeon. I'm responsible for people's lives," says Samia, now in her 40s. "I want to be responsible for my own life."
Samia's situation, described in multiple interviews both in person and via phone and e-mail, is not unusual in Saudi Arabia. It illustrates how this country's guardianship system gives men almost complete control over female relatives, as well as how little recourse women have to escape abusive guardians. She has taken her case to two courts, which both ruled against her, and she and her lawyer now seek a hearing in the country's Supreme Court.
Nice. And speaking of Saudi chicks, have you heard about the uppity Wahhabette who got in trouble with authorities because she (gasp!) drove a car?

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