I don't think it's insecurity. It's just that it's generally more pleasurable to exist when you can subjugate a huge swath of your population and convince them that you're superior and they're inferior. You get free labor, an ego boost, and scapegoats for all social ills. (There is usually some conciliatory bullshit…

"(Notice I am not referring to religion in this post, as this passive hatred and degradation of women is not a characteristic of all (or most) Muslim countries."

I don't know about a prohibition against flying, but I do know that ultra-Orthodox Jews got the flight paths changed coming in and out of Ben Gurion because Kohanim (men who can trace their patriarchal ancestry back to members of the priestly tribe — women too really, but this is ultra-Orthodox Judaism so women don't…

I'd love to say I'd give him an elbow in return for every boob grab, but armchair opinions are different from reality. And the reality is I'd probably be embarrassed/afraid of causing a scene and looking like ' just another Angry Woman'.

Oh my sweet Jesus. Don't even say it. Don't even write it. Just let it die.

I disagree. The basis would be that women are property, or impure. That is the basis for any of these requests. Let's not put pearls on a pig. There is nothing simple, new, or harmless about any of this.

Sweetie, this IS a sexist issue. They don't mind sitting next to people who smell bad but if so, it would be a hygienic issue. They don't mind sitting next to someone who is reading a medical journal so it is not a literary one. Following, pumpkin? I am trying to type slow so that you can take this in. When…

He wanted to know if they were the Real Thing™.

Food, holidays, language, arts, religion, etc. are aspects of world cultures that should never be hindered; doing active harm to women, religious or ethnic minorities, and LGBT people are to some degree a part of every culture in the world and should be smashed to bits. Not everything is worthy of respect just because…

"Articles about Saudi Arabia always have that bill maher vibe to them"

I think his/her point was that you can take passages from these ancient religious texts and interpret them however you want. Oddly, they seem to find all sorts of ways to justify power, wealth and misogyny in the 21st century, but not things that would discomfit wealthy men of power.

Huh. It's almost like religion is…

Find a passage in the Koran, Torah etc. that can be interpreted as an absolute prohibition against flying. Isn't soaring above the earth to gain an omniscient view of its inhabitants the exclusive preserve of God? These religious passengers are coming dangerously close to blasphemy by usurping divine prerogatives.

It's not an "over there" thing whatsoever. First serious boyfriend I had was a conservative Jew - really, he was more conservative-left (dude had no problem eating cheeseburgers or watching Star Trek on Friday nights even though as a leader in a youth group, he'd bitch kids out for the doing the same things).…

Yep, as a woman I'm 100% on board with this. My husband can spend the whole flight wrangling my toddler son (and son to be), while I get to lay back and relax sans any manspreading slobs next to me.

"Well if that's their culture, then I feel uncomfortable telling them what they should or should not be doing."

Playing devil's advocate here, but maybe that's because Saudi Arabia is a medieval civilization that is able to reject modernization due to its oil fortune.

So we should ignore broad civil rights violations and gender-based discrimination just because it's "their culture"? Where do you draw the line? I guess we should ignore racial or ethnic genocide in other countries because that's just "the culture," right?

After spending a four-hour flight next to a Coca-Cola executive trying to brush up against my boobs every time he moved, I'm ok with this.

If your religion forbids you from using a service the way it is offered, then maybe you shouldn't use that service, instead of disrupting it for us heathens.

This is such bullshit. My family lived in Saudi for a year when I was a kid (mid-70s), and it was nothing to see all the women change into their western clothes once they cleared Saudi airspace. The pilots even made the announcement. Conversely, they changed back into their hijab upon reentering the country. They're…