Good stuff. The Saudi woman is sharp, and remarkably articulate for a student, and makes some good points (e.g. the sexual self-determination vs general freedom one, and much of what she said on the second page). I found the Foucauldian posturing a bit annoying though, and unfortunately in her efforts to counter the idiot interviewer's prejudices she came across as rather defensive.

Having been on the other side of a front page mag interview (although he mostly agreed with me and others -- not on a Mideast issue, btw), Jamie Glazov came across as someone who liked to opine aggressively but who also let you have your full say, and sincerely encouraged disagreement.

Dear SP,

well, at the time of the interview (almost one year ago), Moudhy al-Rashid was a senior at Columbia U, and hardly a seasoned media veteran.

I posted the interview because I think it's very informative & one doesn't get to read young Saudi (female or male) voices all too often on such a high level.

Dear MH,

Jamie Glazov came across as someone who didn't for a second consider her point of view. He played the part of "I'm the son of Soviet dissidents" and not much more.

At times I wondered what the whole point of the interview was.

--MSK

Oh, I thought she did a fantastic job of handling the interviewer. The I-just-discovered-Foucault jargon was what grated a little bit.

I don't expect much from FrontPage - they choose the most provocative MENA 'specialists' they can, and then don't allow whatever poor respondent from the region (often, ridiculously conciliatory, such as Schwartz or others) - but just like above with Mouhdy, whenever they don't agree with the racist and offensive absolutist ranting, they accuse them of defending "totalitarian Islamist... reactionaries" - really, neo-conservativism resembles Bolshie and Trotskyite tactics so much that it's no surprise to find out that many of them were Trots when they were younger.

I loathed the infighting and moronic behaviour on the left, I'm appalled now by the same people who've migrated over and taken on the bigotry and outright vitriol of the right as well.

Nice to see something that isnt the usual media tripe regarding Saudi women. I had hoped that we might see something better with the Rania al Baz affair, but her appearance on Oprah dashed that.

Hopefully we see more of this type of stuff. Saudi women are out there and their voice will be heard.

Once thing I have noticed is the lack of voices from older Saudi women, both in the media and on-line.

My wife started her blog. She is a thirty something Saudi woman, married with children. Most of the Saudi pressence on the net seems to be the teens or early twenties.

That is not to put down bloggers like Farah whom I think is just great, but the "bloggersphere" and the rest of the internet could benefit from older voices as well. Aya over at Alien Spheres is another good one in this direction.

While the interviewer starts to sound like he is frothing at the mouth over Saudi women and their sexulality (I can just visualise the rows of burqa porn in his video collection) the fact of the matter is that the entire culture of segregation in pre-Islamic and Islamic Saudi society derives largely from the fear of human sexuality and the desire to regulate and control it.

So while the line of questioning was badly done, the issue of sexual self-determination is one of the most relevant ones facing Saudi women today. Because it is at the root of why the segregation and the oppression exist. It's why she can't drive and why she can't travel and why thousands of ardent young muslims agonise over the haramness of communicating with their own fiancee before marriage or even meeting her parents and even the haramness of blogging/the internet if it might bring them into contact with a member of the opposite sex.

Getting a dozen PhDs won't help a woman's brain replace her sexuality as her primary determining aspect in the mindset of Saudi lawmakers and wider Gulf society.

"Getting a dozen PhDs won't help a woman's brain replace her sexuality as her primary determining aspect in the mindset of Saudi lawmakers and wider Gulf society."

I'm not sure decades of suffrage and feminism and PhDs, MD's, and IUDs have depleted that 100% on this side of the Atlantic pond either.

I'm not sure decades of suffrage and feminism and PhDs, MD's, and IUDs have depleted that 100% on this side of the Atlantic pond either.

Sadly very true. However even Victorian women weren't prohibited from driving carriages (to the best of my knowledge) even if they did probably ride side-saddle.

I have always laughed a bit about the driving issue. They wont allow women to drive as they might get up to no good. Yet I have had a dozen or so stories related to me by Saudis themselves of the wife/sister/cousin/aunt getting caught having an affair with the Sudanese/Pakistani/Indian/Bengali driver.

I guess the assumption is that whilst Saudi women should not be with males they are unrelated to that they would not consider messing around with the foreign (thought inferior) driver.

It says a lot about the view of sexuality and their view of foreigners and indeed their own racism.

But I guess at the end of the day it goes to the means of supressing the women and how successful they are. Niqabs and seperate rooms for women are great ways for sneaking your male lover into the house.

Their own means for keeping the women in place are often used to break the very ideas they are meant to enforce.

Never under estimate the will of the Saudi woman to get around the road blocks placed in their way.

I guess the assumption is that whilst Saudi women should not be with males they are unrelated to that they would not consider messing around with the foreign (thought inferior) driver.

now, that reminds me of Romans and their slaves. She did? Oh, heavens, how disgusting!

Off topic: Didn't know where to put this. That's the Magic Kingdom alright.

The desexualization of the "inferior" foreigner is funny...I suppose Saudi men see them as the eunuchs of old. A friend who works in Saudi told me that foreign men are allowed to work behind the counter at women-only malls, because women can't do those jobs and the foreign men are considered asexual and non-threatening, but Saudi girls flirt outrageously with and even paw some of the foreign male workers in the malls.

Off topic again: Did anyone catch this?