Female German minister visits Saudi Arabia and refuses to wear headscarf - what do we think?

[MirandaGoshawk]

herewww.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/german-minister-refuses-to-wear-headscarf-in-saudi-arabia-days-after-merkel-calls-for-burka-ban-in-germany/ar-AAlzxuW?li=AAaeUIW&ocid=spartanntp

I'm torn on this one. I am very much in the 'respect others' school, and it's not as if they're asking her to cover her face. If it was me I'd wear the headscarf, to avoid conflict. But OTOH I hate that women are required to do various things and men aren't. They're not allowed to drive, etc. So I do have a kind of respect for this minister for not agreeing to it. She is also wearing a dark trouser suit rather than the 'required' abaya, apparently. Michelle Obama didn't cover her hair either. Views?

If anyone is going to be offended by her not wearing it, it will be the men

Bet the women are secretly cheering her on!

On a very narrow interpretation, she's breaking the law:

1. Saudi dress code stipulates loose fitting clothes, masking the bodies outline. The trouser suit is probably a bigger violation than no head scarf.

1. Covering of hair is also stipulated by law, but there are a number of areas in Saudi where you can get away without one.

That said, lots of discretion is allowed to the religious police and she would have diplomatic immunity anyway. Much of the (exaggerated) twitter backlash from Saudis has been about the inconsistency of enforcement (a local would at least be told to put a head covering on).

I'm slightly uncomfortable with this foisting our own values onto other countries, and think it's a bit of an empty gesture; but the dress laws are crackers, and more visible flouting of them by prominent women might help undermine them- just wish it could be Saudi women.

I don't see why westerners should be required to respect others' beliefs here in our own country and respect their beliefs in their own country too. When are they going to start respecting our beliefs? Which start with the fairly simple statement that women are human, not sub-human.

< Applauds @PostTruthBreakdown >

When I see a society that treats women as chattels with no rights I see Apartheid.

If This lady was black and going to South Africa back in the day would it be ok for her to stick to Blacks only areas? To respect and adhere to the law?
Or would there be world wide out rage? Its not OK to treat anyone differently and this is no different.
Its apparently nothing to do with religion anyway. This is how the society chooses to conduct itself - and I think its repulsive. So good on her.

Good.

Funny how the 'when in Rome' thing only seems to work one way...

None Muslim women are not required to cover their hair in kingdom.
An abaya is generally worn - I certainly don't go out without one in public. That said, I also don't wear an abaya going to school (tho I have one stuffed in my bag). We got stopped at a road block. Me in trousers and tee-shirt. Army didn't get an eyelid, just demanded ID, which is what everyone driving along that road at that time had to do.

And while I carry a headscarf in my bag at all times, I have never worn one other than by choice (walking about outside it's easier with a dark headscarf on- the cars generally let you cross the road, for example)

Well....

1. Visits as government representative, dress as you would at home, male/female doesn't count, you are Minister. Diplomatic immunity and all that! That is what it was invented for - to enable inter state diplomacy!

1. Visits as an individual: just don't go! Why would you?

Michelle Obama didn't wear a headscarf when she visited Saudi Arabia either, iirc.

I approve of her actions.
Muslim women in Germany aren't required to wear 'western' style clothing, and why should they be?
I see no problem with this, as long as her clothes were reasonably conservative and business like.

She did the right thing

Saudi Arabia's treatment of women is appauling

Read The Princess books, autobiography by an anonymous Saudi Princess. The treatment of women as sub-human possessions is harrowing, and this is a wealthy family who regularly travel and live abroad

If I visited Saudi (unlikely) I wouldn't want to go along with their 'customs' towards women

I'd also want to dress in a business like way to show clearly that I was someone to be taken seriously

I think it is really rude tbh.

I think that some of the stuff that goes on in Saudi is a LOT worse than "rude" so fuck that.

If I had my way we'd have nothing to do with them. Total boycott.

But yeah, let's not be rude to monsters.

I have no idea how I came upon this thread but have just realised it's ancient.

Sorry about that.

As a Muslim who wears the headscarf, I have cousins who live in Saudi and while dressing modestly is the respect required they don’t actually all wear the headscarf...

So as long as she isn’t showing much flesh then I would say it’s not disrespectful.. no one cares

Why is the metro article talking about the compulsory abaya and the title is about hijab.

KSA don’t have a rule saying women have to wear hijabs. Even its some of its own citizens don’t unless they go to the mosque. I don’t get it? It must be a newspaper thing because this isn’t news worthy.

Yeah she’s not wearing an abaya which is the law but that’s not the thing banned in Germany