Sunday, June 06, 2004
But they still can't drive to work
'Saudi Arabia lifts ban on women working to boost economy after attacks' - headline, AFP.
Still, it's a crack in the edifice of bigotry - and stupidity - that the Saudis have built to keep their womenfolk under control. Arab economies generate so little new wealth beyond the sale of extracted minerals and have so much unemployment because they do not permit people to choose their work. Indeed, education has nothing to do with it. It seems that a lot of Saudi women go to college, after which they go right home and breed more Saudis:
So will female employment increase in fact, now that the law permits women to work? It seems that the Saudis also adopted a crude, hatchet swinging form of affirmative action:
Bound as they are to the stupidity of their form of Islam, the Saudis cannot simply let people do what they want. They therefore do not understand -- or cannot permit themselves to admit -- that economies grow organically, when free people make their own decisions to work, or not, at whatever rewards them and gives them pleasure. It is the tragedy of the Arabs that they do not understand this. Unfortunately, their tragedy has become ours.
Still, it's a crack in the edifice of bigotry - and stupidity - that the Saudis have built to keep their womenfolk under control. Arab economies generate so little new wealth beyond the sale of extracted minerals and have so much unemployment because they do not permit people to choose their work. Indeed, education has nothing to do with it. It seems that a lot of Saudi women go to college, after which they go right home and breed more Saudis:
Taher said 55 percent of university graduates in the oil-rich kingdom are females, but the overwhelming majority stayed at home because of the ban and a general lack of job opportunities.
So will female employment increase in fact, now that the law permits women to work? It seems that the Saudis also adopted a crude, hatchet swinging form of affirmative action:
The cabinet also ordered government ministries and bodies to create jobs for women, and asked the Chambers of Commerce and Industry to form a committee for women to help train and find jobs for them in the private sector.
It also decided that land will be allocated for the establishment of industrial projects to employ women, and said in future all positions in shops selling women's clothes and accessories would be reserved for Saudi women.
Bound as they are to the stupidity of their form of Islam, the Saudis cannot simply let people do what they want. They therefore do not understand -- or cannot permit themselves to admit -- that economies grow organically, when free people make their own decisions to work, or not, at whatever rewards them and gives them pleasure. It is the tragedy of the Arabs that they do not understand this. Unfortunately, their tragedy has become ours.
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