In my opinion, the worst thing to happen for a woman is to be born as a woman in Saudi Arabia.
I was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. Let met clarify a few things about the culture there:
1)Women HAVE TO wear hijab, even non-Muslims. Women who chose not to would get in tremendous troubles.
2)In Islam, hijab is mandatory for women. If a woman chose not to wear it, she would still be a Muslim, but by definition she committed a sin. In Islam, a sinful person who did not ask for forgiveness before his or her death and change his behavior will go to hell for a certain period of time for that sin, then he or she will be sent to heavens.
3) Women basically have almost no rights here. They can not drive; they get only have of what males get in inheritance; their witnesses count as half accounts (2 female witnesses = 1 male witness in Islamic and Saudi law).
4) The worst part is that many women like that! Many are so brainwashed that they think Islam is best religious or political system for women! Many women do not want to drive or have things changed. However, this is recently is starting to change.
In my opinion, the worst thing to happen for a woman is to be born as a woman in Saudi Arabia.
I am Muslim, from Bahrain near to Saudi sharing alot of things with them, and we as Bahrainis are far from them in another aspects, what you are saying is just one way to look at things
for the 1st point this is the country regulations every woman should wear it, we can debate about it but that is how their system works
for the 2nd point here comes what we all are trying to say that it is a choice, the choice that you have here is either to fully practice the religion you believed here the you is refering to the girls, they have the choice to wear or not and not being punished by the PEOPLE, if they will be punished by god that is different topic that every religion hoping that they are the correct one.
for 3 point you are mixing alot of things, first being not able to drive is totally differnt than the other points like "they get only have of what males get in inheritance; their witnesses count as half accounts "
because in our religion women are not supposed to fund the famliy it is an only duty for the men, so if your wife is working her salery she doesn't have to spend a penny on either the famliy or even herself it is by law and religion a duty of the man, even the breast feeding for her child she is not obliged to do it, and the husband has to pay her for doing so.
and in the marrige the husband has to pay her what we call it "mahr" and he has to provide all the necessary things flat/house for the ladies.
so in a way there is things taken from the ladies and a lot is giving to them.
Beside that, Saudi is not the only country that represents Islam, because there are a lot of things there related to culture more than related to Islam.
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for the said topic, if for safety reasons I agree that she should not be allowed to compete, she should know this from the beginning and they should have informed her