You spotted the irony, I trust?
Once again, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice misses its goals…The latest action from the commission is to ban the sale of cats and dogs in Riyadh. According to Al-Hayat newspaper, the reason behind the ban is a fatwa and the reason behind the fatwa is that some young men take dogs out into the street and use them to annoy families; the fatwa also points out that the ban aims to preserve public morals.
Because dogs like to shove their noses unceremoniously into people’s crotches, and cats probably would if they were tall enough. But no, that’s not the irony.
A person can in fact use anything to harass people — mobile phones, the lights of his car, or loud music coming from his car. So are we going to ban the use of mobile phones in public? Or will we wake tomorrow to the news that young men are no longer allowed to drive in public areas? All I am asking for is some logic and reasonable thinking.
That’s the irony. Shock-horror, will we wake tomorrow to the news that young men are no longer allowed to drive in public areas? Good heavens no, but you’ve already woken up to the news that all women are not allowed to drive in public areas. The reductio ad absurdum has already happened, so it seems a little…unobservant to balk at a hypothetical restraint on young men when the same restraint is already in place on all women. But then living in Saudi Arabia probably does make it quite difficult to Spot the Absurdity.
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5 responses to “Oh no, not that”
In related news:
‘A member of the Saudi religious police has been accused of having six wives at the same time – two more than allowed under religious laws.’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7535088.stm
The irony was trying and trying to get my attention, tossing spit balls, etc.
But the content itself was so distracting. Envisioning young men using cats and dogs to annoy families simply used up all of my available brainpower.
Especially cats. One can try and try to figure out how that would work, and still come up empty.
Yes. Especially cats. A young man driving a car filled with cats hacking up hair balls?
“Young men take dogs out into the street and use them to annoy families”
Why blame animals for the mischievousness of young men. They do not decide of their own volition to exasperate families.
Why scapegoat them for the misdemeanours of young men. It is unjust.
It reminds me of Asian children who, by authority figures in their country are by it bartered and sentenced to death, for purported wrongdoings of their parent’s, and extended families.
If it were women using animals to annoy families, SA authorities assuredly, would instantaneously banish them physically from the streets.
As it is already, they are psychologically, by all and sundry banished from the streets.
Save the male from being by women and animals persecuted on the streets of Saudi Arabia.
As ‘family’, like everything else is synonymous with being male only.