Saudis Consider Banning Women From Mecca Prayers

For awhile now I've been curious as to why a woman would ever become a Muslim. From what I've read on the internet and elsewhere, evidently it happens, even to intelligent women. But unless the woman involved was brainwashed or had absymal self-esteem, I've never been able to understand it. Items such as this one don't help.

It seems that officials in Saudi Arabia are considering banning women from saying prayers near Islam's most sacred shrine in Mecca. Some people say women are already being kept away. Women already have few rights in this country. They aren't allowed to drive. They have to get permission from a man just to get a job, travel or stay at a hotel. But the religious authorities behind this thing claim it's just an effort to ease chronic overcrowding, which causes dangerous riots.

If this is the case, why target just women? Since women are barely allowed to leave the house in this country, most of those making up the crowds must be men. So why not just set up remote prayer sites and allow no more than a certain number of the faithful to pray at each site? This could disperse the crowds over a larger area, perhaps for miles if necessary. Of course this would take them a distance from the Grand Mosque. But surely if the leading imams said this was okay that would be good enough for most pilgrims.

In the article it's implied that they want to do it because they're afraid that the sight of a woman praying will cause the men to riot. As one woman countered

"Women are not all young beauties that rush to the mosque with an aim of seducing men," wrote one woman, Aziza al-Manie, in the country's Okaz daily.

"Among female visitors are the ill, the old, tormented widows, the handicapped and disabled, and the ones with problems desperately wanting God's help and mercy," she wrote, according to a translation in Arab News.

So first we have the burqas, then restrictions, and now this. The implication seems to be that Arab men are such horney so-and-sos that the sight of a woman, any woman, drives them insane with lust. Maybe I'm naive, but I just don't believe that.

The authorities are saying that although the women's areas would be further back they would be much larger and have a better view of the shrine. When I read that I keep hearing in my mind "Why yes, we only let them ride in the back of the bus. But it's really nice there."

True, this is only in one country. But Saudi Arabia is an Islamic state, ruled by sharia. So it's a good example of the Islamic mindset. Historian Hatoon al-Fassi says it probably won't happen because the rest of the Muslim world should make the decision, not just Saudi Arabia. And a group of Muslim women writers are sponsoring a petition against it. So hopefully the more moderate will prevail.

Meanwhile my quest to find out why a woman would want to be a Muslim continues...