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World

Brickbat: Next Time, Ask for the Self Checkout

Charles Oliver | 9.12.2014 6:00 AM

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In Saudi Arabia, religious police attacked a British man after they saw him using a supermarket checkout with a woman as cashier. Such checkout lines are reserved only for women.

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Charles Oliver is a contributing editor at Reason.

WorldSaudi ArabiaMoral Panic
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  1. Bardas Phocas   11 years ago

    He’s lucky he didn’t sit at the lunch counter.

  2. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

    The Briton, a convert to Islam, is a longtime resident of the kingdom and married to a Saudi woman, according to Al-Hayat, which said he was finally driven away in a British embassy car.

    Their country, their religion, their laws, buddy, cry me a river.

    1. Scarecrow Repair   11 years ago

      Beggars belief that he’d convert to Islam, especially the brand needed to voluntarily live in such a despotic hellhole, and then complain, even to the point of getting an embassy car to come to his rescue. What a loser!

    2. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      Yeah those women decked in those black bed sheets really look silly, eh?

  3. Eric T   11 years ago

    He probably thought the cashier was a cross-dresser. Funny though that he would not have noticed the look of shock that came over her face.

    I wonder if women who wear black bags over their heads have to develop a whole new system of signalling social cues not dependent upon facial muscles?

  4. Adans smith   11 years ago

    There’s not a Arab country that’s worth a damn.They have few freedoms and produce nothing.If the Saudis were not born over a large pool of oil they’s be living in tents in the desert,

  5. invisible furry hand   11 years ago

    The religious police have been accused of abusing their powers.

    Surely not.

    1. Roger the Shrubber   11 years ago

      Procedures were followed.

    2. Jerryskids   11 years ago

      If you watch the video you’ll hear the morality police yelling “Stop resisting the will of Allah!” as they beat him, so it’s cool.

    3. Bronwyn   11 years ago

      They used to complain to my dad that “his women” were not properly covered. He said, “take it up with the ladies, I’m not telling them what to do.”

      Left them completely flustered.

      Another time, he was arrested and his camera confiscated (then film destoryed) for taking pictures of me and my mom riding camels at the camel market.

      Good times in the Magic Kingdom. It’s nice to see that the more things change (holy shit, a woman cashier?!?) the more they stay the same.

  6. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

    On one hand – awful, on the other hand, they’re making progress. In times past they’d probably have gone after the cashier instead. Also, if this guy converted and moved there, shouldn’t he be aware of rules like that?

    1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

      Addendum – I mean, you don’t have to be an expert to know Saudi Arabia has some serious gender segregation issues and an overzealous morality police.

      1. Snark Plissken   11 years ago

        A heated exchange followed as he refused to hand over his camera to the agents, who “attacked and pushed him to the ground,” according to witnesses cited by the daily.

        He was actually attacked for filming the religious police and refusing to hand over his phone. Something that never happens in good old US of A.

        1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

          He was actually attacked for filming the religious police and refusing to hand over his phone. Something that never happens in good old US of A.

          Of course not, Saudi Arabia is a Totalitarian Theocratic Police State, the US is a Totalitarian Bureaucratic Police State, you won’t find Religious Police to film here.

          1. Johnny Bravo   11 years ago

            you won’t find Religious Police to film here.

            This kid disagrees.

    2. Gene   11 years ago

      Also, if this guy converted and moved there, shouldn’t he be aware of rules like that?

      Not only that, I hope he burned his passport when he moved, so when he inevitably realizes his mistake he can’t go back. He will have to live in that shit-hole for the rest of his pathetic life.

      1. Zombie Jimbo   11 years ago

        Cameron will trade him for 5 Saudi exchange students who’ve raped some kids or something.

    3. Jerryskids   11 years ago

      they’re making progress

      And I’m sure there are progressives here who applaud the idea of womyn only at womyn-run registers, what with the male gaze being a particularly insidious form of rape.

      Not to mention, of course, the whole exploitation and repression by the patriarchy business of having womyn either forced to work as cashiers or to do the grocery shopping. That’s multiple forms of social and economic rape right there.

      1. BuSab Agent   11 years ago

        That’s true. No Saudi Arabian women have to suffer from teh Male Gaze, or from being triggered, or fat shamed. Progress!

  7. userve32   11 years ago

    Dude this makes no sense at all man.

    http://www.Crypt-Tools.tk

    1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

      That’s just because we haven’t coded gender into computer algorithms. Makes it a bit hard for AnonBots to process.

      1. straffinrun   11 years ago

        Sometimes you jsut have roll with it.

        1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

          Roll with the beautiful bean footage? I’m not sure I can do that.

          1. Doctor Whom   11 years ago

            My concubine’s best friend made $87/hr working in the women-only checkout line. Last week, she made $6,730 and just bought a brand new Edsel. Check out this site: http://www.malfunctioningspambot.sa

            1. Swiss Servator, Go Genf!   11 years ago

              *golf clap*

              1. Jerryskids   11 years ago

                + 72 virgins.

  8. Will4Freedom   11 years ago

    I would have loved to see the look on this guys face on his wedding night when he finally got to take that black sheet off his new wife. Priceless.

    Religious police…. probably have their own stash of porn at home.

    Didn’t OBL have porn in his room when Seal Team 6 crashed the party?

    1. Brett L   11 years ago

      Rules are always for the peasants, not the rulers. It is not a unique hypocrisy.

    2. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      ‘Er, this is not the woman I married! Garcon! Garcon!”

      1. Rich   11 years ago

        “Pardon, how would you know that? Religious police! Religious police!”

      2. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

        Send this one back to the kitchen and give me a fresher one!

  9. Rich   11 years ago

    “That’s my wife, how dare you!” the Briton is heard shouting in the video.

    “Sorry, man,” the religious officer is heard replying. “They all look alike.”

  10. EDG reppin' LBC   11 years ago

    Gee whiz. Why are we even still messing around with these dickheads? The Middle East are like retarded fourth graders, and the USA is the star high school QB. How the hell does it benefit the USA to go and pick fights with retarded fourth graders? I mean, show up and feed the retard, maybe wipe the spit from its chin, have a photo op. But don’t get in a fight with the retard. It’s beneath us. Let the retards be.

    1. Rufus J. Firefly   11 years ago

      /standing ovation.

    2. Rich   11 years ago

      ErL, you should really send this to the White House. The President insists he’s open to good ideas.

      1. UnCivilServant   11 years ago

        “Good ideas” meaning “Blind Praise for whatever I finally do or don’t do.”

    3. BuSab Agent   11 years ago

      As I recall the star QB from my high school was a major league douche bag with anger management issues, who became a cop but got fired from the cop shop for embezzling some cop charity fund and now works at a 7-11. Good comparison.

  11. Notorious G.K.C.   11 years ago

    Why couldn’t he just dress up as a woman? Who would notice? He could just communicate by hand gestures or inhale some helium to make his voice higher.

  12. Agile Cyborg   11 years ago

    The bizarre thing is I’ve actually had heated debates over the years with Muslim women who defend the marginalization of their gender. Because men and lust and sex and men and lust… rinse, repeat.

    1. BuSab Agent   11 years ago

      I have done the same and it’s eerie how similar in tone and content the arguments are to hardline feminist rhetoric.

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