Los Angeles Times' bureau chief, Megan Stack, has written this amazing piece about her experience as a woman living and working in Saudia Arabia, a country where the sexes are completely segregated.
The first-person story is so powerfully written that I could feel her every emotion as I read the story--the rage, helplessness, frustration, and bewilderment.
The part that resonated with me the most was this:
The same U.S. government that heightened public outrage against the Taliban by decrying the mistreatment of Afghan women prizes the oil-slicked Saudi friendship and even offers wan praise for Saudi elections in which women are banned from voting. All U.S. fast-food franchises operating here, not just Starbucks, make women stand in separate lines. U.S.-owned hotels don't let women check in without a letter from a company vouching for her ability to pay; women checking into hotels alone have long been regarded as prostitutes.
I understand that corporations don't want to get involved with the cultural nuances of every country. But making women stand in separate lines is outrageous.
Don't American businesses have some responsibility to not be a part of something if it doesn't feel right to them? Or can everything be just explained away by saying: It's nothing personal, it's just business.
In the quest for profits, where do you then draw the line?
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