SAUDI ARABIA - Dec. 22 - Apartheid Seen.

The following are extracts from an article in the Washington Post, headlined "Saudi Arabia's Apartheid", by Colbert King: "In response to last week's column concerning treatment of women in the Middle East, an American official who just completed a tour of duty in Riyadh... wrote: 'As a husband and as a father of a teenage daughter, I can assure you that life even for Western women in Saudi Arabia is every bit as bad as you describe. Saudi official assurances that non-Muslims need not follow Muslim codes of dress and behavior are utter nonsense, and the very real threat of punishment or abuse for not wearing abbayas [head-to-toe black cloaks] or for going out unaccompanied leaves most Western women in Riyadh to live lives of silent depression'.

The US official said he and his wife were amused to read early press reports from Afghanistan about the oppression of women and religious minorities, adding: 'Virtually everything described there was taking place in Saudi Arabia, with the exception that at least the Taliban permitted other religions to exist in their country. This is absolutely forbidden in Saudi Arabia... One of the (still) untold stories, however, is the cooperation of US and other Western companies in enforcing sexual apartheid in Saudi Arabia. McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Starbucks, and other US firms, for instance, maintain strictly segregated eating zones in their restaurants. The men's sections are typically lavish, comfortable and up to Western standards, whereas the women's or families' sections are often run-down, neglected and, in the case of Starbucks, have no seats. Worse, these firms will bar entrance to Western women who show up without their husbands. My wife and other [US government affiliated] women were regularly forbidden entrance to the local McDonald's unless there was a man with them... This willing compliance with apartheid on the part of US firms was perhaps the most galling'". The WP writer concluded with this: "The Feminist Majority Foundation led the public outcry over the Taliban's human rights abuses against women and girls in Afghanistan. What do they and other opponents of gender discrimination think of the complicity of America's fast-food joints in Saudi Arabia? Or do American businesses, the golden arches, and American quick service purveyors of hamburgers, fries, pizzas and fried chicken in the Saudi kingdom get a free pass?"