This definitely doesn’t go as far as I was hoping based on your initial description, but it’s an amazingly positive step in the right direction for such a conservative country.
The news is old, you should come and see for yourself. You need to keep in mind that generally the people are more religious and more conservative than the government and the government cannot upset them too much. Our opposition abroad is even more religious and conservative and use the progress made as arguments against the legitimacy of the monarchy.
I went to Dubai and Abu Dhabi some 5 or 6 years ago. Beautiful cities, excellent food and museums. I swore I would never go again just because of the facade of ostentatious opulent wealth on top of a massive complex network of definitely-not-slavery-because-that-would-be-illegal. I have every reason to believe SA has the same definitely-not-slavery problem. Also, I am an unabashed heretic, and (if I understand correctly, strictly speaking) an apostate, since I have read and understood subsequently rejected significant portions of al quran, and religious apostasy laws are still on the books, even if they are seldom enforced. I will not be visiting SA despite your otherwise excellent suggestion.
Some news articles:
https://www.cnn.com/2016/04/14/middleeast/saudi-arabia-religious-police-powers/index.html
https://apnews.com/general-news-615a3fff5c7e4df9accb85bb8e17337a
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0XA25J/
and this is Saudi Arabia now:
https://youtu.be/FC0bl2PObW4 (short documentary by DW)
This definitely doesn’t go as far as I was hoping based on your initial description, but it’s an amazingly positive step in the right direction for such a conservative country.
The news is old, you should come and see for yourself. You need to keep in mind that generally the people are more religious and more conservative than the government and the government cannot upset them too much. Our opposition abroad is even more religious and conservative and use the progress made as arguments against the legitimacy of the monarchy.
I went to Dubai and Abu Dhabi some 5 or 6 years ago. Beautiful cities, excellent food and museums. I swore I would never go again just because of the facade of ostentatious opulent wealth on top of a massive complex network of definitely-not-slavery-because-that-would-be-illegal. I have every reason to believe SA has the same definitely-not-slavery problem. Also, I am an unabashed heretic, and (if I understand correctly, strictly speaking) an apostate, since I have read and understood subsequently rejected significant portions of al quran, and religious apostasy laws are still on the books, even if they are seldom enforced. I will not be visiting SA despite your otherwise excellent suggestion.
You are free to make that decision. There’s plenty of wealth and far more people in China anyways, and they don’t hate us the same way people in the West do.
Well, I mean we have legal prisoner slavery here in the states, now I’m thinking of it… hmm…