Classic: Oprah Pisses Off Saudi Women

**PokemonMasterTrainer** · 15th-October-2011

The American talk-show hostess Oprah Winfrey recently did a show on "Women Across the Globe, " in which she hosted 11 women, each representing a different country and culture. Representing Saudi Arabia was television hostess Rania Al-Baz, who made headlines in August 2004 when she was beaten nearly to death by her husband. [1]

The fact that Al-Baz was chosen as representative of Saudi women provoked criticism in the Saudi press, particularly among women columnists. These columnists claimed that the show had shown bias by portraying Saudi society as oppressing women; they also argued that Al-Baz's appearance on the show damaged the reputation of all Saudi women. They argued that violence against women is not a phenomenon unique to Saudi Arabia, but is rather a global problem – and, furthermore, that the situation of Saudi women is better than that of women in the U.S.

Then there's the other side:

Columnist Essam Al-Ghalib, who had facilitated Rania Al-Baz's appearance on the show, published an article in the Saudi English-language daily Arab News titled "Oprah, Please Don't Call Me Again." In it, he claimed that the show's production team had misled him and Rania Al-Baz.

Al-Ghalib wrote that the show's production team had told them that the interview with Al-Baz would be broadcast as part of a program dealing with violence against women around the world – but as it turned out, it was shown as part of a general program on women across the globe, in order to show Saudi society in a negative light.

Saudi Women Angered by Oprah Winfrey Show:

**paul parmenter** · 15th-October-2011

So those poor oppressed women in Saudi Arabia get to be TV hostesses and press columnists, eh? And it hardly sounds like they are being stopped from expressing their views on anything and everything. Plus of course we already know they outlive their men, because women do that in every country of the world now.

But we will still be told how bad they have it. So who is telling porkies?

**PokemonMasterTrainer** · 15th-October-2011

Quote from paul parmenter

So those poor oppressed women in Saudi Arabia get to be TV hostesses and press columnists, eh? And it hardly sounds like they are being stopped from expressing their views on anything and everything. Plus of course we already know they outlive their men, because women do that in every country of the world now.

But we will still be told how bad they have it. So who is telling porkies?

Especially in Africa, where it's supposedly a bad place to be a woman. If it's that bad, then why do they have more female heads of state than the US?

There was a documentary or TV special about the life of the average Saudi woman.

**Zuberi** · 15th-October-2011

She has a habit of pissing off a lot of people, especially black men.

Hell, even Janet Jackson came flat out and said that Oprah was a damn fraud.

**Celtic Druid** · 15th-October-2011

Although the news item dates back to 2005, in 2011 women in Saudi Arabia will vote and run in elections. BBC News - Women in Saudi Arabia to vote and run in elections

There is no longer a single country in the world where women cannot vote. And many parasitical feminists wept, for they were deprived of the last scrap of the voting food to which they greedily gorged upon for so long!

Women in that country, along with Iran, also represent over 70% of university applicants. It's also the tradition in Islam that the man be responsible for all women's needs. and even if she is working she's not obliged to pay a penny, not even to her children. Also, as with medieval Europe, many men are still punished for the crimes of women, from theft to murder, with imprisonment and beheading for innocent males. Who's oppressed exactly????

But surely with voting rights came responsibilities?

Note to Poke: I enjoy your input here, but if you're going to post old stories you had better embark upon some updated research before posting.