27 Sep 2017: Daily Homily and Tweets

by | Sep 27, 2017 | Human Rights, Tweets, Women | 8 comments

As you can see, there’s a new name in the title: Homily. I’m not sure how that’s going to work – I’m just trying it on for size at this stage. The content of the post won’t change. There’ll still be plenty of tweets on display.

The big news of the day for me is that women in Saudi Arabia can drive. It comes about because of the issuing of a decree by King Salman. By June 2018, the processes must be in place to issue licenses to women. There are screeds of tweets celebrating the change, and I’ve put a few in the Human Rights Tweets section right below the homily.

Prince Khaled bin Salman, the Saudi ambassador to the UN made the announcement there. (There’s video of him doing so at the BBC link below.)

There are, of course, men complaining about this. They consider the lifting of the ban to be in opposition to the Qur’an. According to the BBC, a tweet from one critic says:

As far as I remember, Sharia scholars have said it was haram (forbidden) for women to drive. How come it has suddenly become halal (permissible)?

Here’s what some of them said in the past:

There are about 1.6 billion Muslims and most of them consider there to be no issue with women driving. It is only the Salafis and other conservative sects who feel this way. I’m not really sure how they can use the Qur’an to justify their opinion – there weren’t a lot of cars around when it was written.

Other men and women, who have been campaigning for change for years, are reacting differently. From the BBC:

Activist Sahar Nassif in Jeddah told the BBC she was “very, very excited – jumping up and down and laughing”.

“I’m going to buy my dream car, a convertible Mustang, and it’s going to be black and yellow,” she said.

The men opposing the decision worry that women driving is the thin edge of the wedge. It’s not – that was a couple of years when women in that country got the right to vote. More will come.

Women in Saudi Arabia have a long way to go before they reach equality with men. Only around 20% of them work for example despite having a higher level of education on average than the men of their country. But, it will happen. When I think of the changes just in my lifetime, you can see that it can happen. It also happens quicker than you would expect. For example, how many people just 25 years ago would guess that same-sex marriage would be legal?

Human Rights Tweets

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women in Iran are celebrating the success of their sisters in Saudi Arabia. Unlike their male leaders, they’re not worrying about Sunni vs Shi’a.

 

Political Tweets

In the last few days there’s been a trend among journalists to acknowledge how hard they were on Hillary Clinton during the election campaign. I’m very happy to see this, as it’s something I wrote about at the time. This is one of the tweets about that, showing some evidence of what happened.
(Via Ann German.)

 

It seems there’s no type of protest a black person in the US can make that some white people will think is okay. When you’re white, you can march with tiki torches and President Trump assumes some of you are fine people. A black person quietly kneeling to protest racial violence is a son-of-a-bitch that should be fired.

 

Excellent!

 

I wrote about this yesterday, but here’s some more. I can’t help thinking a lot of the noise around the #TakeTheKnee protest by Trump is to divert attention from all the things that are coming out about wrong-doings in his White House.

 

Roy Moore won in Alabama. As the Washington Post says, he’s a:

A former state judge who believes Christian biblical morality should invalidate federal court decisions …

 

 

Weather Tweets

The Puerto Ricans have a terrible few years ahead of them as they recover from the damage wrought by Hurricane Irma.

 

What he said.

 

Science Tweets

Looks interesting.

 

Cool gadget. Now you just have to make sure you have a computer and electricity on that desert island.

Scenic Tweets

Now that’s a swimming pool!

Art Tweets

Wow!

 

What a great way to brighten up the ‘hood!

 

Stunning.

Entertainment Tweets

Neil deGrasse Tyson on ‘Game of Thrones’.

 

Clowns are creepy, and this is just plain stupid.

Dog Tweets

You can always rely on your dog to be happy to see you, whatever else is happening in your life.

 

Personally I agree with the Pit Bull ban, but it’s really sad when one has been brought up properly and a situation like this occurs.

 

This is so sad.

 

I’ve got a friend who’s going to have something to say about so many dog tweets, but I had to put this one in! (You have to admit this is a good one!)


 

Other Animals Tweets

This hedgehog has a pretty active night life! And keep a look out for the cat and mouse!

 

I wish one of them had a red nose!

 

Bird Tweets

What fun!

Marine Tweets

Another cool underwater time lapse.

 

Cat Tweets

Did you think there weren’t going to be any? There will always be cat tweets. They’re like dessert – the best comes at the end.

A kitten-size box. Give me an Awww …

 

I am cat! (Without reading the article, I’m assuming this is a police dog training academy or similar.)

 

There’s some major cuteness going on here!

 

Ha! Look at those eyebrows!

 

More cool markings …

 

It’s the thought that counts!

 

Once again, there’s nothing cuter than a kitten …

 

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8 Comments

  1. Martin Fuller
    Martin Fuller on 27th September 2017 at 4:58 pm

    Perhaps they are coming around to the view that women are people too.

    Keep at it Saudi Arabia – you are making progress.

    By the way, love the tweets!

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 27th September 2017 at 5:34 pm

      Thanks Martin.

      And yeah, what a revelation – women are people. As I said on another forum, maybe some women will now be able to attend the annual conference Saudi Arabia holds on women’s rights?!

      Reply
      • Robert Ladley
        Robert Ladley on 28th September 2017 at 12:01 am

        I think you should go Heather and teach them how it should be done ????
        Robert Ladley

        Reply
        • Heather Hastie
          Heather Hastie on 28th September 2017 at 6:54 am

          It’s illegal to be an atheist in Saudi Arabia. We’re likened to terrorists in law. I’m not sure going to SA would be a wise move. Besides, there are lots of smart women (and men) campaigning for change there. It’s better if they do it themselves rather than have solutions imposed on them. 🙂

          Reply
  2. Randy schenck
    Randy schenck on 28th September 2017 at 2:18 am

    The lady wants to get a Mustang? With all those lovely European cars, what is she thinking. Maybe they do have a long way to go.

    Reply
  3. Mark R.
    Mark R. on 28th September 2017 at 6:32 am

    I liked the order with, as you said, dessert at the end! I’ve seen dogs surf before, it’s so odd to see, but creates smiles.

    I saw IT, not once was I reminded of Ronald McDonald, or food for that matter.

    Conservative billionaires own the parent companies of the news-outlets, so it’s no surprise a democrat gets the shaft in regards to coverage. The fact that the democrat was female didn’t help.

    Reply
    • Heather Hastie
      Heather Hastie on 28th September 2017 at 7:03 am

      Plus news organisations write about bad stuff, not good stuff. With Hillary they had to repeat the same thing over and over because there was nothing else which had the effect of making it seem bigger and worse and more real. It was easy to forget all of Trump’s bad stuff – it was like Gish galloping. It became entertainment rather than criticism for many. Networks covered his entire rallies and press conferences live because they didn’t want to miss the next thing. They almost never did that for Clinton. He got billions in free publicity that way with no one countering his message except in the debates.

      Reply

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