What Makes People Tick?

The more things change... The more I hope they change even more! Saudi Arabia grants women right to drive – but with some bizarre conditions http://t.co/jprfDwIZPM pic.twitter.com/M7LED1uJrd — RT (@RT_com) November 8, 2014 I'm one of those people who doesn't drive. Not because I can't or believe I shouldn't, but because I don't want to. I walk, I bike, I take public transport and feel good about doing so, about using environmentally friendlier modes of transport than using a car to get just me from A to B. Driving is not usually necessary where I live as public transport runs on a regular schedule and can get me most places. Sometimes though, especially after being harassed on the bus or tssssk-ed at while waiting for the train or ogled while on the tram or followed home from the metro,  I wish I did drive. I do not ask to be harassed. I do nothing to suggest I might want strangers to approach me. I wear a ring around a significant finger to show that ...

The Times of Israel reports that Saudi Arabia's 90-year old King Abdullah spoke out against extremism and terrorism on Friday 01 August 2014 in a statement read out on Saudi Arabian television. The Custodian Of The Two Holy Mosques (located in Mecca and Medina) stressed that both Israel and Hamas were responsible for the violence in Gaza which, in the King's words had led to "various forms" of terrorism, whether from groups, organisations or states. "In his remarks, the king pressed Muslim leaders to unite against extremism, saying terrorists are wrongfully carrying out deadly acts in the name of Islam and tarnishing the religion’s “purity and humanity.”  His remarks appeared to be directed at groups like the Islamic State and its allies, which have taken over territory in Iraq and Syria and whose fighters view the Western-allied Saudi ruling family as enemies.  “It is shameful and disgraceful that these terrorists are doing this in the name of religion, ki...

The University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research has conducted an extensive survey in seven Muslim-majority countries -- Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey -- looking at Tunisia as the birthplace of the Arab Spring and how happenings in Tunisia effect other Arab countries. The study itself is very interesting - read it as a PDF here  - however what caught my eye was a January 2014 article by the Pew Research Center (using UoM's data)  looking at the way MEN prefer women to dress in public places in the above-mentioned countries.