Saudi Arabia creating women-only cities...

Coming to Saudi Arabia: The world's first women-only city

The super-patriarchal Gulf kingdom is creating a female-only city to finally allow a huge percentage of its educated population to work freely

POSTED ON AUGUST 15, 2012, AT 8:03 AM

Women wearing abayas in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: The Persian capital may soon be home to female-only zones that will allow women to work within Islamic guidelines. Photo: Michael Kappeler/dpa/Corbis

Saudi Arabia has a problem: The Persian Gulf kingdom has an increasingly educated, increasingly unemployed female population and ultraconservative laws and customs that forbid women from mingling, much less working, with men. The Saudis are fashioning an unusual solution, building an industrial city that will allow only women. The female-only zone is scheduled to open in the Eastern Province city of Hofuf next year, with more ladies-only areas to come in Riyadh, the capital. How do these cities-inside-a-city work, and are they good for women? Here's a guide to the first-ever city of women:

LINK

Women Who Deserve Our Respect

I'm a man, so it's par-for-the-course I'm going to forget one. Shoot me now.

I decided today, to think of however many amazing female humans I could, and create this gallery. I think you'll get the idea, these are not pin-ups, and many are long dead. To really dig into deep history would have been too obvious... but other than the Suffragettes, Queens, Bodicea, who from yesteryear qualifies? Try doing this same exercise with men. It's sick that I can even post this honestly - why are there so few who spring instantly to mind, compared with men? But I gave it my best shot. Analyse, evaluate and add to this if you please.

The PKK - Kurdistan Worker's Party, Northern Iraq

About 40 per cent of PKK fighters are women


From Times Online:

"...the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has pursued guerrilla action in a 25-year campaign for a Kurdish independent state. The PKK has now offered to drop its demand in return for a negotiated settlement to end its war with Turkey."