Saudi Affairs
Our Obsession With Males
By Tariq A. Al-Maeena
Oct 23, 2003, 06:19

The other day I came across a news item that added agitation to my already overwrought frame of mind. It seems it was decided that pregnant women would no longer be admitted into hospitals at the time of delivery unless accompanied by a male guardian.

Apparently this is to combat the rise of illegitimate deliveries, and the disappearance of the mother without a trace once she had given birth. Right away I thought, “But why a male?” What if the male wasn’t around for whatever reason, such as a business trip, an assignment somewhere distant, or simply incapacitated at the moment her water broke, to accompany her?

Why not the pregnant woman’s sister, mother, aunt or any other female relative? We males have enough on our plate already.

We drive our women everywhere because they are not allowed to. We accompany them to souks and shopping centers because they invariably get hassled if they are alone. We have to be alongside them in matters of law such as court appearances. We males have to be the ones to enroll our daughters in girls’ schools, because their mothers aren’t encouraged to register them.

If they want to purchase a piece of land, or obtain a mobile phone chip for their cellular phones, guess who is there right besides them. If they want to open up a small business or take a trip somewhere, please look no further than the nearest male relative. If they want to see a doctor, we get to sit in on the diagnosis. If they want to sell their gold bangles or pearl necklaces, we are dragged right alongside. And that’s just a scratch on the surface.

And what do we males do when we are not busy with all that? Well, someone has to make a living. To get up early in the morning and go to work; to put in a full day’s work and bring home the beef.

And for those of you not familiar with our traffic, the rigors of trying to navigate safely amidst marauding road warriors is enough to cause premature aging or worse.

Coupled with our lack of sense of civics, work ethics, and discipline, it can make up for a very trying day indeed. So why then should another chore be added to our over-filled plate?

And then it suddenly dawned on me. What rational male would come up with such bizarre ideas? This smacked of a conspiracy against males. And ingeniously thought of by women!

To shuffle such chores on us unsuspecting males, all a woman has to do is whisper such ideas into her bureaucrat husband’s ears the night before, and sure enough, the next day it becomes law. It ensures the survival of her species long after we males have withered into dust.

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