The recent story about how a flight was delayed for three hours because three Arab princesses from the oil rich and culturally conservative Gulf state of Qatar refused to sit next to men to whom they are not related led me to reflect on how the human species is one of extraordinary extremes. On the one hand, we have ladies like Britney Spears who display their most private parts to the paparazzi, whether accidentally or as a publicity stunt. On the other we have ladies like the picky princesses of Qatar who, even though they were attired in the complete cover-up of traditional Arab dress, so feared being in proximity to unrelated men that they allowed themselves to be kicked off the plane rather than back down on their demand for sex-segregated seating.
An obvious reaction is, “Can’t we find a happy medium?†In fact, the vast majority of us do. Those at the poles of gross exhibitionism and hyper-modesty are the ones who grab the headlines.
The case also reminded me of the 1980 film by South African director Antony Thomas, Death of a Princess. The docudrama was about the killing of a Saudi Arabian princess and her commoner lover for adultery. It may have been an execution or it may have been an honor killing by the royal family but, in either case, it was certainly a tragedy. The killings were brutal and deserved worldwide condemnation. However, Thomas made the unfortunate mistake of losing focus on the cruelty and inhumanity shown by the Saudi royal house both to one of its own and to the unfortunate commoner by making an accusation in his film that was sensational and utterly implausible on the face of it, namely that non-marital sex is common among Saudi princesses. Since the movie was occasioned by the slaughter of a royal woman for just this offense, it was hardly believable to suggest that others were habitually doing it. The accusation was preposterous not only because of the extraordinary risks women in the Arab world take when having sex with men outside of marriage but because these are women who have been drilled since childhood in the dangers of fornication and adultery. Such women would probably be terrified and repulsed at the thought of non-marital sex and for good reason.
I have read some people say that lesbianism is common among some groups of Arab women. I have no way of knowing whether or not that is true but find it much more plausible than attributing heterosexual adventuring to them. After all, in societies that are rigidly sex-segregated, women are with other women almost all of the time so they are likely to turn much of their affection, and quite possibly their eroticism, to their closest same-sex companions. It is also true that a female-female relationship would not result in a pregnancy that could expose a male-female liaison.
Getting back to our picky Arab princesses, perhaps they can avoid another hassle by simply informing an airline of their special needs prior to a booking and making certain they have accommodations congenial to them so that they will not partially defeat the purpose of their modesty by drawing undue attention to themselves.
