In Saudi Arabia, 1,600 women have signed an open letter supporting the kingdom's ban on gender mixing.

"Women are like sweets. If you keep them out in the open ... then nobody will take them. On the other hand, if you cover them then everybody will like them," one of the letter's supporters tells Arab News.

The letter raises fears that an end to segregation could force women into becoming the victims of sex abuse, harassment, rape and infectious diseases such as AIDS (all of which exist in Saudi Arabia today). Arab News continues:

The letter also urges the Kingdom's rulers to stop people from playing with the Kingdom's stability and values, and from deriding its religious teachings, Islamic scholars and religious rulings.

It further urges the authorities to clear the country's media and education system from people who support gender mixing, warning that it is people like these who have led to the prevalence of corruption in many Muslim countries ...

The letter says secularists wish to use women as a gateway for sedition and evil in the Kingdom, thus spreading immorality, diseases, the break-up of families, the dislocation of children and the prevalence of divorces.

Posted by Brian Whitaker, 21 May 2010.