Saudi Arabians have the unique experience of living amidst wealth and modernity, at the same time that they live amidst backwardness and an archaic, fundamentalist regime. At least Saudis have a sense of humour about their predicament: "I confess, I saw a naked dinosaur thigh and felt aroused" was one of many mocking responses posted on social media in response to Saudi religious police suddenly raiding a children's dinosaur exhibit in a Saudi Mall:

The government-salaried vigilantes, a bearded auxiliary police force familiarly known to Saudis as the Hayaa, had marched officiously into an educational exhibit featuring plaster models of dinosaurs, turned off the lights and ordered everyone out, frightening children and alarming their parents.It was unclear precisely why the religious police objected to the exhibit, which apparently had been innocently featured at shopping centres across the Gulf for decades.

Read more Tweets speculating on what it was about the seemingly innocuous dinosaurs that got the grim guardians of the sacrosanct all hot and bothered here.More >>

A wise ruler might see the writing on the wall and accelerate at least the public relations of reform, in the face of revolution closing in all around. But not so in Saudi Arabia. As well-entrenched dictatorships in its neighbourhood crumble to both local and global applause, the absolute monarchy of the House of Saud is tightening its grip rather than loosening it, and throwing a handout to other beleaguered tyrants while at it.

Saudi Arabia clings to its dubious status as being unique in the world in several respects: It's the last remaining state where women have no rights to vote whatsoever (and of course, cannot run for office... not that there is a lot of elected representation going on in the kingdom). It's the only country in the world where it's illegal for women to drive. Saudi Arabia has the lowest representation of women in the workforce in the world (5%). It's one of the few remaining countries still enthusiastically using capital punishment, and not just for murder by the way: you can be executed in Saudi Arabia for apostasy, drug offenses, sexual deviancy, and witchcraft. Yes, witchcraft. Beheading by sword is the preferred method, but stoning...More >>

Now because I am always curious about men who take an unusually intense interest in women's clothing, I noticed that a Muslim clergyman has worked himself into a tizzy over a recent Islamic dress fashion show in Tatarstan. The designers featured in the show had clearly made every effort to not show the slightest swath of flesh (even when decking women out in aqua feathered Cirque-de-soleil-style fluff dresses that would surely draw attention, skin-less or not) and to have their otherwise interesting and colourful creations conform to the expectation of lots of flowing fabric and no display of hair, necklines, elbows, ankles or any other devilish body part. But the very idea of a fashion show is "unIslamic" according to Nurislam Ibrahimov, a Tatar imam, who implores that "the human body is not a mannequin".

That's funny, because Ayatollah Asif Mohseni, the Iran-backed conservative Shia "scholar" and architect of Afghanistan's "rape law" seems to feel differently. He argued in early drafts of his infamous Shia Personal Status Law for an article that would legally require women to wear...More >>