According to Eater, some restaurants in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have started banning single women. Women must be accompanied by a male escort to go to a restaurant where a “women not allowed” sign is posted.
It’s reported that single women in restaurants cause the following social issues:
• ‘flirting’
• ‘speaking loudly’
• ‘having no respect for acceptable public behaviour’
• ‘focusing on mobile phones’
• ‘playing loud music on mobile phones’
• ‘giving the overall impression of being mentally unstable’
• ‘behaving in a shocking way’
General Khalid Al Fakhri, secretary of the National Society for Human Rights, is outraged, and has called for the signs to be removed immediately.
Saudi women already have to deal with many restrictions, from taking part in sport to the dress code they must adhere to. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.
Restaurants and cafés are some of the only places in Saudi Arabia where women are freely allowed – so essentially, the ban would force them to stay home.
We’ve heard of other crazy rules in restaurants, but this one is hard to swallow.
How would you react if similar laws came back to South Africa?