Alexa,

I really like what you posted. I agree to that 100%

PM, women in Saudi, who have money, can start a business as they wish. They don't have to mix though to make that happen. This also does not mean they are deprived of thier right.
Regarding Khadija, here are some facts. She was a business woman who had wealth. Prophet Muhammad, was known at his time to be trust worthy and believed in what he says. This was long time before he became the prophet of Islam. People at that time, travel to sell and buy to make money. Prohpet dealth with Khadija using her money to by and sell for her. Later on, he married Khadija at which time he was 25 years old and she was 40 years old. The message was revealed to him when he was about 40 years old. I would like to point out that you may not use khadija's model as an example for nowadays. At least not necessarily so. The reason is that Islam was not yet started. when Khadija dealth with the prophet, there was only the old arabic culture, no relgion (except very very few who were christians- vast majorities worshiped statues and stuff).
I hope you got what I mean. let me kow if you need further explanation.

Sah. Saudi is the keeper of the two mosques and has better education. If you agree that Saudi should lead on education. why would you argue then?

The khadijah example tells me you don't have strong argument. you don't have a valid comparison and yet argue otherwise.

regarding the races in the US, I don't think this example can serve the argument here. the reason is: human rights in US asked for complete segregations, where blacks occupy a certain state and whites occupy other states. I agree this model has failed for obvious reasons. However, segregation in Islam does not mean all women in one state and all men in another state. Do you think the two examples compare?

Human rights abuses. We are talking about Qatari/Arabic women and whether they are opressed by thier families. Human rights is a wide term including children, labour and every human. Let us stick to the main point. I argue that Qatari women are not opressed by thier families and ofcourse there are exceptions as would be anywhere else.

My point on weekend is we should not change and this is the view of most of the people.

My impression about the west is made on my personal observations, not the media which I never believe unless proven otherwise. I will not allow any person, religious or not, to mislead me. I would listen to people and if they convince me then fine, whether they are westerners or easterners. As it happens, I was misunderstood and I did not say everyone, some. My impression on the west is something which keeps changing with my personal experience. If you read a book about any culture, you will find out how weak it is in giving a full picture. so no matter how many books someone reads, or how many religious leaders he/she listens to; no one can have a general judgement. I respect the western culture and it is thier right to live thier life the way they want. All I am saying, is that westerners are mislead by thier government,sing the media, not all of them ofcourse, but great portion. Ofcourse there are Arabs who are completely unaware of westerners and have completely wrong impressions about them. However, in my judgement, western media effect on shaping people's views is greater than eastern media in shaping people's view. (different subject and I was forced into it)