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An international medical symposium at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was stunned when a medical doctor insisted that women vacate the room before he entered to give his presentation. The audience was made up of professionals, including doctors and journalists, assembled to hear a discussion of Islam and ethical issues surrounding organ harvesting and donation. Some of the women protested at first, but ultimately all acquiesced to the demand.
Prior to the presentation by Dr. Yousef Al-Ahmed, the audience was informed that the doctor would not be in the same room with women when he spoke about medical ethics.
. . .
“This is ridiculous,” said one woman, a medical professional and Muslim. “In the Grand Mosque in Makkah men and women pray together. Why are we being asked to leave? This guy knows a hospital is a mixed place. He should have realized that before he came,” she said. “I am being put in a very embarrassing situation.”After Al-Ahmed persisted on his request that women not pollute his presentation with their presence, event coordinators began urging women to leave so the event could continue. Two women reporters from Saudi Arabian Television Channel One and Saudi satellite channel Al-Ekhabriya were also told to leave the hall.
After the doctor was satisfied by the absence of women, he began to speak on medical ethics in an Islamic context.
That is just priceless. The guy is a medical doctor and he won't speak to an audience that includes women. Does he also refuse to attend female patients? Does he refuse to work with female doctors and nurses? If so, how does he fulfill the duties of a doctor?
And didn't any of the men present insist that their female colleagues be treated with dignity, not to mention common human decency? Did they all sit quietly as the women were humiliated? Did any leave in protest? The report mentions nothing about that.
After the women had departed, the doctor discussed a fatwa from the Council of Islamic Fiqh Academy that permits organ retrieval after the patient has been declared brain dead. The incongruous combination of advanced medical technology and pre-medieval sexual taboos is bizarre (to me, anyway).
Another strange feature of this story is that several of the people quoted insist on anonymity.
“We had to ask the female medical staff to leave the hall based on the sheikh's request,” said a member of the organizing committee who preferred to remain anonymous.
. . .
A Saudi woman who specializes in neuroscience said the doctor had no right to ask women to leave.“We had every right to be there,” she said on condition of anonymity.
What, or whom, are those folks afraid of?
h/t: Religion News Blog
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