"Even Qatar isn't nearly as reactionary as Saudi Arabia. To cite the most obvious example, there's no legal dress code for women in Qatar."

Neither is the UAE or Jordan from what i've heard from friends that live there and that's the same region. So i don't know what gives with Saudi Arabia. Glad I don't live there. That's my $0.02.

Gee, I thought that Saudi Arabia was the center of Islam on Earth, a shining example for all mankind! It is the vision that Muslims have for all of us. Enjoy!

Even Qatar isn't nearly as reactionary as Saudi Arabia. To cite the most obvious example, there's no legal dress code for women in Qatar.

I just can't make sense of Saudi Arabia. I get the feeling that all of that tension is just going to burst one day, and it could be ugly or it could be beautiful, or possibly both.

Who wants to live like that?

Yes, Saudi Arabia is fucked up because women are not free and equal to men. Anyone who deserves the time of day doesn't need Gates to tell them that -- and if you read carefully, he doesn't say that.

So for what then is old Bill getting credit? I'm not sure. First, he's wrong. Saudi Arabia has more money per capita and spends more on its public institutions than we do. Of course it helps when all you have to do is pump oil out of the ground, but the super rich in the US (e.g. banks, oil companies and other monopolies) don't have to work much harder - and they don't "need" women to rape the rest of us. This is not to say their economy wouldn't benefit from using women's labor, but let's not confuse this relatively small factor with larger ones like who controls the resources - a much larger predictor of economic heft.

And that leads me to my larger complaint: Bill Gates was trying to score PR points by equating the subjugation of women with the lack of exploitation of their labor. This is a fine point I'm trying to make, so bear with me. I'm not saying that empowerment of women to work and do as they please won't benefit the economy of Saudi Arabia, or that such empowerment shouldn't be pursued with all due haste in Saudi Arabia. What I am saying is that Bill Gates didn't say that; he said that using women's labor is a make or break in becoming a major economy. And so even if you agree with his economic point (which I don't for the reasons in the previous paragraph), Gates is not advocating freedom with that statement, given that for most of the planet, working means having your labor exploited by folks with capital (men, incidentally -- or not so incidentally).

And sorry Tracy Clark-Flory, but if you think that Bill Gates makes up for his political/economic influence by giving generous sums to projects that should already be publicly supported, then you have drank the koolaid.

O. I. L.

Can someone please explain to me why the US couldn't do business with South Africa due to their treatment of blacks and mixed races, but we are tripping over ourselves to do business in Saudi and other places where women don't even have freedom of movement?

What's so creepy about the pic of Bill and Warren at Hooters? It's not like he's got one in each arm and leering at a third, or autographing breasts. It just seems like a cheap shot after acknowledging the philanthropy and work Gates has done in raising the focus on women's empowerment in employment and health care around the globe.

I guess those poor dirty whores who work at Hooters are beneath him, huh?

Who says feminists are no fun?

And it looks like it was Warren's idea anyway. lol