Saudi women's rights conference. No women allowed.

The politics of money. Practically all the politicians who were at the march in Paris for freedom of speech attended the funeral of the rapist and murderer, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.  Abdullah had only recently sentenced a journalist to 1000 lashes for advocating freedom of speech. The Obama's made a detour from their planned trip to India in order to attend. Meanwhile, the tiny island of Cuba and its one party dictatorship that eliminated illiteracy and instituted what many argue is the best national health care system in the third world (and many argue globally) faced a 60 year crushing embargo and assassination attempt on Castro. Freedom means many things depending from whose mouth it arises.  For capitalism, it is a right bestowed on capital, the right to profit from exploitation. 

by Jordan Gold, reprinted from Konbini.com.
Also see Huffington Post

The laughably prestigious University of Qassim in Saudi Arabia held one of the biggest women’s rights conferences in the Arab world last year. Ironically, the institution managed to hold the event without the advice or attendance of a single woman.

Themed around the topic of “Women in Society” the conference, held every year at the University, is supposed to set a benchmark for tolerance and progress in the region. Delegates and speakers from more than fifteen countries showed up.

As is to be expected from Saudi Arabia, a country firmly under the grip of Sharia Law, zero women attended the event. Perhaps more hypocritically, a single woman is yet to speak at a University of Qassim summit.

The picture below was published by an Arab newspaper, Okaz, last year and surfaced again in the French-speaking press earlier today.

Saudi Arabia is still ranked 127th out of 136 countries for gender parity.