I remember sitting at a District Cricket final (at the Albert Ground) chatting to an older guy who’d been in Iran and Iraq in the 70s.
He was living in Tehran but also operating his business in Baghdad, which he loved. But the day after the Ayatollah took over, his house servant had dobbed him in for his liquor cabinet and all other offences against sharia law. Got the heck out of Dodge.
Provided Jordanian authorities give the ok then they could be bussed across the border and flown out of Amman which is still operating plenty of daily flights.
In Saudi, there was the option of a public whipping or jail for foreigners caught with alcohol. The public whipping was humiliating, but not physically harmful. The Quran book was held under the whipper arm and there was a fixed number of whips.
Australians who got caught were those who drank on their balconies. There was tolerance for behind closed doors and a non party atmosphere
And now in Saudi Arabia alcohol is legal at most resorts and hotels
Any country that stones, hangs, imprisons women for adultery or not wearing a burka etc, or allows the raping of a male perpetrators female family member as punishment for raping a woman has serious issues and needs to change.
Israel / US could be doing the world and women of Iran a favor if it ends in regime change.
Wondering what Irans ‘major surprise’ is for tonight that will be remembered for centuries.
I’m thinking the Ayatollah is going to jump out of a giant birthday cake in the nude, Under Seige style, for a belated celebration for Trumps birthday.
Bringing the entire conflict to an abrupt end.
I remember at the same time as Australia bought it’s 75 F-18’s, in 1984, New Zealand bought 10 of our A4 Skyhawks, which, by co-incidence, were what the ‘instructors’ in Top Gun flew against the F-14’s.
NZ finally decommissioned those A4 Skyhawks in 2001.
Tell that to some of the West friendly Gulf States who treat females badly, the ones with the imported labourers to do the menial and dangerous work, but who don’t enjoy any rights.
Talk was about Iran and it was an additional positive thing that could happen as well as preventing them having nukes.
Of course, I’d love to see changes happen in all countries to prevent such medieval practices happening against women and children.
Any normal person would.
There’s a bit of a stoning problem in India too. And nukes. 
I’m guessing you are mostly pointing the finger at Qatar and the UAE?
Both have come a long, long way with their treatment of women thankfully but still have a way to go especially Qatar but I do think they will get there and it can’t happen soon enough.
Both countries treat their immigrant workers completely different to the locals and yeah they are legally allowed to pay foreigners far less but end of the day no one is forcing people to go there seeking work
I think they just asked him to dispose of it immediately…or else.
There are continual consular headaches dealing with Australians n the Gulf States.
The public whipping is an example going back a few years, somehow it was avoided by getting the man and his wife out of the country.
In the not so recent past, there was the example of Australian women being detained on suspicion of being the mothers of a baby.
Guilt until presumed innocent is the order of the day, particularly if you are foreign and a female.
I don’t know much about Israel and how they treat (their own) women. But the US is in absolutely no position to be doing favors for women.
This morning Albanese said ‘ We are not part of this conflict’ and that Australia wouldn’t be deploying naval assets to the Middle East.
( I hope that the 30 or so ADF in Qatar cooperating with CENTCOM in logistical issues are keeping their heads down).
And the 60 in the UAE
Does anyone have any insight on a (one of the many) question that Marles refused to answer, is the US allowed to (unilaterally) launch attacks from Australian soil?
Long answer is I don’t know, but what’s the point of building a US airbase in Darwin otherwise?
Short answer is probably.
what does ‘allowed’ mean though?
