As we all know, the law in Saudi Arabia prevents men and women who aren't directly related from being alone together, but the problem with this was that women couldn't be alone with their male colleagues or acquaintances.

Well, a solution to this problem has been found by cleric Sheikh Al Obeikan, who says that women can give their breast milk to unrelated men in order to make them their legal sons, and thus they can stand in the same room together without breaking the law.

"The man should take the milk, but not directly from the breast of the woman," Al Obeikan told Gulf News. "He should drink it and then becomes a relative of the family, a fact that allows him to come in contact with the women without breaking Islam's rules about mixing."

To clarify, the way 'laws' work in Saudi Arabia isn't like what it is here - the laws aren't made based on what, say, the executive has in its manifesto that term, which then has to be passed through various stages of Parliament. In Sunny S.A., clerics are lawmakers and so if they say it, it goes. Overall, it's generally agreed that it's a far more comical, entertaining system of law, and it often results in mental laws such as women not being allowed to drive.

And so, the debate amongst the lawmakers in Saudi Arabia today isn't say, the legality of capital punishment or whether euthanasia would lead us down a slippery slope. The defining legal issue of Saudi Arabia - that is to say, the quintessential question which befuddles the highest minds in the region - is whether grown men should suckle directly from the breast (as argued by scholars such as Abi Ishaq Al Huwaini), or whether it should be pumped and given in a glass (Al Obeikan's preferred method). In keeping with the balanced nature of this blog I'll refrain from passing comment, but would argue that both sides make powerful arguments.

According to AOL news, "Soon after these proclamations, a Saudi bus driver allegedly asked a female teacher, whom he drives frequently, for her breast milk. The teacher refused and is threatening to sue."

Whilst there have been calls for stricter constraints on law making, this law in particular has had an unexpected side effect. Some women, who as mentioned earlier are not allowed to drive, are threatening that if laws aren't passed allowing them to drive cars, they will all start breastfeeding their male foreign drivers. This will turn them into their sons.

I was going to end this blog by extending the 'breastfeeding someone makes them your child' theory to its logical endpoint, but you know what? Lets not.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/06/09/2010-06-09_saudi_clerics_issu...

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi-arabia/saudi-women-use-fatwa-in-driv...