This is an account of a personal experience, so it can't fairly be judged on the "objective" scale. However, it's about the best report by a western female on her experiences in Saudi Arabia. It starkly presents the near-impossibility of reconciling the Saudi way (even the Arab way as reflected in the men who hoot and holler in Cairo) with western concepts of equality of women. The writer dramatically illustrates the ingrained attitudes of both Saudi men and women that go back centuries and for most don't seem to be changed by the experience of western education. Depressing, yet this could be modern Islam if the Saudis have their way: They are spreading their ideology throughout the Muslim world with their oil money. Indonesia is showing signs of a growing harshness as Wahhabism takes hold, for example. And they are spreading their ways in Europe as well.