When I was a young boy, one of my grandfathers taught me how to play chess, but because he lived far away, I couldn't play with him very often.
Later, as an older boy, I discovered that there was a group of people who played chess at my local public library. They met once every week. This was a very informal chess club, and it didn't own any chess boards or sets of the pieces that move around on the boards, but many people who came to the weekly meetings had their own chess sets (boards and pieces), and so, many people had an opportunity to play chess with a human opponent when they came to the weekly meetings.
These were friendly games. Many of the players shook hands with their opponents after a game was finished. Some players tried to teach strategy to their opponents. Sometimes, this happened while a game was in progress. The players who performed this act of kindness still felt the need to be competitive and to play at their best during organized chess tournaments, but when they attended the chess club, they cared so much about the game of chess and about the other players that they wanted to improve the skills of the other players. These acts of kindness usually resulted in better and more interesting games later between those same two players.
Most of the people who came to the "club meetings" were male, but the club didn't have a policy that prohibited women from attending our meetings. In fact, I doubt that the library would have allowed us to hold our meetings if we had such a policy. In the absence of any sociological studies about this subject, I believe that most women simply don't like to play chess, and that this is why the club rarely had any women visitors.
The people who came to our club meetings were usually people who lived close to the public library, located a few miles away from a major U.S. city. Some people might say that the club wasn't very "diversified", but again, the club didn't have any formal membership policies, so anyone who had an interest in the game of chess was welcome to come, even if all they wanted to do was to watch two other people play chess.
The photo below shows people playing chess at the Central Florida Chess Club. The library-based chess club that I attended looked like this picture.
This is the first paragraph of a January 2, 2020 Economist article.
The rest of the news stories and articles in this section are arranged in chronological order, oldest first.
These are the first four paragraphs of a July 16, 2016 Human Rights Watch article.
These are the first three paragraphs of a September 17, 2016 Time magazine story. All of the links in these paragraphs were in their story. The man pictured in the March 3, 1941 cover of the magazine is a Hollywood actor named Gary Cooper.
Link to a September 27, 2016 Metro News (U.K.) story titled "Thousands of women storm Saudi King’s office demanding basic freedoms".
These are the first six paragraphs of a May 19, 2017 Associated Press story.
These are the first five paragraphs of a September 29, 2017 ABC News story.
These are the first five paragraphs of a December 6, 2017 CNN story. All of the links in these paragraphs were in their story.
This is the last quoted paragraph of the previous C.N.N. story, without the link.
Link to the Wikipedia page for "Women in Yemen".
These are the first six paragraphs of a January 22, 2018 NBC News story. The link in the fourth paragraph was in their story.
Link to a June 22, 2018 New York Times story titled "How Guardianship Laws Still Control Saudi Women".
These are the first three paragraphs of a November 1, 2018 article in Foreign Policy. The links in the second paragraph were in their article.
These are the first four paragraphs of a January 8, 2019 British Broadcasting Corporation story.
These are the first four paragraphs of a February 4, 2019 Reuters story.
This is the first paragraph of a July 11, 2019 Wall Street Journal story.
This is the subheadline of a July 22, 2019 Deutsche Welle story.
This is a link to a July 26, 2019 Washington Post editorial demanding that Saudi Arabia change their guardianship laws.
Racism and sexism exists now in these countries, but it did not exist in the chess club I attended as a boy, and it does not exist now in many other American organizations.
Look closely at some of the organizations that are accused of being racist and sexist. You won't find it.
Michelle Malkin's Twitter account @michellemalkin had 2.2 million followers on May 6, 2019, when I added this image to this page.
June 2015 update. While researching the reasons for the high male-female ratio among people who play chess, I have seen some people say, in writing, that it is because women "aren't smart enough" to play an intellectual game like chess. I do not accept this idea.
I believe that men and women have a different psychology. Male psychology is focused on competition, while female psychology is focused on cooperation. Chess is a competitive game, so it naturally attracts more men than women. On the other hand, it requires cooperation to be in a choir, a book-reading group, or to make a quilt. Those activities attract women.
These links, listed in chronological order, mention research about the male-female ratio in chess.
Scientific American, December 29, 2008 Includes a downloadable 1-minute podcast and the transcript of it.
Phys.Org, January 12, 2009 Mentions a research study done by Oxford University (without mentioning the university by name).
Daily Telegraph (UK) January 27, 2009 Also mentions the research done by Oxford University.
Chess.com A discussion board that began June 3, 2010, but other similar discussions began two years earlier.
National Public Radio, August 15, 2010. Their headline uses the unfortunate term "gender divide".
PhpBB discussion board topic began March 20, 2011. This topic was started to compare the few female chess players with the large number of female bridge players.
The Guardian (UK) November 12, 2012 The first five paragraphs are about one expert female player. Note, good players are called a "master", and the best players are called a "grandmaster". These titles have to be earned by winning games against other players with certain numbered chess ratings. The ratings and the titles are assigned by an international chess organization.
April 4, 2016 update. As I wrote earlier in this essay, there is a lack of diversity in Nigeria, specifically religious diversity. These are the first three paragraphs of a February 14, 2015 NBC News article.
Later, as an older boy, I discovered that there was a group of people who played chess at my local public library. They met once every week. This was a very informal chess club, and it didn't own any chess boards or sets of the pieces that move around on the boards, but many people who came to the weekly meetings had their own chess sets (boards and pieces), and so, many people had an opportunity to play chess with a human opponent when they came to the weekly meetings.
These were friendly games. Many of the players shook hands with their opponents after a game was finished. Some players tried to teach strategy to their opponents. Sometimes, this happened while a game was in progress. The players who performed this act of kindness still felt the need to be competitive and to play at their best during organized chess tournaments, but when they attended the chess club, they cared so much about the game of chess and about the other players that they wanted to improve the skills of the other players. These acts of kindness usually resulted in better and more interesting games later between those same two players.Most of the people who came to the "club meetings" were male, but the club didn't have a policy that prohibited women from attending our meetings. In fact, I doubt that the library would have allowed us to hold our meetings if we had such a policy. In the absence of any sociological studies about this subject, I believe that most women simply don't like to play chess, and that this is why the club rarely had any women visitors.
The people who came to our club meetings were usually people who lived close to the public library, located a few miles away from a major U.S. city. Some people might say that the club wasn't very "diversified", but again, the club didn't have any formal membership policies, so anyone who had an interest in the game of chess was welcome to come, even if all they wanted to do was to watch two other people play chess.
The photo below shows people playing chess at the Central Florida Chess Club. The library-based chess club that I attended looked like this picture.
Judging racism and sexism
When Alicia Thompson was a student in Johannesburg before the end of apartheid, she would often walk past the beautiful cars parked outside a club she was not allowed to join. It was not by chance that the Rand Club, the oldest private-members’ club in the city, was filled with old white men. It was by design. Women and blacks were not admitted as members until the early 1990s. “It was not my space,” says Ms Thompson. “That was the power of apartheid: you never questioned where you couldn’t go.”Was the chess club that I attended diversified? Honestly, I don't really care. There's less diversity in Saudi Arabia, but how many people are complaining loudly enough to make a difference?
The rest of the news stories and articles in this section are arranged in chronological order, oldest first.
2005
From the website of the U.S. Department of State (and their 2005 report on religious freedom in Saudi Arabia):The country is a monarchy with a legal system based on Islamic law (Shari'a). Islam is the official religion, and the law requires that all citizens be Muslims. The Government does not provide legal protection for freedom of religion, and such protection does not exist in practice.
The public practice of non-Muslim religions is prohibited. The Government recognizes the right of non-Muslims to worship in private; however, it does not always respect this right in practice and does not define this right in law.
2016
In Saudi Arabia, a woman’s life is controlled by a man from birth until death. Every Saudi woman must have a male guardian, normally a father or husband, but in some cases a brother or even a son, who has the power to make a range of critical decisions on her behalf.
As dozens of Saudi women told Human Rights Watch, the male guardianship system is the most significant impediment to realizing women’s rights in the country, effectively rendering adult women legal minors who cannot make key decisions for themselves.
Rania, a 34-year-old Saudi woman, said, “We are entrusted with raising the next generation but you can’t trust us with ourselves. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Every Saudi woman, regardless of her economic or social class, is adversely affected by guardianship policies.
A growing protest movement is looking to loosen the tight restrictions faced by women in deeply conservative Saudi Arabia. An online petition calling for an end to the country’s male-guardianship system has garnered almost 15,000 signatures, in part thanks to a social-media campaign.
According to Saudi law, women must have the permission of a male guardian to travel abroad, get married or leave prison. Women often need to get consent — from a father, brother or son — to work, study, rent a flat or undergo hospital treatment, the Guardian reports.
The petition is the first of its kind in the kingdom and was handed to the government on Monday, the BBC reports.
Link to a September 27, 2016 Metro News (U.K.) story titled "Thousands of women storm Saudi King’s office demanding basic freedoms".
2017
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — First she’s in the hands of her father, then she moves to her husband. Often, she ends up under the power of her son.
From childhood through adulthood into old age, every Saudi woman passes from the control of one legal guardian to another, a male relative whose decisions or whims can determine the course of her life.
Under Saudi law, the guardian’s permission is required for a woman to get a passport, to travel abroad or to marry. It is also often demanded whenever a woman tries to do any number of things, including rent an apartment, buy a car, undergo a medical procedure or take a job. As a result, women are consigned to the legal status of minors.
Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving is what often grabs the most attention, but rights advocates say guardianship laws are the factor that most powerfully enshrines inequality for women. President Donald Trump heads to Saudi Arabia this weekend to cement ties with the deeply conservative kingdom.
Guardianship was a major reason for the outrage when Saudi Arabia last month was elected to a U.N. commission tasked with promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. The kingdom was nominated to the post by the Asia-Pacific region, and normally nominees are rubber-stamped automatically. In this case, the U.S. requested a secret ballot vote, a move seen as a symbolic objection, though the kingdom won with 47 out of 54 votes.
The Geneva-based rights group UN Watch denounced the acceptance of Saudi Arabia on the commission, calling it the “world’s leading oppressor of women.”
The announcement that Saudi Arabia will finally allow women to drive has been hailed a watershed moment for gender equality, but the kingdom still has many laws in place that restrict the rights of women, activists say.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the only country in the world that forbids women from getting behind the wheel, announced that women will be allowed to obtain drivers' licenses for the first time in June 2018.
In the meantime, a newly-formed committee will develop a plan on how to implement the royal decree in accordance with religious and regulatory standards, presenting its recommendations within 30 days.
"This is a historic big day in our kingdom," Prince Khaled bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, said during a press conference Tuesday at the Saudi embassy in Washington.
Ambassador bin Salman confirmed women will be allowed to apply for a license, take driving lessons and drive any vehicle without needing legal permission from their male guardians. The choice to do so will be solely up to women, bin Salman said, but he acknowledged "there might be social issues."
(CNN) In a first for the conservative religious kingdom, Saudi Arabia has declared that women will finally be able to drive, the culmination of years of activism and appeals both from within and outside the Gulf nation.
The royal decree, announced live on state television Tuesday, will come into effect in June next year. A newly-formed committee will present its findings within 30 days on how the policy should be implemented.
Saudi women will reportedly be able to apply for their own driving licenses without having to secure the permission of their male guardians. However, rules that govern the guardianship of women continue to restrict many aspects of every day life for the country's female population.
Saudi Arabia, which adheres to some of the strictest interpretations of Sunni Islam in the world, has long prevented women from taking on a larger role in its society.
The 2016 Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum ranked the kingdom 141 out of 144 countries on gender parity. Trailing behind Saudi Arabia were Syria, Pakistan and Yemen.
This is the last quoted paragraph of the previous C.N.N. story, without the link.
"The 2016 Global Gender Gap Report by the World Economic Forum ranked the kingdom 141 out of 144 countries on gender parity. Trailing behind Saudi Arabia were Syria, Pakistan and Yemen."
Link to the Wikipedia page for "Women in Yemen".
2018
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — At first a controlling father’s whims ruled Khadija Majrashi's life. Then a sick husband dictated her decisions. Now it’s an angry son.
"There is a conflict between the two men in my life,” Majrashi said. While her spouse now supports her working outside the home, their 22-year-old son vehemently objects.
Strife within this one family helps illustrate the struggle at the heart of Saudi Arabia, where a raft of social, political and economic changes are being driven by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
He has promised to restore "moderate, open" Islam. But headline-grabbing announcements regarding women's rights and freedoms — such as the lifting last summer of the kingdom's driving ban — obscure conflicts among relatives as well as concerns over the justice system and the rule of law.
Rights advocates say that while welcome, the innovations hailed around the world as signs that the absolute monarchy had entered the 21st century are only scratching the surface.
“All the changes that we are hearing about are economic and entertainment changes," said Nasreen Alissa, a Saudi lawyer who created the Know Your Rights app to help women navigate the confusing tangle of strictures that govern them. "The rules and regulations are the same regarding women's basic rights. Not a single thing has changed except for driving and entertainment."
Link to a June 22, 2018 New York Times story titled "How Guardianship Laws Still Control Saudi Women".
The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul extinguished Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s reputation in the United States and Europe as a liberalizing reformer of his country. What the West must now do is ask itself why Salman enjoyed such a reputation to begin with. This is not the first time a Saudi leader has presented himself to the world as a liberalizer—and it’s not the first time the world has found itself duped.
The premise of Mohammed bin Salman’s reform effort has been that, prior to 1979—when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini established an Islamic theocracy in Iran and Juhayman al-Otaybi seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca—Saudi Arabia was a moderate kingdom that respected the diversity and civil rights of its subjects. In March, CBS anchor Norah O’Donnell asked the crown prince whether the last 40 years represents the “real Saudi Arabia,” and he replied, “I would ask your viewers to use their smartphones to find out. And they can google Saudi Arabia in the ’70s and ’60s, and they will see the real Saudi Arabia easily in the pictures.” In an interview this spring with the Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, Mohammed bin Salman similarly portrayed the Saudi Arabia of the 1960s and ’70s as comparatively liberal—always citing 1979 as the turning point. “Before 1979 there were societal guardianship customs, but no guardianship laws in Saudi Arabia. … In the 1960s, women didn’t travel with male guardians,” he said.
The problem is that this story is a myth—indeed, it’s the very myth that Saudi rulers in the decades prior to 1979 peddled to the United States in exchange for its material and diplomatic support in the region. Saudi Arabia’s promised reforms, however, went systematically ignored. If anything, they were often a prelude to crackdowns on dissidents and unpredictable regional policies. Rather than a break from that pattern, Mohammed bin Salman represents its continuation. Today, as in the 1960s and ’70s, Saudi Arabia is not only experiencing a disruption of its royal succession and a proxy war in Yemen between Riyadh and another regional power, but it is also offering a disingenuous pledge to liberalize in exchange for U.S. political support. Khashoggi is the latest casualty of this pattern—and there’s no reason to expect the outcome will be any different.
2019
Saudi Arabia drew international plaudits last year when it lifted a longstanding ban on women driving.
However, restrictions on women remain - most notably, the "male guardianship system", a woman's father, brother, husband or son has the authority to make critical decisions on her behalf.
These restrictions were highlighted in early January, when a young Saudi woman fleeing her family barricaded herself in a hotel room in Bangkok saying she feared imprisonment if she was sent back home.
A Saudi woman is required to obtain a male relative's approval to apply for a passport, travel outside the country, study abroad on a government scholarship, get married, leave prison, or even exit a shelter for abuse victims.
RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia will study how its male guardianship system is being abused, Saudi media reported on Monday, after the flight of an 18-year-old woman to Thailand last month focused global attention on the issue.
Every Saudi woman is assigned a male relative - often a father or husband but sometimes an uncle, brother or even a son - whose approval is needed to marry, obtain a passport and travel abroad.
Rights groups say the arrangement turns women into second-class citizens, depriving them of social and economic freedoms and making them more vulnerable to violence.
Without a codified system of law to go with the texts making up sharia, or Islamic law, the Saudi police and judiciary have long cited social customs in enforcing certain prohibitions on women. Many aspects of guardianship stem from informal practices rather than specific laws.
This is the first paragraph of a July 11, 2019 Wall Street Journal story.
Saudi Arabia is planning this year to loosen restrictions on women’s ability to travel without a male guardian’s permission, officials and people familiar with the matter said, in a step away from the system of male domination deeply rooted in Saudi society.The previous Wall Street Journal story was linked in a Guardian (U.K.) story that was published the same day.
Saudi women are treated as legal minors their entire lives — they even need permission from a male guardian to travel. This rule is set to be relaxed, but will it actually help lead to gender equality in the country?
This is a link to a July 26, 2019 Washington Post editorial demanding that Saudi Arabia change their guardianship laws.
Judging people's intentions by their actions
Leave chess clubs and other similar organizations alone. They don't want diversity, and they don't need diversity. Saudi Arabia does need diversity. So does Iran, Egypt, Nigeria, and many other countries, too.
Racism and sexism exists now in these countries, but it did not exist in the chess club I attended as a boy, and it does not exist now in many other American organizations.Look closely at some of the organizations that are accused of being racist and sexist. You won't find it.
Michelle Malkin's Twitter account @michellemalkin had 2.2 million followers on May 6, 2019, when I added this image to this page.
June 2015 update. While researching the reasons for the high male-female ratio among people who play chess, I have seen some people say, in writing, that it is because women "aren't smart enough" to play an intellectual game like chess. I do not accept this idea.
I believe that men and women have a different psychology. Male psychology is focused on competition, while female psychology is focused on cooperation. Chess is a competitive game, so it naturally attracts more men than women. On the other hand, it requires cooperation to be in a choir, a book-reading group, or to make a quilt. Those activities attract women.
These links, listed in chronological order, mention research about the male-female ratio in chess.
Scientific American, December 29, 2008 Includes a downloadable 1-minute podcast and the transcript of it.
Phys.Org, January 12, 2009 Mentions a research study done by Oxford University (without mentioning the university by name).
Daily Telegraph (UK) January 27, 2009 Also mentions the research done by Oxford University.
Chess.com A discussion board that began June 3, 2010, but other similar discussions began two years earlier.
National Public Radio, August 15, 2010. Their headline uses the unfortunate term "gender divide".
PhpBB discussion board topic began March 20, 2011. This topic was started to compare the few female chess players with the large number of female bridge players.
The Guardian (UK) November 12, 2012 The first five paragraphs are about one expert female player. Note, good players are called a "master", and the best players are called a "grandmaster". These titles have to be earned by winning games against other players with certain numbered chess ratings. The ratings and the titles are assigned by an international chess organization.
April 4, 2016 update. As I wrote earlier in this essay, there is a lack of diversity in Nigeria, specifically religious diversity. These are the first three paragraphs of a February 14, 2015 NBC News article.
Boko Haram forces appear poised to attack Maiduguri, a city of 2 million in northeast Nigeria -- meaning that 200,000 Christians could be at risk of slaughter by the Islamist terror group, say U.S. intelligence officials and experts on Nigeria.
"An attack on Madiguri is very likely," said J. Peter Pham, director of the Africa Project at the Atlantic Council, echoing U.S. intelligence officials. Pham believes, as do other experts, that Boko Haram has already placed "sleeper cells" among the tide of refugees who have fled the group's murderous rampage through Africa's most populous nation. "They've done it everywhere else they've gone," said Pham. "So why not Maiduguri?"
One big concern is the large number of Christians in the city -- about 200,000, most of them Roman Catholic. In previous attacks, Boko Haram has offered Nigerian Christians the opportunity to convert or be killed. Already, 200 Christian churches have been lost to the group's onslaught.
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