World’s First All-Women City.

The patriarchal kingdom of Saudi Arabia creates an all-female city where (the arguably better half) of humanity can work freely, within Islamic guidelines.

Saudi Arabia has an increasingly educated female population, but its ultraconservative interpretation of Wahabi sharia law and rigid tribal customs forbid women from interacting with men. The upshot is chronic female unemployment. An utterly Saudi solution is underway. Why shift cultural mores, when, instead, you can raise up a completely new, self-sustaining city that will be fully devoid of men? The pilot project will go live in 2012 in the Eastern Province city of Hofuf. Smaller “ladies-only” communities will then pop up in capital city Riyadh.

Saudi businesswomen cooked up the concept, according to the paper Al Eqtisadiah, and the ruling monarchy endorsed the scheme as a way to lower female unemployment while staying “consistent with the privacy of women according to Islamic guidelines and regulations,” Saudi Industrial Property Authority (Modon) said in a statement. Modon is leading the project development.

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