I was amazed to read the article from Mr Siddique on the Hajj pilgrimage held every year in Saudi Arabia. He cited it as an example of global humanity standing as equals.

Many years ago I went to Saudi to work for a couple of weeks and the journey started with flying, in this case I used Swiss Air.

As we circled to land at Jeddah Airport, I was amazed to see all the Saudi ladies start to change and put on basically a large body bag on their head which had a couple of slits for eyes. None of the ladies up to then dressed any different from the western ladies, apart from looking very much more stylish.

When we landed, all the women exited the plane using the back door and disappeared. From then onwards I do not recollect ever seeing a female for the next two weeks until I boarded the return flight. At the airport there were, I am told, more than a million pilgrims, but not one I saw was female. The Hajj was televised so you could follow the ritual as it took place. Again no evidence of any females taking part.

The hotels I stayed at did contain some of the pilgrims who were all just wearing what was basically a beach towel. But, you guessed it, no females were present at the time.

I think it was just before or just after my stay, two royal princess were executed in full view of the general public and I believe the execution was televised by Saudi state television. What they had done was not clear to me at the time, but it certainly caused a storm in the UK.

When Farooq Siddique talks about global humanity, he obviously only means the male section of humanity and blindly forgets the other half.

This still applies to most of Saudi Arabia where attitudes have not changed and women are still regarded as second class citizens, which is a function of the local religion.

Chris Tovey,

By email.