How Can Women Protect Themselves When Traveling - Or Should They Just Stay Home

I really havent heard of such a blanket invasive check on women passengers ? Have you?
Only in a place that treat women as sub humans can think up such check matter-of-factly.

Agree with @Laks09 , except that the comparison is that of eating apples to durian with the peels.
Abandoning a new born is a crime, but comparing that to a terrorist or a drug smuggler ?

Personal decisions. I for one am looking for travel early next year. And this has made me decide not to take a flight thru ME. In these fluid times, the any kind of rules that can be imposed by any country but the last thing I want is for that to happen in ME and be stuck there.

Yes genuine concerns. But invasively examining dozens of women secures the baby's future ? How?
And surprise,surprise, that despite the checks they couldnt find out the "mother". Perhaps she was one of the staff? Wonder why she would do that? Perhaps she is afraid of their archaic law, and that made her abandon her baby - because she didnt want to be jailed and her baby to grow up in that environment.

Traveling with family/friends wouldnt make a difference in these these incidents.

This!

 

I have heard of such checks in many places, including India, Sri Lanka and in the US but unfortunately most of these incidents were not reported unlike what these brave Australian women did. Thanks to their Government for taking this matter seriously and acting upon it. That's why we are discussing these matters here. But it doesn't mean those unreported and isolated incidents have any less impact for those who went through the pain.

This time it happened for abandoning a new born. Earlier due to the suspicion of smuggling and terrorism. The point is, in most of the times these women (and men in some cases) turned out to be innocents.
Technically, you could be subjected to this kind of violence at any given time for any given reason just because of the difference in your race, religion and color of your skin.

I wonder whether these airport authorities would have done similar check up on Arab Muslim women who wear a burqa that day?

But I personally know of a Muslim woman who went through almost similar experience at one of the airports in the US due to the suspicion of terrorism.
Similar incident happened to an Indian guy (a medical student) in Belarus on the suspicion of Drug smuggling. In both cases, these friends of mine were able to prove them innocents. But who will pay for their embarrassment, discomfort and pain?
And just because these incident happened due to terrorism and smuggling, doesn't mean they are acceptable and the impact is any less of what these Australians faced.
They could be oranges and lemons in varieties, but they are sour fruits in taste.

I remember reading somewhere that Bollywood actors Sharukkhan and Amir khan were strip searched in the US too. Not sure though!


I wholeheartedly condemn the act that happened at Hamad international airport. It shouldn't have happened to any passenger. Period.
But my point is such incidents happen at many places, not only at airports, and not only in the ME. So, if we are to worry, then we must worry about it collectively rather than acting upon a single incident.
Eg: Rape happen everywhere, but what shook us more was the rape that happened in a bus in Delhi back in 2012. There were many riots and discussions about it. Just because that particular rape incident became popular in the media, one shouldn't think such incidents happen only in Delhi. It happens everywhere, and it can happen to anyone!.

Point is, we must find a way to combat such violence performed under different circumstances, but mainly due to human differences.
As of now, I feel a bit protected with my UN identity and the UN diplomat passport. But