title:  Starbucks ‘Pleased’ That Their Cafes Are Now Segregated For Men And Women (TWEETS)
text: Saudi Arabia, that bastion of human rights, is at the center of a controversy on Twitter. To be more specific, a Starbucks in Saudi Arabia is getting the attention. That s because their stores have segregated entrances for men and women.Stories about the barbaric treatment women and other political minorities face in Saudi Arabia are nothing new. However, the oppression they face does not usually receive a publicly stated golden seal of approval from a major U.S. company.One Starbucks located in Jabir is currently undergoing remodeling. They have segregated entrances and seating for women and families. The wall that separates the two sides came down during the remodel. So they decided to just outright ban women from entering the cafe. One woman encountered this sign while trying to get her caffeine fix. PLEASE NO ENTRY FOR LADIES ONLY SEND YOUR DRIVER TO ORDER THANK YOU. #Starbucks store in Riyadh refused 2 serve me just because I'm a WOMAN & asked me 2 send a man instead@Starbucks pic.twitter.com/6Nj6DkOtFJ  Manar N (@manarn8) February 1, 2016Unreal. Starbucks in Saudi Arabia refused to serve women. Note on their door, plus official response from company. pic.twitter.com/d4tCSqqQOv  Muhammad Lila (@MuhammadLila) February 3, 2016It gets so much worse.Starbucks responded to the situation. They released a press statement, which says the following: At Starbucks, we adhere to the local customs of Saudi Arabia by providing separate entrances for families as well as single people. In addition, all our stores provide equal amenities, service, menu, and seating for men, women, and families. Starbucks, whoever came up with  we adhere to the local customs of Saudi Arabia  needs to be paid more. They managed to make Starbuck s support of incredibly sexist laws against women sound like the company is doing nothing more than trying to be a culturally sensitive 21st-century global corporation.What other local customs of rich ISIS does (Saudi Arabia really does not like it when you compare them to ISIS) Starbucks adhere too? If an atheist like Raef Badawi,  threatened  Islam by saying what they believe in one of their 78 locations in Saudi Arabia, would they be fine with it if they person was sentenced to death?  The official statement said  customs  which leaves a lot of room for such questions.I could go on and on dissecting the lengthy statement put out by Starbucks. The mental gymnastics that went into making the company sound as if they are actually supporting women s rights is astounding. However, I think this might be the most egregious part: We are pleased to share that the store is now accessible to single men on one side as well as women and families on the other side. Starbucks has now 78 stores in Saudi Arabia and all stores cater to both families and singles, except for one that is exclusively reserved for women and families. They re  pleased  to inform people everything is back to normal because their cafes are all now 100% segregated again.If you recall, Starbucks attempted to profit from the wholesale slaughter of people of color last year, by way of their infamous #RaceTogether marketing campaign. After all, one marginalized group s oppression is another empowered group s opportunity. For some f#cking reason, Starbucks urged customers to talk to their baristas about racism.Here s an idea, what if every one of Starbucks  customers started asking baristas about how incredibly messed up Starbucks  overseas business practices are? We can make it a campaign and call it something like #HoldTheSexism or #PatriarchyTogether. This is really low for a company that tries so hard to appear to be progressive.Featured image By Nirzar (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons 