Living in an Islamic society, the Omani woman is in an interesting position. Some things are clearly not ideal: gender equality in the home has a long way to go here, though there are plenty of women in management positions at work. You can’t cycle (on the well-known scientific grounds that it makes you infertile), but then again no Omani adult of either sex over the age of 18 would cycle anyway (who needs bikes when you have your white Toyota pickup?).
Somewhere in the middle comes clothing: as I mentioned before, in the cities both men and women are about equally covered, with scope for variation in headgear. In the back of beyond, the batman outfit takes over (not sure if that’s a plus or a minus):
On the plus side, women are allowed to queue-jump (order of priority seems to be women; Omani men; Indian men). You have access to mysterious private areas:
And you also get to have this done to your hands (thanks to ‘Omani woman’ stunt double in the photo):
