Maybe it's because it's not worth the effort???
Bingo. Maybe I
should give him a reply, though. Hmm.
Harry Vest, I feel there is no need to name a "middle eastern country that treats it's female population worse than Saudi Arabia," because I disagree with the very notion of mistreatment in the first place. It is one that has been exaggerated and distorted by a Western media that has its own agendas.
Women - as a collective group - are not treated as badly in Saudi Arabia as outsiders seem to think they are. Domestic abuse does indeed happen in some families, but this is a
global phenomenon. Some women are beaten and murdered by their husbands in the US for minor reasons, just as some women are beaten and murdered by men in Saudi Arabia for minor reasons. It's despicable, certainly, but it happens. It is also true that there are certain archaic laws preventing women from having jobs and driving, and I do disagree with them. Thankfully, some of these laws are changing. In fact, women might be driving in Saudi by the end of this year. And as for the laws regarding public decorum, they are merely cultural/religious in nature and are often not opposed by Saudi Arabian women. It's great and fantastic and all that women can be loud, obnoxious and promiscuous in the West, but that doesn't mean to say that it's what all women want. There are obviously some Saudi feminists who are opposed to these laws and are very vocal about them, but there are feminists
everywhere. Even in the Western world, where we're supposedly better than all these backward Arab nations.
Then there is the whole "issue" of the abaya and hijab. Many Westerners regard this cultural dress as a symbol of male oppression. Listen. I wore an abaya out in public for four years, and not
once did I feel like I was under the heel of "male oppression." To me, it is simply an article of clothing. Many Muslim/Arab women are not opposed to it and actually value its place in their cultural heritage. They wear it because they want to wear it. So why should anyone else take issue with it?
The one thing that
really convinced me that all Saudi Arabian women are not the poor, downtrodden souls that the Western media makes them out to be, was attending a traditional Saudi party with my family and a few family friends. All the women were shuttled into one room and all the men were shuttled into another, of course, but no one seemed to mind very much. As we became a little bit more comfortable with our host and her other Arab guests, my mother's friend asked (a little gingerly) what it was like to be a married Muslim woman in Saudi Arabia, given all of the stories that we as foreigners heard before we entered the country. The women all looked at one another for a brief moment, tried to mask the amused expressions on their faces, and promptly burst into laughter. They told us that we were watching too much CNN and that they were actually very happy with their husbands and their family lives in general, regardless of what the concerned newscasters thought. CNN? Sensationalist?! Oh, that's not possible!
In sum, Harry: the point I hope to have demonstrated is that since Saudi Arabia has largely been cut off from the Western world, our general perceptions of the country are based upon news reports that are often distorted. I've been there, I've seen it, I've lived to tell the tale, and I'd go back to visit in a heartbeat. I have scores and scores of positive stories I could tell you about living in Saudi Arabia - stories that the six o'clock news would never cover. Saudi Arabia does have its problems, and some of them are major, but I honestly hope that you don't buy the stereotype of the wife-beating-Islamic-extremist Arab.
