The audience – 500 women covered in black at a Saudi university – seemed an ideal place for Karen P. Hughes, a senior Bush administration official charged with spreading the American message in the Muslim world, to make her pitch.

But the response on Tuesday was not what she and her aides expected.

According to the NY Times article, the audience was carefully selected, and the women came from the ‘liberal’ elite of Saudi Arabia. Karen arrived with the usual Western presuppositions. She assumed that the women are unhappy with their station in life where they are forced to wear abayas, and cannot vote or drive. It’s not an unreasonable assumption. I doubt any of our female members would stand for such a the lack of rights. But Karen was quickly put on the defensive.

Like some of her friends, Ms. Sabbagh said Westerners failed to appreciate the advantages of wearing the traditional black head-to-foot covering known as an abaya.

“I love my abaya,” she explained. “It’s convenient and it can be very fashionable.”

I’ve know several women that went to Catholic school and had to wear uniforms, and they have mentioned the convenience of not having to pick out an outfit or compete with other girls. So, I can understand the convenience of wearing the abaya. But, they will have to work on me to get me to see the fashion possibilities. As for other advantages, Muslim women most often refer to the increased respect they are treated with when men do not (cannot) see them as sex objects. I can see the truth in their outlook, but I have a lot of trouble seeing it as a good trade-off.

The women also surprised Mrs. Hughes by shrugging off the restrictions on voting and driving.

:::flip:::

When Ms. Hughes expressed the hope here that Saudi women would be able to drive and “fully participate in society” much as they do in her country, many challenged her.

“The general image of the Arab woman is that she isn’t happy,” one audience member said. “Well, we’re all pretty happy.” The room, full of students, faculty members and some professionals, resounded with applause…

…”There is more male chauvinism in my profession in Europe and America than in my country,” said Dr. Siddiqa Kamal, an obstetrician and gynecologist who runs her own hospital.

“I don’t want to drive a car,” she said. “I worked hard for my medical degree. Why do I need a driver’s license?”

“Women have more than equal rights,” added her daughter, Dr. Fouzia Pasha, also an obstetrician and gynecologist, asserting that men have obligations accompanying their rights, and that women can go to court to hold them accountable.

I have trouble with Dr. Kamal’s logic that her advanced degree somehow has any relationship to her right to drive. Her daughter’s logic is even more confounding. How exactly do Saudi women have equal rights, let alone more than equal rights?

To me, the happy picture the House of Saud painted for Karen Hughes disguises a lot of unhappiness that is roiling the country. The elite and privileged students and professionals of Jiddah are probably pretty satisfied with their lot. But the Kingdom is suffering from high unemployment, a plummeting standard of living, and its own deadly insurgency. There is nothing approaching social justice in the Kingdom, and that is a bigger problem than issues of political, civil, and women’s rights.

It’s probably a good thing for Karen Hughes to go to Saudi Arabia and try to open a dialogue. But neither she, nor the Saudis are fooling anyone with this happy talk. Our buddy-buddy relationship and dependence on the House of Saud is our number one national security threat. It’s also our number one economic threat. Political liberalization in the country is an important goal in reducing these threats, but it isn’t a solution. As long as the House of Saud remains so corrupt, lives so ostentatiously, and fails to provide jobs and opportunities for its people, it will be too dangerous for them to allow free speech or free elections.

If we want to continue to have a close relationship with the Saudis we should talk a little less about rights, and a lot more about how to create new jobs and diversify their economy. As Iraq shows us, rights are not worth much in the middle of a civil war. If we must suffer the House of Saud, we shouldn’t ask them to offer rights they don’t have the legitimacy to confer. We should help them to be more benevolent despots.

It is a sad recommendation for me to make, because I believe the Arabian people deserve to be free of the Saudi monarchy, and I believe Human Rights are universal. I don’t like subsidizing the oppression of any human beings. But we don’t have much choice right now. I’d like for us to become energy independent enough that we can let the House of Saud fall without concern for the world economy. We should start on the goal immediately.

0 0 votes
Article Rating