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In reply to the discussion: John Kerry: Up to Saudi Arabia to decide if women should be allowed to drive [View all]ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...I said nothing about demands. I said, Kerry ought to have said where we stand on the issue, forcefully; he should have said something like "and we hope our allies will do the right thing like every other civilized nation and recognize the rights of their female citizens and allow them to drive"; and he should not have dismissed it as just an internal cultural issue. Women's issues are always framed as cultural issues, it is one of the ways the patriarchal structures maintain control over women, within and among different countries -- and it is very harmful to the human rights of one half of the human race.
The fact that the Saudis are deemed our allies is in itself disgusting when you get right down to it. Theirs is a brutal and backwards regime that has been directly responsible for financing terrorism and the training of terrorists, including what happened to us on 9/11/2001, yet we remain allies with them, because, you know: oil, money, realpolitik.