Human Right Watch has issued a detailed report of how Saudi Arabia keeps women in a state of “childhood,” dependent upon males for things ranging from medical care to driving. The report, “Perpetual Minors: Human Rights Abuses Stemming from Male Guardianship and Sex Segregation in Saudi Arabia,” is based on more than 100 interviews with Saudi women.
Frankly, 100 women is not a large pool and I am surprised that they did not try to extend the pool of interviews. However, as noted previously on this blog here and here, the treatment of women in the country shocks the conscience.
For a copy of the report, click here.
“Frankly, 100 women is not a large pool and I am surprised that they did not try to extend the pool of interviews.”
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I am sympathetic to the plight of the interviewers trying to get women alone in public without their male “masters” present. I think 100 is enough of a sample considering that the pool is under constant watch and oppression. To avoid a Potemkin village here must have taken some real doing.
I have also observed that “shocking a conscience” only works if you have one, and the existence of a collective one there among the dominant males has rarely been demonstrated to me when it comes to familial relations.
Mespo, I agree, trying to extend the pool might have put the women interviewed at a terrible risk, even more so than they are right now just living in such an oppressive environment. I just hope the women who were interviewed will be safe in case any of the Saudi males get hold of the H.R.W. report.
I wish that journalists reporting such horrors would remind readers that this regime stays in power only through US support.
Also, while we’re feeling such compassion for women, a reminder from a recent article:
“about a quarter of U.S. women suffer domestic violence, U.S. health officials reported on Thursday, with ongoing health problems that one activist likened to the effects of living in a war zone.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23056009/