If you guessed a woman driving, you are ready to visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Loujain Hathloul has continued to defy the Saudi ban on female drivers. She was stopped at the border with the United Arab Emirates when she tried to drive back into the country. Our erstwhile ally is the only country to prevent women from driving in the name of Islam — making such medieval neighbors in the region like Iran look positively advanced in comparison.
Hathloul tweeted that she had been held for 24 hours. Her last tweet from the border said “I have been at the Saudi border for 24 hours. They don’t want to give me my passport nor will they let me pass.” After that tweet, the messages stopped.
The interior ministry has refused any comment but her supporters say that she has been arrested as well as UAE-based Saudi journalist Maysaa Alamoudi.
The Saudis were therefore able to strike a blow against both equal rights and the free press. Not a bad day for the troglodytes in the Commission of the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice .
Source: Al Jazeera
“Erstwhile ally”?
What happened?
I try to keep up with the news and all, but if there has recently been a major falling-out between the U.S. and S.A., I missed it.
Stephen
You are a man of great talent. There is an opening in the RNC awaiting you. I see you writing speeches and press releases for the presidential candidate of your choice. In no time at all, you’ll be press secretary.
Godspeed!
Sheesh Stepehen. Why don’t you just take the leap and blame women for biting into the apple?
Ahhhh. Our weekly bashing of atrocities not practiced in the land of Exceptionalism, the United States.
I bet this makes Karen sad.
See, I looked at the picture, and thought ‘Is she wearing a seat belt?’
Women drivers! Next thing you know they’ll be taking our money and giving it away as welfare and food stamps. They’ll be tilting the playing field to the victims-du-jour through “affirmative action.” Then we will be living under the principle of “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” rather than freedom and self-reliance. Was women’s suffrage progress or regress? Was it for better or for worse? Seems like liberals live to give everything away in order to achieve their goal of chaos and anarchy which will result in strong-man dictatorship. Exactly which path are we on? The founding documents were to stand, as written, in perpetuity (during a civil war, without a quorum and under duress, they were “amended”). Representatives elected by a small percentage of competent, successful men, were to lead the nation in moral pursuits of honesty and honor. I think they were right. Liberals changed everything. Is America better? Seems like an incoherent mad house of corruption and freaks of nature, paid for by half of everyone’s pay check with nothing to show for it. Immigration’s a great example. The law says “apprehend and deport criminals.” Authorities refuse to do their duty. Mexicans make a mockery of the Constitution pretending their babies of illegals are citizens, as they abuse the 14th Amendment which addressed freed slaves without citizenship in any country. The word immigration has been changed into the word amnesty. Every person in the world is an American-In-Waiting. If I go to China, will I be Chinese? America exists for the benefit of foreigners. What?
Did America take a HUGE left turn at the point of women’s suffrage?
It’s going to take a HERCULEAN effort to turn back to the right?
Driving can represent freedom to those who drive. Women are not granted this in SA and the driving ban is just another way to subjugate them.
Let’s keep on kissing the Saudis cheeks; front and behind, hands and invite them to Crawford TX while they have the atrocious human rights record. We should cut ties with the Saudis who are responsible for the Wahhabism being introduced in our prison system which has made Islam the fastest growing religion in the prisons. They finance the mosques all around the world with their Wahhabi Islamic ideology ala ISIS. They have subsidised the halal meat all over the western world so it is cheaper than the other and let’s never forget 9-11, Osama and the rest of the Bin Laden family which was shipped out in throngs from the US in chartered planes by W. Bush.
JT is wrong about Iran being medieval. I do not think he has been there. The Iranians are far more advanced, cultured, educated and pro western than the Saudis.
He should watch Anthony Bourdain to learn the basics of the culture when he visited Iran. It is very easy for us ” westerners” to jump to the wrong conclusions about others’ cultures because we refuse to educate ourselves about them. Perhaps this is what we call being ‘exceptional’. 🙂
Turkey is the only territory in the middle east which seemed to uplift itself out of the dark ages and now it is sliding down into the apCray again.
Karen, Change always has to come from within, just take a look at the middle east
Whether or not a country is a US ally depends on whether or not it facilitates the interests of the super-wealthy who finance political campaigns. It has nothing to do with human welfare. The super-wealthy need to be persuaded that civil rights for all, and sustaining humanity generally, will further enrich them, in the long run.
I was surprised she was able to Tweet at all. God knows what’s happening to her. I would not want to be a woman in jail in the ME. Bad things happen.
Change has to come from within the country. The people have to say, “Enough!”
Another example why we shouldn’t be doing business with the Saudis.
This place is like Mizzou under Governor Jay Nixon– a Pirate Territory where the looters, thieves, arsonists listen to the likes of AL Qaeda Sharptone. And where the Governor does too. Fly over and flush.
I think the Saudis are right. Think of the traffic problems they are solving by not allowing women drivers. They are cutting their potential traffic problems in half.
what kind of stooopid question? jonathan! she’s Saudi female. without her driving roads in Saudi are killing fields. imagine if ten million saudi women begin driving. riyadh will be kigali.
Hirsi Ali has eviscerated western feminists for obsessing on men wearing shirts w/ scantily clad women, and ignoring travesties like this.