From inside one of the most vile societies in the world.
One afternoon, a candidate invited me to meet his daughter. She spoke fluent English and was not much younger than me. I cannot remember whether she was wearing hijab, the Islamic head scarf, inside her home, but I have a memory of pink. I asked her about the elections.
"Very good," she said.
So you really think so, I said gently, even though you can't vote?
"Of course," she said. "Why do I need to vote?"
It speaks volumes of (a) her internalization of her "lesser" value in society that she thinks it's perfectly alright for her to not vote and (b) her little understanding of liberty; she'll happily deny the right of any other woman to vote:
"Maybe you don't want to vote," I said. "But wouldn't you like to make that choice yourself?"
"I don't need to," she said calmly, blinking slowly and deliberately. "If I have a father or a husband, why do I need to vote? Why should I need to work? They will take care of everything."
Isn't it glorious to be a perpetual slave child?
Saudi women who've experienced freedom know what they're missing:
Over coffee one afternoon, an economist told me wistfully of the days when he and his wife had studied overseas, how she'd hopped behind the wheel and did her own thing. She's an independent, outspoken woman, he said. Coming back home to Riyadh had depressed both of them.
"Here, I got another dependent: my wife," he said. He found himself driving her around, chaperoning her as if she were a child. "When they see a woman walking alone here, it's like a wolf watching a sheep. 'Let me take what's unattended.' " He told me that both he and his wife hoped, desperately, that social and political reform would finally dawn in the kingdom. He thought foreign academics were too easy on Saudi Arabia, that they urged only minor changes instead of all-out democracy because they secretly regarded Saudis as "savages" incapable of handling too much freedom.
I think there's more to it than that. Academia tears down the West at every opportunity but when it comes to Islamic barbarity all across the world today, very few dare to speak up.
Another reason for their silence is that these enlightened souls don't want to help the neo-con camp. Speaking candidly about Islamic practices in Iran or Saudi Arabia will give ammunition to the "warmongering" Westerners. And we can't have that. For these academics petty politics trumps the human dignity of millions.
More posts about Saudi Arabia:
Airport Idiocy.
The Muslim Lifestyle in Mordor.
The Holy Land of Racism.
What Muslims Learn.
Arranged Marriage and Arabian Society.
The Land of Mordor.
Nourished on Poison.
