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May. 2nd, 2002 08:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
taerowynWatched West Wing last night, basically the only show I really keep up on. What can I say, it's nice to dream.
Anyway, part of the storyline was a school in Saudi Arabia burned down with 14 girls in it. The girls were not allowed to leave and rescuers were not allowed to save them because they did not have the proper attire to be seen in public and the religious police would not allow it. I was a little riled about Saudi Arabia being the target, but my dad was very upset (FYI for those who don't know, we lived there for 4.5 years in the early eighties.) I asked what was so upsetting and he proceeded to make this very good point (which I'm pretty sure will rile some of you.)
All of a sudden it's very popular to bash Saudi Arabia despite them being our allies for so long. The US is getting very up in arms about their treatment of women and minorities etc. Now he (and I) in no way condones this treatment, but he pointed out that Saudi Arabia has only been a nation for 75 years. What was our track record at that "age"? Let's see we'd just fought one of the bloodiest wars in our history against ourselves. We had barely gotten rid of slavery and discrimination was rampant. Women couldn't do very much at all except exist as property of their fathers/brothers/uncles. Basically, not that much better than the Saudis, if not worse. America seems to want everybody to be where we are and act like we currently do right now. It seems a little ridiculous.
Anyway, part of the storyline was a school in Saudi Arabia burned down with 14 girls in it. The girls were not allowed to leave and rescuers were not allowed to save them because they did not have the proper attire to be seen in public and the religious police would not allow it. I was a little riled about Saudi Arabia being the target, but my dad was very upset (FYI for those who don't know, we lived there for 4.5 years in the early eighties.) I asked what was so upsetting and he proceeded to make this very good point (which I'm pretty sure will rile some of you.)
All of a sudden it's very popular to bash Saudi Arabia despite them being our allies for so long. The US is getting very up in arms about their treatment of women and minorities etc. Now he (and I) in no way condones this treatment, but he pointed out that Saudi Arabia has only been a nation for 75 years. What was our track record at that "age"? Let's see we'd just fought one of the bloodiest wars in our history against ourselves. We had barely gotten rid of slavery and discrimination was rampant. Women couldn't do very much at all except exist as property of their fathers/brothers/uncles. Basically, not that much better than the Saudis, if not worse. America seems to want everybody to be where we are and act like we currently do right now. It seems a little ridiculous.