|
11
Nerd-Its
|
|
current event
by According to the London Times, an American woman was arrested at Starbucks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Yara, who lives and works in Saudi, was in a Starbucks Family area (where men and women are allowed to mix) working with a colleague using the shop's wireless Internet when surrounded by members of the "Mutaween", or "Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, a police force of several thousand men charged with enforcing dress codes, sex segregation and the observance of prayers." They subsequently arrested Yara, confiscated her cell phone, took her to a prison where she was beaten, strip searched, and forced to sign "confessions" of her sin. Yara (a practicing Muslim, born of Jordanian parents) intends to stay in Saudi Arabia and fight discrimination against women. She was released because of her husband's connections, but alleges to have met other women in the prison not so lucky.
This type of behavior by a world power in the 21st century is deplorable. When will the rest of the world stand up to the bullying behavior? There are people in this country who cry foul about human rights violations by American soldiers, but where are they when this story is opened to the world? Only a handful of American news outlets are carrying this story - Fox and CBS.
Star This to Save in Your Profile 
Add a Comment (19)
Email This
Message Author
Statistics
Thread parent sort order:
Thread verbosity:
I think his point is more about the "villian-izing" of particular American groups in the international media spotlight because it serves an agenda. Yet when something equally atrocious happens that is not agenda-serving, coverage and subsequent international ire is very light.
Did you hear about the calls by the Islamic community for Wikipedia to censor itself because it had images of Mohammed?
This comment has 1 reply.
0 Nerd-Its
The problem is
The problem is, we have enough trouble with radical islamists trying to kill us, without shoving our noses further into how they run their countries.
We can't create peace between Israel and Palestine - trying to get womens' rights in Saudi Arabia would be banging our heads against the wall even harder.
This comment has 12 replies.
There are people in this country who cry foul about human rights violations by American soldiers, but where are they when this story is opened to the world?
I think the "Berkley crowd" so talked about in previous posts would definitely view with great skepticism America's pop-culture (of which I consider the News to be a vector) attempting to champion an international cause such as this. Especially considering the Blackwater scandal only got good coverage on NPR.
My question regarding media exposure for this Saudi transgression against women is: Why is it necessary for the TV and newspapers to greatly publicize anything? The answer is to increase subject-related fervor amongst U.S. citizens. But then where does that leave us? Who still writes letters to their elected representatives?
Giving a damn about something and doing something about it are two different things. And America might give a damn about the Islamic world having it out for women, but when a) our president has close ties to the Saudi Royal family and b) (more importantly) when the Saudis, et al have a commanding grip on oil politics they really have the rest of the world the short and curlies.
I am sure it burns a lot of people up inside to hear all these stories of the inhumane treatment women or anybody for that matter. I wonder sometimes why certain Muslims can't do like Christians and only take away from their good book the parts that make sense (like loving everyone...not that I am a Christian, that is just a quick and easy example).
But the trade deficit is too lopsided (with their one export: oil) in their favor to affect any change via economic sanctions. It would be a farce for the U.S. to ply them with political sanctions for reason a) above. And a militarily solution? please.
In the end, the only reason the U.S. Government gets involved in another country's affairs is if we stand to benefit from it economically. Look at all the worthy causes in Africa, but no oil to gain.
Because something is "the right thing to do" means nothing at the federal level.
This comment has 2 replies.
RSS
come on now by jandaman :: NR5 :: Show
this is so not important...let's prioritize here...we shouldn't be worrying about that when there are plenty of home grown issues to consider...once we finish protesting (successfully, bc that is the only way to protest) all of our pressing local issues like DADT, then we can start chaining ourselves to starbucks in our local neighborhoods...
but not until then...