Beat Your Wife

I try to keep an open mind and respect cultural differences but when it comes to differences in the way women are treated in many Muslim countries my mind is shut.

From MSNBC...

A Saudi judge told a conference on domestic violence that a man has the right to slap a wife who spends money wastefully and said women were as much to blame as men for increased spousal abuse, a Saudi newspaper reported.

A rights activist decried the remarks and said she and other campaigners viewed them as the latest setback in women's efforts to gain the right to vote, drive, freely participate in politics and be protected from violence.

But that's not the half of it.

From the LA Times...

Human Rights Watch released a 54-page report criticizing the lack of women's rights in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, one of America's key allies in the Middle East.

It is a lengthy indictment of a a legal system that deprives women of basic rights considered ordinary almost everywhere else in the world.

According to the report, the law treats Saudi women like children, maybe worse.

If you're a Saudi woman, you can't board an airplane, get a job, go to school or get married without the permission of a male "guardian," whether a husband, father or, if they're both out of the picture, your son.

You're not even allowed to make decisions on behalf of your own children without the approval of your husband or father. Sometimes you're even barred from undergoing a medical exam or leaving a hospital without the permission of a male relative.

And this is a country the U.S. calls a friend and an ally. Why?

One word. Oil.

Am I dreaming? I could have sworn that we're in the 21st century.