The news seeps out from Saudi Arabia that as a result of recent disobedience and protest, the King has been advised by ministers to allow women to drive. However, it would still be illegal for women under 30 to drive, and for women to drive after 8pm, and for them to drive whilst wearing make-up. They’re covered up, for God’s sake! How could anyone possibly tell if they were wearing make-up or not? Unless, for the sake of road safety, they are going to drive with their heads and faces uncovered. I can’t see that happening to be honest.
When I hear such things, I first of all thank my lucky stars that I was born in a country that may still have a long way to go as far as gender respect and equality are concerned, but where I have been able to drive freely, 24/7, fully made-up, since I was 19 years old. Then I seethe with anger and frustration that women are still living under these medieval regimes. Over six hundred years ago the Caliph of Cordoba was a place where education, medicine, the arts and learning were valued – the library was one of the most extensive the world has ever seen – and religious tolerance and gender equality were the norm; light years away from present day islamic countries. What went wrong? Why have these places moved backwards instead of forwards? And why do we defer to them and hesitate to criticise their treatment of women?
This week a group of Libyan soldiers were sent back home from training in Cambridgeshire after several of their number were accused of rape and serious sexual assault. They blamed the British Government for this for not explaining British laws to them. Excuse me? So are we to assume that rape and serious sexual assault are not crimes in Libya? Give me a break!
Instead of posing in gimmicky T-shirts produced by women earning 62p an hour in Mauritian sweatshops, why aren’t our politicians doing something positive for half the population and especially those who are kept in virtual slavery, suffer FGM and are forced into marriage in spite of living in Britain? Why will nobody stand up to these barbaric Neanderthals? Why are these atrocities allowed to continue here under the misguided cloak of cultural difference? Until they are addressed we are almost as bad as the Saudis.
