Neighbors Try to Teach Saudi Arabia; Fails

While reading Nine Parts of Desire, I couldn't help but notice how Saudi Arabia continues to be held captive by its traditions. Brooks says that women in the neighboring United Arab Emirates "have their hair tied back in Islamic veils, jump from helicopters and shoulder assault rifles" (5). She also mentions how Iran and Turkey, as well as other Muslim nations, all have women in positions of power and prestige. In Saudi Arabia however, all the women are horrifically oppressed, They can not do anything with out their husbands, including sleep in a hotel alone, a basic right of which, in America, we would not dream of not having. Saudi Arabia says that the women in the West have way too many freedoms and that they are "whores". However many women in Saudi Arabia's neighboring countries, which can certainly not be considered Western, have many of the same opportunities and rights that women in the United States and other Western countries have. Saudi Arabia needs to learn from their neighbors and modernize their views about women. gr