Friday, May 27, 2011

Saudi prison

"Dispatches from Riyadh describe Saudi Arabia as "the world's largest women's prison". Those words are a quote from one female campaigner US diplomats have been in contact with, Wajeha al-Huwaider.
She too posted a video on YouTube in 2008 of herself driving. Saying millions of Saudi women were prisoners in their homes, she challenged male control over work and travel.  She regularly tries to take a taxi to neighbouring Bahrain: "Al-Huwaider is divorced which means under Saudi law her ex-husband or her father or a brother would need to give her permission to leave the country.  "Although she holds a valid passport, every time she tries to leave ... she is stopped at the border to Bahrain and turned around.""  The headline of the article in the Guardian is so misleading: it falsely claims that the US put pressures when the documents don't leave that impression at all.