John Kerry Throws Freedom-Seeking Women Under the Bus
Michelle
Malkin | Nov
08, 2013
It's
confirmed: The "F" in John. F. Kerry stands for "Feckless." Women around the
world no longer need to wonder whether America's secretary of state will stand
boldly with them in defense of their basic rights. He
won't.
On
Monday, Kerry was in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Anyone with a phone or an Internet
connection inside and outside the country knows what's been going on there. The
kingdom has been rocked by women of all ages protesting the Muslim nation's
retrograde ban on female drivers. Over the past two weeks, the protesters and
their supporters have taken to social media to pressure the oppressive
sharia-enforcing regime. It is the only country in the world that won't allow
its women -- 20 million of them -- to obtain driver's
licenses.
"Read More"
Women
can own cars. They just can't drive them. They are forced to hire male drivers,
who often harass them, crash their cars, can't be trusted and soak up half of
their paychecks. Most women rely on taxi drivers, who turn 10-minute commutes
into two-hour commutes. Others are held hostage in their own
homes.
Foreign
women are not even allowed to use their native licenses to drive in the Saudi
kingdom. Over the weekend, a Kuwaiti woman was arrested in Saudi Arabia for
driving her sick father to the hospital. The Kuwait Times reported that
"according to a Khafji police report, the woman was caught driving a Chevrolet
Epica ... in front of a hotel in the area located near the border with Kuwait,
while a Kuwaiti man was in the passenger's seat. The woman told the officers
that the man was her father, adding that he is diabetic and cannot drive and
that she had to take him to the hospital for treatment." The woman remained in
custody "pending investigations."
Manal
al-Sharif, the 34-year-old female computer scientist leading the protest
movement, spent nine days in jail in 2011 for "incitement to public disorder"
for driving her brother's car in public. Fourteen other women faced arrest for
participating in last month's demonstration; many more faced death threats.
Tariq al-Mubarak, a male supporter and high school teacher who helped the
October protesters, was held in custody by Saudi interior ministry investigators
for several days.
This
was the roiling cultural context for a reporter's simple question to Kerry on
Monday. "I was wondering," the journalist asked, "what your take is on women
driving in Saudi Arabia?" Kerry's take was ... to take cover. "With respect to
the issue of women driving here in Saudi Arabia," he filibustered, "it's no
secret that in the United States of America we embrace equality for everybody,
regardless of gender, race or any other qualification." And then came the "but."
The crapweasel "but."
"But
it's up to Saudi Arabia to make its own decisions about its own social structure
choices and timing for whatever events. I know there's a debate. We actually
talked about this at lunch," Kerry ducked. What he "actually talked about" he
wouldn't say. "There's a healthy debate in Saudi Arabia about this issue, but I
think that debate is best left to Saudi Arabia, the people engaged in it, all of
whom know exactly where we in the United States of America stand on this
issue."
Wimpy,
wimpy, wimpy. No unequivocal shout-outs for the brave women risking arrest for
simply getting behind the wheel? No paean to the cherished freedom to move about
as we please? No stirring affirmation of the connection between mobility and
women's dignity? Nada.
Of
course, we've come to expect nothing less than pure fecklessness from the foggy
minds at Foggy Bottom. Kerry's predecessor, feminist hero Hillary Clinton, who
preferred "quiet diplomacy" on the matter, had to be dragged into the Saudi
women driver's debate in 2011. Even then, she soft-pedaled her message: "I want
to, again, underscore and emphasize that this is not about the United States;
it's not about what any of us on the outside say," she said. "It is about the
women themselves and their right to raise their concerns with their own
government."
These
"progressive" Democrats are all for championing women's rights and international
human rights when it suits them: at Hollywood soirees, Vogue photo shoots, fancy
state dinners and black-tie award ceremonies. But stick their Hermes-wrapped
necks out once in favor of basic human dignity and risk upsetting the mullahs to
their faces? Never. This is Obama's America: leading from the
sidelines.
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