Saudi Apartheid

Anne Applebaum, in yesterday’s National Post, asks, “Where is the outrage over Saudi gender apartheid?” (National Post, December 26). “In Saudi Arabia,” she advises us, “women still can’t vote, can’t drive, can’t leave the house without a male relative.” She wants a campaign on behalf of Saudi women comparable to the campaign against South African apartheid some years ago.

She misses, of course, a major difference between the Saudi treatment of women and the segregation of blacks in South Africa. The segregation of blacks was done in order to keep black and white lives apart. Women and men are ultimately not kept apart in Saudi Arabia. Indeed, they invariably share the same homes, the same families, the same bedrooms, even the same beds.

It is not, in other words, a matter of segregation of women. It is a matter of segregating non-relatives, of either sex. This is not oppression, unless unrestricted sex is a fundamental human right.

Applebaum oddly misses another important point. It was fairly clear that blacks in South Africa were not happy with the situation under apartheid. It is not so clear that Saudi women would prefer to live like Westerners. Perhaps feminists ought to allow them the dignity of asking them first?

Applebaum laments that Saudi women still cannot vote. True enough; they can’t. But she omits the important fact that Saudi men cannot vote either. Don’t men count?

She claims Saudi women cannot leave the house without a male relative. This is false: they cannot travel cross-country alone; but they are free to go out and about doing their shopping and visiting. The law, however ill-conceived, is intended for their safety.

Applebaum is correct, at least, that Saudi women are not allowed to drive. She might have cited other restrictions; but, to be fair, she should also have noted that Saudi women have rights not accorded to Saudi men. The legal right to be supported by their nearest male relative, for example.

As it happens, I live in the Saudi 'hood. I have experienced personally some of the discrimination against women here. Whenever there is a lineup for a service, for example, women are served before men. Most attractions have special days on which men cannot attend unless accompanied by a woman—women are free to go any time. Most parks are designated “for women and children only”; no dogs or men allowed. On the buses, the men must sit in the back; women sit where they like. Men must surrender their seats to women.

I have to tell you, in practice, it looks and feels a whole lot like discrimination against men.