Friday, December 18, 2015 12:04:06 AM
Sweden’s feminist foreign minister has dared to tell the truth about Saudi Arabia. What happens now concerns us all
"A satirical Ikea guide to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis"
Margot Wallström’s principled stand deserves wide support. Betrayal seems more likely
Nick Cohen
Nick Cohen
28 March 2015
If the cries of ‘Je suis Charlie’ were sincere, the western world would be convulsed with worry and anger about the Wallström affair. It has all the ingredients for a clash-of-civilisations confrontation.
A few weeks ago Margot Wallström, the Swedish foreign minister, denounced the subjugation of women in Saudi Arabia. As the theocratic kingdom prevents women from travelling, conducting official business or marrying without the permission of male guardians, and as girls can be forced into child marriages where they are effectively raped by old men, she was telling no more than the truth. Wallström went on to condemn the Saudi courts for ordering that Raif Badawi receive ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for setting up a website that championed secularism and free speech. These were ‘mediaeval methods’, she said, and a ‘cruel attempt to silence modern forms of expression’. And once again, who can argue with that?
The backlash followed the pattern set by Rushdie, the Danish cartoons and Hebdo. Saudi Arabia withdrew its ambassador and stopped issuing visas to Swedish businessmen. The United Arab Emirates joined it. The Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, which represents 56 Muslim-majority states, accused Sweden of failing to respect the world’s ‘rich and varied ethical standards’ — standards so rich and varied, apparently, they include the flogging of bloggers and encouragement of paedophiles. Meanwhile, the Gulf Co-operation Council condemned her ‘unaccept-able interference in the internal affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’, and I wouldn’t bet against anti-Swedish riots following soon.
Yet there is no ‘Wallström affair’. Outside Sweden, the western media has barely covered the story, and Sweden’s EU allies have shown no inclination whatsoever to support her. A small Scandinavian nation faces sanctions, accusations of Islamophobia and maybe worse to come, and everyone stays silent. As so often, the scandal is that there isn’t a scandal.
It is a sign of how upside-down modern politics has become that one assumes that a politician who defends freedom of speech and women’s rights in the Arab world must be some kind of muscular liberal, or neocon, or perhaps a supporter of one of Scandinavia’s new populist right-wing parties whose commitment to human rights is merely a cover for anti-Muslim hatred. But Margot Wallström is that modern rarity: a left-wing politician who goes where her principles take her.
She is foreign minister in Sweden’s weak coalition of Social Democrats and Greens, and took office promising a feminist foreign policy. She recognised Palestine in October last year — and, no, the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Co-operation and Gulf Co-operation Council did not condemn her ‘unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of Israel’. I confess that her gesture struck me as counterproductive at the time. But after Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out a Palestinian state as he used every dirty trick he could think of to secure his re-election, she can claim with justice that history has vindicated her.
She moved on to the Saudi version of sharia law. Her criticism was not just rhetorical. She said that it was unethical for Sweden to continue with its military co-operation agreement with Saudi Arabia. In other words, she threatened Swedish arms companies’ ability to make money. Saudi Arabia’s denial of business visas to Swedes threatened to hurt other companies’ profits too. You might think of Swedes as upright social democrats, who have never let worries of appearing tedious stand in the way of their righteousness. But that has never been wholly true, and is certainly not true when there is money at stake.
Sweden is the world’s 12th largest arms exporter — quite an achievement for a country of just nine million people. Its exports to Saudi Arabia total $1.3 billion. Business leaders and civil servants are also aware that other Muslim-majority countries may follow Saudi Arabia’s lead. During the ‘cartoon crisis’ — a phrase I still can’t write without snorting with incredulity — Danish companies faced global attacks and the French supermarket chain Carrefour took Danish goods off the shelves to appease Muslim customers. A co-ordinated campaign by Muslim nations against Sweden is not a fanciful notion. There is talk that Sweden may lose its chance to gain a seat on the UN Security Council in 2017 because of Wallström.
To put it as mildly as I can, the Swedish establishment has gone wild. Thirty chief executives signed a letter saying that breaking the arms trade agreement ‘would jeopardise Sweden’s reputation as a trade and co-operation partner’. No less a figure than His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf himself hauled Wallström in at the weekend to tell her that he wanted a compromise. Saudi Arabia has successfully turned criticism of its brutal version of Islam into an attack on all Muslims, regardless of whether they are Wahhabis or not, and Wallström and her colleagues are clearly unnerved by accusations of Islamophobia. The signs are that she will fold under the pressure, particularly when the rest of liberal Europe shows no interest in supporting her.
Sins of omission are as telling as sins of commission. The Wallström non-affair tells us three things. It is easier to instruct small countries such as Sweden and Israel on what they can and cannot do than America, China or a Saudi Arabia that can call on global Muslim support when criticised. Second, a Europe that is getting older and poorer is starting to find that moral stands in foreign policy are luxuries it can no longer afford. Saudi Arabia has been confident throughout that Sweden needs its money more than it needs Swedish imports.
Finally, and most revealingly in my opinion, the non-affair shows us that the rights of women always come last. To be sure, there are Twitter storms about sexist men and media feeding frenzies whenever a public figure uses ‘inappropriate language’. But when a politician tries to campaign for the rights of women suffering under a brutally misogynistic clerical culture she isn’t cheered on but met with an embarrassed and hugely revealing silence.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/03/swedens-feminist-foreign-minister-has-dared-to-tell-the-truth-about-saudi-arabia-what-happens-now-concerns-us-all/
Kudos to Margot Wallström, one who says it like it is. Recently in Saudi Arabia there has been one tiny step.
Saudi Arabia elects up to 17 female councillors in historic election
In first poll in which women can vote and be candidates, female winners are declared across the conservative kingdom
VIDEO 0:29 - Ibrahim Al-Sultan, mayor of Riyadh, says that three women and 17 men have so far been elected to public office after winning seats on municipal councils in Riyadh on Sunday
Ian Black Middle East editor
Sunday 13 December 2015 13.31 EST
Last modified on Sunday 13 December 2015 17.28 EST
Saudi Arabia .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/saudiarabia .. has elected its first female local councillors in a historic step for a country where women are banned from driving and face routine discrimination.
Results from Saturday’s municipal council elections indicated there were about 17 female winners. These included four in Jeddah, one near Mecca – home to Islam’s holiest site – and others in Tabuk, Ahsaa and Qatif. Several more, reported by al-Sabq online newspaper, were expected to be confirmed later.
Rasha Hefzi .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/11/saudia-arabia-elections-it-will-be-enough-even-if-one-woman-wins , a prominent businesswoman who won a seat in Jeddah, thanked all those who supported her campaign and trusted her, pledging: “What we have started, we will continue.” Hefzi and other candidates used social media to contact voters because of restrictions on women meeting men and bans on both sexes using photographs.
Saudi Arabia elections: ‘It will be enough even if one woman wins’
Read more - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/11/saudia-arabia-elections-it-will-be-enough-even-if-one-woman-wins
The turnout, estimate to be about 25%, was low, as was registration. Only 1.32 million men and 130,000 women out of a population of 20 million voted – figures that highlight the unfamiliarity of the democratic process of election in the absolute monarchy.
But there was surprise at the number of women who took seats. “I think it’s great that several women won in different regions of Saudi Arabia,” said writer Maha Akeel. “It shows how much Saudi society has progressed on the issue of not only accepting, but actually supporting women in public office, and this could mean that more change is to come. I’m surprised. We expected maybe one or two women would win.”
Local elections were held in 2005 and 2011, but this was the first time women were allowed to take part. The powers of municipal councils are limited to advising local government and helping oversee budgets, but the election has still been hailed by women activists as a crucial first step towards achieving wider rights and broadening the understanding of civic engagement.
“I don’t consider winning to be the ultimate goal,” said the Riyadh-based historian Hatoon al-Fassi, coordinator for the grassroots Saudi Baladi initiative, which worked to raise voter awareness and increase female participation. “But it is the right of being a citizen that I concentrate on and I consider this a turning point.”
No candidates addressed the broader issues of democracy, human rights or the role of sharia law and punishments, which attract so much attention abroad. Saudis who boycotted the poll dismissed it as window dressing, arguing that real the power rests firmly with the royal family, the religious establishment and male ministers.
Women .. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/women .. have previously been appointed to the Shura (consultative) council and hold senior positions in business and academia. Salima bint Hazab al-Otaibi won a council seat in the Mecca district of Madrakah, where all the other successful candidates were men.
Lama al-Sulaiman, a prominent British-educated biochemist and vice-president of the Jeddah chamber of commerce, also won in Jeddah, alongside 10 male candidates. “We have reached a point where a lot of us believe we need to progress, irrespective of sharia law,” she said last week. “Everyone wants to improve their living standards.”
Saudi women can run for public office, but they’re far from equal to men
Abeer Mishkhas
Read more - http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/09/saudi-arabia-women-stand-elections-female-equality
Hanuf al-Hazmi, elected in the Jawf region, said in an interview with a local news website that she would make a special effort to deal with women’s issues, focusing on childcare, youth centres, roads, rubbish collection and parks.
Official Saudi media have been promoting the election and the participation of women, which was ordered by the late King Abdullah in 2011 as part of the response to Arab spring unrest across the region. Even critics of the Al Saud ruling family say they are pleased that the pledge was carried through by his more conservative successor, King Salman.
Before it was announced that women would take part in this year’s polls, the country’s grand mufti, its most senior religious figure, described women’s involvement in politics as “opening the door to evil”. Opposition among hardline clerics is still strong.
“Now women have a voice,” Awatef Marzooq told the Saudi Gazette on Saturday after casting her ballot for the first time at a Riyadh school. “I cried. This is something that we only used to see on television taking place in other countries.”
Mohammed Al-Shammari, who had just dropped off his daughter, a teacher, said he had encouraged her to vote. “We want to break this barrier. As long as she has her own place and there is no mixing with men, what prevents her from voting? We support anything that does not violate sharia.”
For all the excitement, Saudi women are still banned from driving and are required to cover themselves in public. They are subject to other routine restrictions including the permission of a male guardian to leave the country.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/13/saudi-arabia-elects-up-to-17-female-councillors-in-historic-election
See also:
The world's tallest dick
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=118896317
Saudi Arabia as the leader of the UN human rights council is mystifying
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=118540339
More politics than mystifying though. Wallstom is a friend and therefor spot on in offering candid and honest critiique to the men of Saudi Arabia.
"A satirical Ikea guide to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis"
Margot Wallström’s principled stand deserves wide support. Betrayal seems more likely
Nick Cohen
Nick Cohen
28 March 2015
If the cries of ‘Je suis Charlie’ were sincere, the western world would be convulsed with worry and anger about the Wallström affair. It has all the ingredients for a clash-of-civilisations confrontation.
A few weeks ago Margot Wallström, the Swedish foreign minister, denounced the subjugation of women in Saudi Arabia. As the theocratic kingdom prevents women from travelling, conducting official business or marrying without the permission of male guardians, and as girls can be forced into child marriages where they are effectively raped by old men, she was telling no more than the truth. Wallström went on to condemn the Saudi courts for ordering that Raif Badawi receive ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes for setting up a website that championed secularism and free speech. These were ‘mediaeval methods’, she said, and a ‘cruel attempt to silence modern forms of expression’. And once again, who can argue with that?
The backlash followed the pattern set by Rushdie, the Danish cartoons and Hebdo. Saudi Arabia withdrew its ambassador and stopped issuing visas to Swedish businessmen. The United Arab Emirates joined it. The Organisation of Islamic Co-operation, which represents 56 Muslim-majority states, accused Sweden of failing to respect the world’s ‘rich and varied ethical standards’ — standards so rich and varied, apparently, they include the flogging of bloggers and encouragement of paedophiles. Meanwhile, the Gulf Co-operation Council condemned her ‘unaccept-able interference in the internal affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’, and I wouldn’t bet against anti-Swedish riots following soon.
Yet there is no ‘Wallström affair’. Outside Sweden, the western media has barely covered the story, and Sweden’s EU allies have shown no inclination whatsoever to support her. A small Scandinavian nation faces sanctions, accusations of Islamophobia and maybe worse to come, and everyone stays silent. As so often, the scandal is that there isn’t a scandal.
It is a sign of how upside-down modern politics has become that one assumes that a politician who defends freedom of speech and women’s rights in the Arab world must be some kind of muscular liberal, or neocon, or perhaps a supporter of one of Scandinavia’s new populist right-wing parties whose commitment to human rights is merely a cover for anti-Muslim hatred. But Margot Wallström is that modern rarity: a left-wing politician who goes where her principles take her.
She is foreign minister in Sweden’s weak coalition of Social Democrats and Greens, and took office promising a feminist foreign policy. She recognised Palestine in October last year — and, no, the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Co-operation and Gulf Co-operation Council did not condemn her ‘unacceptable interference in the internal affairs of Israel’. I confess that her gesture struck me as counterproductive at the time. But after Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out a Palestinian state as he used every dirty trick he could think of to secure his re-election, she can claim with justice that history has vindicated her.
She moved on to the Saudi version of sharia law. Her criticism was not just rhetorical. She said that it was unethical for Sweden to continue with its military co-operation agreement with Saudi Arabia. In other words, she threatened Swedish arms companies’ ability to make money. Saudi Arabia’s denial of business visas to Swedes threatened to hurt other companies’ profits too. You might think of Swedes as upright social democrats, who have never let worries of appearing tedious stand in the way of their righteousness. But that has never been wholly true, and is certainly not true when there is money at stake.
Sweden is the world’s 12th largest arms exporter — quite an achievement for a country of just nine million people. Its exports to Saudi Arabia total $1.3 billion. Business leaders and civil servants are also aware that other Muslim-majority countries may follow Saudi Arabia’s lead. During the ‘cartoon crisis’ — a phrase I still can’t write without snorting with incredulity — Danish companies faced global attacks and the French supermarket chain Carrefour took Danish goods off the shelves to appease Muslim customers. A co-ordinated campaign by Muslim nations against Sweden is not a fanciful notion. There is talk that Sweden may lose its chance to gain a seat on the UN Security Council in 2017 because of Wallström.
To put it as mildly as I can, the Swedish establishment has gone wild. Thirty chief executives signed a letter saying that breaking the arms trade agreement ‘would jeopardise Sweden’s reputation as a trade and co-operation partner’. No less a figure than His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf himself hauled Wallström in at the weekend to tell her that he wanted a compromise. Saudi Arabia has successfully turned criticism of its brutal version of Islam into an attack on all Muslims, regardless of whether they are Wahhabis or not, and Wallström and her colleagues are clearly unnerved by accusations of Islamophobia. The signs are that she will fold under the pressure, particularly when the rest of liberal Europe shows no interest in supporting her.
Sins of omission are as telling as sins of commission. The Wallström non-affair tells us three things. It is easier to instruct small countries such as Sweden and Israel on what they can and cannot do than America, China or a Saudi Arabia that can call on global Muslim support when criticised. Second, a Europe that is getting older and poorer is starting to find that moral stands in foreign policy are luxuries it can no longer afford. Saudi Arabia has been confident throughout that Sweden needs its money more than it needs Swedish imports.
Finally, and most revealingly in my opinion, the non-affair shows us that the rights of women always come last. To be sure, there are Twitter storms about sexist men and media feeding frenzies whenever a public figure uses ‘inappropriate language’. But when a politician tries to campaign for the rights of women suffering under a brutally misogynistic clerical culture she isn’t cheered on but met with an embarrassed and hugely revealing silence.
http://www.spectator.co.uk/2015/03/swedens-feminist-foreign-minister-has-dared-to-tell-the-truth-about-saudi-arabia-what-happens-now-concerns-us-all/
Kudos to Margot Wallström, one who says it like it is. Recently in Saudi Arabia there has been one tiny step.
Saudi Arabia elects up to 17 female councillors in historic election
In first poll in which women can vote and be candidates, female winners are declared across the conservative kingdom
VIDEO 0:29 - Ibrahim Al-Sultan, mayor of Riyadh, says that three women and 17 men have so far been elected to public office after winning seats on municipal councils in Riyadh on Sunday
Ian Black Middle East editor
Sunday 13 December 2015 13.31 EST
Last modified on Sunday 13 December 2015 17.28 EST
Saudi Arabia .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/saudiarabia .. has elected its first female local councillors in a historic step for a country where women are banned from driving and face routine discrimination.
Results from Saturday’s municipal council elections indicated there were about 17 female winners. These included four in Jeddah, one near Mecca – home to Islam’s holiest site – and others in Tabuk, Ahsaa and Qatif. Several more, reported by al-Sabq online newspaper, were expected to be confirmed later.
Rasha Hefzi .. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/11/saudia-arabia-elections-it-will-be-enough-even-if-one-woman-wins , a prominent businesswoman who won a seat in Jeddah, thanked all those who supported her campaign and trusted her, pledging: “What we have started, we will continue.” Hefzi and other candidates used social media to contact voters because of restrictions on women meeting men and bans on both sexes using photographs.
Saudi Arabia elections: ‘It will be enough even if one woman wins’
Read more - http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/11/saudia-arabia-elections-it-will-be-enough-even-if-one-woman-wins
The turnout, estimate to be about 25%, was low, as was registration. Only 1.32 million men and 130,000 women out of a population of 20 million voted – figures that highlight the unfamiliarity of the democratic process of election in the absolute monarchy.
But there was surprise at the number of women who took seats. “I think it’s great that several women won in different regions of Saudi Arabia,” said writer Maha Akeel. “It shows how much Saudi society has progressed on the issue of not only accepting, but actually supporting women in public office, and this could mean that more change is to come. I’m surprised. We expected maybe one or two women would win.”
Local elections were held in 2005 and 2011, but this was the first time women were allowed to take part. The powers of municipal councils are limited to advising local government and helping oversee budgets, but the election has still been hailed by women activists as a crucial first step towards achieving wider rights and broadening the understanding of civic engagement.
“I don’t consider winning to be the ultimate goal,” said the Riyadh-based historian Hatoon al-Fassi, coordinator for the grassroots Saudi Baladi initiative, which worked to raise voter awareness and increase female participation. “But it is the right of being a citizen that I concentrate on and I consider this a turning point.”
No candidates addressed the broader issues of democracy, human rights or the role of sharia law and punishments, which attract so much attention abroad. Saudis who boycotted the poll dismissed it as window dressing, arguing that real the power rests firmly with the royal family, the religious establishment and male ministers.
Women .. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/women .. have previously been appointed to the Shura (consultative) council and hold senior positions in business and academia. Salima bint Hazab al-Otaibi won a council seat in the Mecca district of Madrakah, where all the other successful candidates were men.
Lama al-Sulaiman, a prominent British-educated biochemist and vice-president of the Jeddah chamber of commerce, also won in Jeddah, alongside 10 male candidates. “We have reached a point where a lot of us believe we need to progress, irrespective of sharia law,” she said last week. “Everyone wants to improve their living standards.”
Saudi women can run for public office, but they’re far from equal to men
Abeer Mishkhas
Read more - http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/09/saudi-arabia-women-stand-elections-female-equality
Hanuf al-Hazmi, elected in the Jawf region, said in an interview with a local news website that she would make a special effort to deal with women’s issues, focusing on childcare, youth centres, roads, rubbish collection and parks.
Official Saudi media have been promoting the election and the participation of women, which was ordered by the late King Abdullah in 2011 as part of the response to Arab spring unrest across the region. Even critics of the Al Saud ruling family say they are pleased that the pledge was carried through by his more conservative successor, King Salman.
Before it was announced that women would take part in this year’s polls, the country’s grand mufti, its most senior religious figure, described women’s involvement in politics as “opening the door to evil”. Opposition among hardline clerics is still strong.
“Now women have a voice,” Awatef Marzooq told the Saudi Gazette on Saturday after casting her ballot for the first time at a Riyadh school. “I cried. This is something that we only used to see on television taking place in other countries.”
Mohammed Al-Shammari, who had just dropped off his daughter, a teacher, said he had encouraged her to vote. “We want to break this barrier. As long as she has her own place and there is no mixing with men, what prevents her from voting? We support anything that does not violate sharia.”
For all the excitement, Saudi women are still banned from driving and are required to cover themselves in public. They are subject to other routine restrictions including the permission of a male guardian to leave the country.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/13/saudi-arabia-elects-up-to-17-female-councillors-in-historic-election
See also:
The world's tallest dick
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=118896317
Saudi Arabia as the leader of the UN human rights council is mystifying
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=118540339
More politics than mystifying though. Wallstom is a friend and therefor spot on in offering candid and honest critiique to the men of Saudi Arabia.
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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