Maureen Dowd Ignores "Honor Killings" in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia and Iran are engaged in a bloody, largely unreported war in the northwest Saada province of Yemen. Needless to say, this protracted conflagration went unmentioned by Maureen Dowd in her ongoing series of op-eds concerning Saudi Arabia. Few realize that enmity between Sunni and Shiite Muslims has cost an exponentially larger number of lives than all of the combined Israeli/Arab conflicts.

However, notwithstanding their ongoing battle in Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Iran share one thing in common: oppression of women and "honor killings". How remarkable that both Roger Cohen, during his protracted series of op-eds concerning Iran, and Maureen Dowd, during her current series on Saudi Arabia, both saw fit to ignore the practice of "honor killings" in their host countries.

In an op-ed in today's New York Times entitled "Driving Miss Saudi" (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/opinion/14dowd.html?hp), Dowd, according to The Times, observes how "Young women in Riyadh try to balance Islam and modernity as the stunted desert kingdom makes progress in 'Saudi Time'", but doesn't dare breathe a word concerning the horrifying practice of "honor killings". My online response, if posted by The Times:

Maureen Dowd is out of Saudi Arabia, but still writing pap, protective of her Saudi hosts. Reading this op-ed, one is made to believe that Saudi oppression of women amounts to little more than a dress code. The reality is quite different. According to a recent item appearing in Arabian Business:

"A Saudi women's group on Friday blamed the country's religious police in the 'honour' killing of two sisters shot dead by their own brother after they were arrested for mixing with unrelated men.

The Society for Defending Women's Rights in Saudi Arabia said the religious police had placed the sisters' lives in danger when they arrested them and then placed them in a Riyadh women's shelter.

The two women, identified as Reem, 21, and Nouf, 19, were murdered after they left the shelter on July 5.

The brother shot them in the presence of their father who, according to newspaper reports, quickly forgave the son for defending the family's honour."

How could Maureen Dowd write about discrimination against Saudi women without mentioning even once the practice of "honor killing"? Ms. Dowd, time to stop the charade! Shame on you!

I asked Andrew Rosenthal, with whom I have corresponded in the past, to be provided with the opportunity to rebut Dowd, but thus far Mr. Rosenthal has ignored my request.