Maureen Dowd's "Sing Out, Hillary": Saudi Arabia's Barbarous Treatment of Women

In the past, I have been very critical of Maureen Dowd for failing to address the enormity of Saudi persecution of women, which extends far beyond a ban on driving (see, for example: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.com/2011/06/maureen-dowd-camels-nose-under-wheel.html). Today, however, she went a long way toward correcting this deficiency in her New York Times op-ed entitled "Sing Out, Hillary" (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/22/opinion/22dowd.html?hp). Dowd writes:

"Given the king’s declining health and the illness of his half-brother, the Crown Prince Sultan, the chance to give women any rights may be running out. [Prince] Nayef, who has long been in charge of the roaming odious religious police who let those schoolgirls die in the fire in Mecca because they didn’t have their headscarves on, is a contender to replace the crown prince, and it’s unlikely he’ll pull a Nixon-in-China move on women’s freedom."

As a result of this long overdue op-ed, Dowd will probably become persona non grata in the Desert Kingdom for many years to come, and she deserves praise for taking this stand.

Dowd further writes:

"No one expected Hillary to be as exuberant as the Ukrainian feminists who cruised in solidarity around the Saudi Embassy in Kiev, covering their faces and baring their breasts."

I suppose we should be even more grateful to Hillary for sticking to her course of quiet diplomacy and not mimicking the ladies of Kiev outside the Saudi embassy in Washington.