Created and maintained with Western money and guns.
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Enter her in the Miss Universe pageant?
Make her Abu Ivanka al-Amreeki’s second wife.
Depends on what you mean by “respectful”.
You are supposed to remember that the corrupt, murderous thieves in control of Saudi Arabia are about as representative of ordinary Muslims as Mike Pence or Ted Cruz is of ordinary Christians, though.
The people of Saudi Arabia are the victims in this situation. The villains are the tyrants who oppress them, and the foreign powers who keep those tyrants in place.
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Nobody’s making Jamaica the most homophobic place in the world from the top down… Should we respect that?
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On the contrary, the history of colonialism and slavery has quite a bit to do with Caribbean homophobia. Living within range of the money and transmitters of the USA’s Evangelicals doesn’t help, either.
But, as I said, it depends on what you mean by “respect”.
I’m a fairly militant atheist, and I find Islam to be just as obnoxious as Christianity, for exactly the same reasons. They’re both outdated and destructive systems of superstitious nonsense that are absolutely awash in misogyny, corruption and oppression.
But I save most of my crankiness for the clergy rather than the laity, and I am very wary of the tendency of the West to critique the rest of the world for flaws that it shares.
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We’re happy selling them weapons though, amirite?
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And she’s probably dead. Why do we support them? Oh yeah, they have OIL!!
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The latter I think based on the current POS in the White House.
Only if Mother approves!!
from the oil we buy…
you could replace Saudi Arabia with United States and it still fits!!
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In the late 70s/early 80s in Britain, football ‘fans’ used to chant “get your tits out for the lads” if they saw a female fan in the crowd (cos they were such nice people). That’s when they weren’t throwing bananas at black players or making ape sounds at them. Who would have thought times would have changed so much.
As obnoxious as football fans were - at least their sentiment makes sense to me. They were male sexists and they wanted to see breasts. What the hell is the police argument? That other citizens are trying to eat and they dont want to see the smallest citizen eating while they eat? I know the rights of the unborn are often defended, but what about the rights of the born to have a healthy meal?
Yes it is a thing. And utterly absurd. Its fucking hard enough breast feeding without adding extra problems. Our third had a tough time latching making both mum and baby pretty unhappy. As it is, his mums parents have a hard time seeing their daughters breasts - even in the mouth of their grandson. So she has to try and cover it up. However often the babies dont cooperate and try and push the cover away with their hands.
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The shock and horror. DOn’t go after the groups that literally are citting people’s heads off. Ooooh nonononono gotta go after the miniskirt woman. Much more dangerous to society.
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Why would any group with power go after itself?
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Re: respect of cultures:
Yes and no. Certainly one should respect most parts of other cultures. Certainly one can speak out about specific parts that violate various ideals most of hold dear. Of course change like that has to come internally, not from external forces. Qatar also has a monarchy, and they have had moves to push their laws to be more western.
As for Saudis being allies, over all they are good allies. They are relatively stable and willing to work with America for oil. While they have factions within the country sponsoring terrorism, the state doesn’t seem to be sponsoring it directly, unlike say Iran.
Overall, when it comes to the middle east, stability and willingness to not destroy Israel are two of the main factors with us keeping good relations. We can keep decent relations with them politically, even if we condemn some of their laws and practices.
Of course some of that stability is coming into question. With the US ramping up domestic oil production, Saudi oil value has fallen, but the ruling monarchy is still blowing through money like nothing is wrong. And there is the question of succession.
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That is to say, countries hostile to women’s rights voted Saudi Arabia onto the Women’s Rights Commission because they could rely on it to be hostile to women’s rights. Along with, that UNWatch article suggests after its outrage at “the UN”, governments that accepted bribes or favours from Saudi Arabia in exchange for their votes.
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I wonder if she’s a member of the house of Saud:
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The Saudi royal family has 15,000 members, so maybe she is.
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As long as they keep selling us that sweet, sweet Saudi light crude.
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