A long read but worthwhile.
Don't Bring Saudi Women Into Your (Misguided) Argument Against Feminism
For women, it seems like it’s basically Internet law that if you tweet or share something about feminism, and you live in the United States or another country deemed “progressive” for women, a stranger will bark a line like one of the following:“#InternationalWomensDay because spoiled American and European women are struggling like Saudi, iraqi, Afghani, Yemen, and Somali women,” one person.
“Western feminists whining about sexism won't do sh*t for the women in the Middle-East.” “On #InternationalWomensDay , remind a privileged western "feminist" that women in Saudi Arabia can't drive and see if they give a damn."
As a reporter focused on covering women's rights, I've seen my fair share of people — most of whom are conservative, at least according to their social media bios — tweeting these types of comments to myself and other women I know.And I’ve noticed that this has become increasingly common since Trump has become president, and as women protest against a person who has
bragged about sexually assaulting women and being
anti-choice. It happened during International Women’s Day, as well as during
the Women’s March in January, where some conservatives, including commentator Charlie Kirk (who’s been dubbed a “
major player” in conservative politics) and Republican politician Mike Huckabee said that if women were truly concerned about women’s rights, they’d “head to the Saudi embassy” or “protest the fact women in Saudi Arabia can’t drive or vote.”
One
right-wing website said women in the U.S. who protest against Trump “consciously ignore truly oppressed women around the world who live without the rights Americans sometimes take for granted.”
Another said women should protest “real” women’s issues like “the women kidnapped by ISIS,” and not just demand abortions.
But all of these arguments are actually hypocritical. On the one hand, their comments give the impression that they care about the lives of women halfway around the world. On conservative news sites and Facebook pages, they share true articles about
ISIS militants enslaving and
raping Yazidi girls, and about Saudi Arabia
banning women from getting behind the wheel. They say it is an outrage that such violence and discrimination against women can be committed.On the other hand, they show with their votes that they don’t want women and girl refugees from conflict-ridden Middle Eastern countries such as Syria or Iraq to come into
their country, backing politicians with
hard-line approaches to banning people from “Muslim” countries and cutting refugee intake.
Meanwhile, Trump’s administration
reportedly wants to slash the
State Department's and the U.S. Agency for International Development’s budgets in order to make up for military spending — potentially
devastating women’s development and gender equality programs in the Middle East and around the world.
From my observation, this feigned concern for Middle Eastern women is only used for the purpose of undermining, derailing, or silencing women from speaking up about feminist issues at home. As Matt Walsh wrote in a 2015 piece for conservative site The Blaze, modern feminism in countries such as the U.S. and U.K. is a concept “
used by feminists to reinforce a fantasy of patriarchal oppression and systematic man-on-woman victimization.
”It’s absolutely true that in some countries in the Middle East, such as
Jordan and
Iran, women’s rights have been restricted due to regressive governments, and that as a result, gender-based violence and discrimination are rife. The need for conservatives and feminists, both men and women, to advocate for issues like these concerning women of all backgrounds and ethnicities around the globe is indeed crucial, especially as the
U.N. warns that the women’s movement around the world is fragile and “facing a backlash that hurts both men and women.”
But rather than address how these violations of women’s rights can fit into a wider
global epidemic, some conservatives try to use it in a competition of “Which Country Treats Women the Worst?” with the aim of guilting women into believing the issues they are bringing to light aren’t of value. In doing so, they fail to grasp the fact that women can — shock, horror — campaign for, and care about,
more than one feminist issue at a time. No one should be able to tell women which feminist causes they can or cannot be interested or involved in, and those who try to use the Middle Eastern women “argument” fail to understand that many women there
are resilient campaigners and defenders of women’s rights, such as the
Saudi women fighting against male guardianship, or the
Afghani women who have protested against sexual harassment, or the
women in Egypt arrested for their activism. Instead, they will likely only describe or depict women in the Middle East as silent victims “oppressed” by Islam.These same people also often only speak up about women in the Middle East when it's an opportunity to further their own political agenda.
Perhaps my cynicism is misplaced. But I suspect that you’ll see someone deflect a comment about feminism to a country “that has it worse” on your own timeline or news feed at some point – and when you do, take a moment to question whether it’s because of a genuine concernfor women in the Middle East, or an attempt to shut a woman up instead.