Female Activists in Saudi Arabia

I just got finished reading a blog post on the site Feministing.com, a feminist blog, about women in Saudi Arabia who are protesting a recent judgment that was made against a woman in that country. The post was called Saudi Women Activists Speak Out Against Rape Ruling and was about Saudi women's reactions to a ruling in which a woman who had been gang-raped had been sentenced to 200 lashes and 6 months in jail for being in the same car as a man who was not her family member. This outraged women in many countries because a victim should not be punished for something that would not be considered a crime in any first world countries. Also, the Saudi women were speaking out against the judicial system in their country in general since women are degraded throughout the entire process. Women do not have the right to represent themselves during any part of the trial, and further the judge will not even address the woman. Instead, the judge will talk to the male gaurdian of the women and the woman is rarely allowed to speak. Hillary Clinton was one of the women who spoke out against this ruling, saying that she was present for the Beijing Platform for Action, that it is no longer correct to view women's rights as being seperate from human rights in general. Clinton believes that the international community has made progress but it has not been enough progress.

After reading this article, it makes me outraged to read of this horrendous treatment being experienced by women in the world. Having grown up in the United States, I have never had to experience being treated differently because I am a woman, and I know that there are many opportunities that are open to me that would not be open to women in other countries. I am able to attend college and I will be able to have a great job and I can represent myself in court if I wanted to. I really feel as though the international community needs to step up and put an end to this treatment of women, however I dont think the United States should go about this alone because it is not our job to be the police of the world. I really hope that someday all women in the world will be free to wear the clothes they want, be with the people they want and have all the freedoms that I currently have.