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MH's avatar

We can always count on you to give us the important perspective Zidan!

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RIDevine's avatar

SA is far from the ideal state but has there not been a significant improvement in the status of women there over the past five years? Certainly women are working and driving and not wearing burkas in Riyadh .... In my view, that is the base reform which needs to happen first in order to support further political and social reforms

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Karim Zidan's avatar

Some of the harshest sentences being handed out in Saudi Arabia right now are targeting women. Some face decades in prison for their activism or for sharing tweets. Meanwhile, activists like Loujain Al Hathloul (the person who led to charge to get Saudi women the right to drive) is still trapped in Saudi, unable to leave.

In my view, actual political and social reform will never take place in an authoritarian police state, which is what Saudi Arabia has transformed into over the past five years. But don't take my word for it. Listen to actual Saudi women: https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/saudi-rights-activist-2034-world-cup-visitors-live-116718297 /// https://www.alqst.org/ar/posts/1028

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RIDevine's avatar

Hasn't it been an authoritarian police state for quite some time though? But now at least it's a slightly less medieval one? Just asking, I only know the place from a single trip last year

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