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Letter to Colin Powell, Secretary of State

Requesting that the US publicly condemn Saudi Arabia's recent announcement that women will be officially banned from voting.

To: Colin Powell, Secretary of State
Date: October 26 2004

Dear Secretary of State Powell:

The simple showing of their hair or skin can bring punishment and even imprisonment by the country's religious police, the muttawa.

The U.S. State Department's most recent Human Right's Report itself states that the Saudi government's human rights record remains "poor". Despite all of these obvious violations of human rights, the U.S. continues purchasing Saudi oil and solicits Saudi contracts while remaining silent about Saudi abuses. If the U.S. wants to stand behind its word that respect for human rights is a fundamental factor in U.S. foreign policy then the US needs to publicly condemn Saudi Arabia for its violations of human rights, specifically against women.

Once again, I urge you to publicly condemn the recent actions Saudi Arabia has taken.

Joyce Thomas
http://joyworks.net/

~ Return to "What'd She Say Now!"

Please do all you can to publicly condemn Saudi Arabia's recent announcement that women will be officially banned from voting and from running for office in the first nationwide municipal elections.

President Bush stated that in Afghanistan and elsewhere that "respect for women is an imperative of U.S. foreign policy, among the goals that are grounded in the non-negotiable demand of human dignity and reflect universal values." If respect for women is an imperative of U.S. foreign policy, then why is the U.S. silent about the abuses Saudi women endure on a daily basis? The Saudi government marginalizes half its population; while owning a third of the world's oil reserves, it is an absolute monarchy and has a judicial system based entirely on Islamic sharia law. If the U.S really wants to make respect for women a priority for its foreign policy, then it should stop using women's rights to justify actions that only suit our own interests.

The denial of the right to vote is but one another example of the gross discrimination Saudi women face including requiring a husband's permission in order for a woman to work, study, or travel.

All women, regardless of their own particular religious beliefs, are barred from driving, leaving home without being fully covered from head to toe, administering their own businesses, or interacting with men in public.