Where multiculturalism stops and human rights begins

Over the weekend, I engaged in a hearty discussion about religion, multiculturalism and women's rights. It was at a bar and everyone involved was drinking. However, now sober, I stand by my point: I respect other religions and cultures, as my own is not the definitive or the norm. However, when your religion or culture begins to infringe on the basic liberties, safety and freedom of women, I have a bone to pick with you.

Case in point: Human Rights Watch (they always watchin' sumthin) just released a report that says Saudi laws and policies (which are religious-based) keep women in a child-like state requiring them to get male permission for everything from personal health care to child rearing. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world that doesn't allow its female citizens to drive.

The rationale behind this sick segregation is the idea that a woman's morality and purity is the crux of society's stability. In other words: wild, untamed pussy could lead to all sorts of crazy things like women thinking and having jobs. Yikes! Should women actually have control over their own bodies and earn their own money, why the men would have no one to control, beat and rape. Jimney Crickets...

So to speak to my point: male domination in this country is rooted in religion and permeates the culture so that the two are synonymous. It's a dangerous thing to pontificate on when you're pansy ass liberal apologist. We like to think that we are so advanced and progressive in our thinking that we dare not push our Western ideals onto another group of people.

Right, but not in this case by a long shot. I am not one to question a Saudi woman's decision to wear a hijab (and many women do), however, I strongly doubt she chooses to be stoned to death because her wrist was showing in public, or she was in a car without a male relative. These sorts of ideals are wrong. Just like when European abolitionists spoke out against the American oppression of Black slaves (And slavery was an industrial economic institution. It was justified by racist Christians and thusly an American way of life), so should western feminists when women are persecuted simply for being women under a fundamentialist hierarchy.

No religion or culture can safely state that its subjugation of women (or anyone for that matter) is justifiable because of some higher, unseen power. I won't question the existence of Allah, I won't question your belief in Him either. However, I will question you when you abuse others in the name of faith.