Women’s Rights vs. The American Economy

Tore Levander, Staff Reporter

Saudi Arabia is a country where women can’t drive, can’t go anywhere without a male chaperone, can’t vote, and are denied the use of many other things such as trying on clothes while shopping, and swimming in a public pool. Saudi Arabia has been a close trading partner with the United States since the 1930’s. They provide the US with mostly oil while the US provides machinery, technology, and some food products. According to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, in 2013, Saudi Arabia provided the US with 50.7 billion dollars worth of mineral fuel. This makes them the second largest provider of international oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information administration. There is nothing wrong with trading with a country, however there is something immoral about trading with a country who treats their female citizens as second-class and subjects to their male citizens.

Saudi Arabia can be a bad place to live if you are a woman. Women can be essentially treated as property with no real rights of their own. According to a CNN article, in 2008, an eight year old girl became legally married to a 47-year-old man. The girl’s father arranged the marriage to pay off his debts to the old man. When the mother tried to get the marriage annulled by a judge, the judge decided that since the girl’s mother was separated from her father, the mother was not her legal guardian and therefore could not represent the girl in court, the marriage would stay.

An eight-year-old girl was given to a man as payment for a debt. This is the way in which women in Saudi Arabia are treated.

Juliet O’Connor, an MBHS senior and active feminist, shared her thoughts about the mistreatment of women in Saudi Arabia and the US’s ties to them. “If the US is supportive of gender equality, we should not be associating ourselves with countries who are not. Or, we should at least be trying to change the gender inequality in other countries.” I completely agree. The US has long been an advocate of human rights, but by trading with Saudi Arabia the US government is showing that they really don’t care about women’s rights, but only their economic interests. A country that ranks 23rd for percentage of women in their government should be doing everything they can possibly do to further women’s rights.

If the US government condones this treatment of women, that is horrific, and if they don’t condone it, they should cease trade with Saudi Arabia immediately. But, as Zora Moynihan, an MBHS senior, said “I don’t know when women’s rights have mattered more to America than money and oil.”

Though this is sad, it seems to be the prevailing truth. That our government has no morals when it comes to making money. Every ethic and moral that we might have as a society gets thrown out the door so the most profit can be made. This is this what our government does.