UPDATE: Clinton responds to Saudi women

By Roee Ruttenberg June 21, 2011 | Edit

Since I posted the appeal of want-to-be driving Saudi women to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, I thought it worth mentioning that she has officially responded.

Clinton called their actions “brave” and added that their goal is “right.” She then stressed that the campaign for driving is a homegrown one, focused on equal rights, and is not being forced by foreign players.

Her response did not immediately follow a letter by the women, sent to Clinton on 20 June. That merely received a response from the State Department spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland:

“There are times when it makes sense to do so publicly and there are times for quiet diplomacy.”

But the response further angered the female Saudi activists, and they rejected the State Department’s approach:

“Quiet diplomacy is not what we need right now. What we need is for you, personally, to make a strong, simple and public statement supporting our right to drive. We understand that the US-Saudi relationship is complex, and that there is a time for quiet diplomacy and there is a time for public diplomacy. But in our opinion what has happened in Saudi Arabia over the last month – the launch of the largest women’s rights campaign in Saudi history – constitutes a moment that calls for public diplomacy, a moment in which it is incumbent upon champions of women’s rights like yourself to deviate from the norm.”

The Saudi women’s protest, in which 40 females got behind the wheel, came on 17 June. It coincided with twenty years since South Africa abolished the last of its Apartheid laws. The women called Riyadh’s ban on women driving “gender apartheid.” No doubt Clinton’s silence on the issue was taken personally, as revealed by Saudi Women for Driving’s press release:

“Despite all this incredible momentum and media attention we have heard nothing from you, a woman we consider a friend and one of the foremost champions of women’s rights around the world. For the United States’ top diplomat to make no public statement about such developments sends exactly the wrong message to the Saudi government and, more importantly, to the women of Saudi Arabia.”

Apparently, Clinton was listening and took it upon herself, off-script, to make a statement, one the women in Saudi Arabia will surely appreciate, even if their monarchy does not.

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