Women’s Rights or Culture Clash?

While I respect Frida Ghitis’ intent to protect women’s rights universally, her efforts are erroneously geared toward the Muslim world (“A Tragic Fire Unveils Saudi Arabia’s Misogyny,” Commentary, March 25). Muslim women are proud of their religion and their countries. Yet for some reason, some women of the West cannot get over the fact that these women cover their bodies instead of proudly flaunting their cleavage for the public.

Let us be reminded that the tragedy is the deaths of these young girls and not who impeded their rescue. Numerous Saudi newspapers have reported that the initial report about the “tragic” actions of the religious police was baseless. Yet these ill-intended attempts to shed negative light upon them has been a frequently used tactic by opponents of Islamic law.

Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia’s system is just as vulnerable to cases of poor judgment and abuse of power by authorities as is America’s legal system. The LAPD has often been accused of race-based mistreatment, but does that lead to reports blaming the Christian world for human rights abuses?

Just because many American women may not want to live under the conditions of Saudi Arabia, that does not equate to Saudi Arabian women being deprived of their human rights.

Motasem Benothman

Los Angeles