Brutal Mistreatment of US Citizens in Saudi Arabia -- and US State Dept. Complicity

[ibrodsky]

There is an article in today's Wall Street Journal about a 19-year old American girl who was taken to Saudi Arabia as a child by her father who, it turned out, had another wife in SA that he never bothered to tell his American wife about.

The girl sought refuge in the US Embassy but was told by an official "We aren't running a hotel here" and was bodily removed by US Marines.

The US has steadfastedly held that this is a "child custody" case despite the fact that the girl is now an adult.

It is outrageous that our government refuses to defend US citizens. Really, this girl is a slave while she remains in fascist Saudi Arabia.

[cerulean]

Here's an article about that case:

http://opinionjournal.com/editorial/...l?id=110001894
...
Amjad Radwan is 19 years old and, unlike her older brother, cannot leave Saudi Arabia because she is a woman and must have the permission of her Saudi father, who refuses to give it. In highly charged testimony delivered via videotape, Amjad's mom, Monica Stowers, told the House she remains in Saudi Arabia because she fears for her daughter's life; Miss Stowers further reported that both her son and daughter were raped by members of her former husband's family. The Roush sisters are also adults.
...

===
Note that in the other case getting a lot of attention, the Roush sisters, one of the young women has been married off by her father, against her will. I'm not sure "marriage" is the right term to use for such a nonconsensual relationship.

[Mediocrates]

Somewhat unrelated but I'm always depressed by Jordan's Queen Noor's quiet approval of how the Arab world treats women. Here is someone who is a middle class suburban educated Californian who could do or say something but doesn't. WTF is this about?

[cerulean]

Queen Noor has a foundation relating to women, but I'm not sure of what she does specifically. Of course it would be good if she did more.

=======
The following article states that there is some internal self-examination as to Saudi Arabia's role in September 11.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/12/in...st/12SAUD.html
A Few Saudis Defy a Rigid Islam to Debate Their Own Intolerance

Quotes:
Bookshops in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, for example, sell a 1,265-page souvenir tome that is a kind of "greatest hits" of fatwas on modern life. It is strewn with rulings on shunning non-Muslims: don't smile at them, don't wish them well on their holidays, don't address them as "friend."
...
Saudis in general, and senior princes in particular, reject the notion that this kind of teaching helps spawns terrorists.

"Well, of course I hate you because you are Christian, but that doesn't mean I want to kill you," a professor of Islamic law in Riyadh explains to a visiting reporter.
...
=======
There's also a new Stratfor article on Saudi relationships with other Arab states:

http://www.stratfor.com/fib/topStory_view.php?ID=205227

[cerulean]

More about this young woman, Amjad Radwan. There are about twelve American women in the same situation, although they are being termed "children" in a "custody" dispute. Note that Ms. Radwan was "married" off by her father at age 12, although she has managed to get divorced. Forced marriage is really a form of institutionalized rape.

http://opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110001972
FOGGY BOTTOM BETRAYAL
'I Am an American'
The State Department sends in the Marines to consign a U.S. citizen to Saudi hell.

BY WILLIAM MCGURN
Thursday, July 11, 2002 12:01 a.m. EDT

The words crackle over the phone line from Riyadh, in softly accented English. "I am an American woman," Amjad Radwan repeats. "My mother always tells me how free America is, and how much my grandmother, my aunts and uncles and cousins in America love me. But though I am American I cannot go see them."

If Miss Radwan appears at pains to stress her adult status, it's because the same U.S. government that trumpets its liberation of Afghan women suddenly begins shuffling its diplomatic feet when the subject turns to adult American women languishing in Saudi Arabia. In the last month alone, when asked publicly about Amjad Radwan and Alia and Aisha Gheshayan, at least three senior American officials--Secretary of State Colin Powell, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, and Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs William Burns--all muddied the issue by resorting to the State Department line that the fates of at least a dozen American women in Saudi Arabia are "custody" spats involving "children." ...