WASHINGTON – US secretary of state Hillary Clinton yesterday praised “brave” Saudi women demanding the right to drive, but she tried to avoid an open breach with a close US ally by saying the Saudis themselves should determine the way forward.
The Saudi driving ban has been publicly challenged in recent weeks by women who have risked arrest to get behind the wheel. Mrs Clinton, one of the world’s best-known advocates for women’s rights, has come under mounting pressure to take a stand.
“What these women are doing is brave and what they are seeking is right, but the effort belongs to them. I am moved by it it and I support them,” she said in her first public comments on the issue.
Her remarks appeared to be an attempt to balance her deeply held beliefs with the need to preserve good relations with Riyadh in an era of huge political changes sweeping the Middle East, and concern about oil supplies.
The US and Saudi Arabia have seen their traditionally close ties strained in recent months as popular protests erupted in a number of Arab countries including Bahrain, where Saudi forces were called in to restore order.
Prior to her remarks, the state department had said Mrs Clinton was engaged in “quiet diplomacy” on the driving ban – drawing a fresh appeal from a Saudi women’s group for a more forceful stance.
“Secretary Clinton: 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,” the group, Saudi Women for Driving, said in a statement e-mailed to reporters.
Mrs Clinton did just that yesterday, although she repeatedly added the caveat that the issue was an internal matter for Saudi Arabia. She raised the issue in a phone call with the Saudi foreign minister on Friday.
Besides a driving ban, women in Saudi Arabia must have written approval from a male guardian to leave the country, work or even undergo certain medical operations.– (Reuters)