Saudi King appoints first woman to his Cabinet

February 14, 2009

King Abdullah has appointed Noor Al-Fayez as Deputy Minister for Women's Education. It is the first time a woman has been appointed. But why is it "women's education"? Is there a deputy minister for men's education?

CNN: Jamal Khashoggi, editor-in-chief of Al-Watan Daily newspaper:

This is a huge step forward, in education, women's place in society.

Huge step remains to be seen.

How much direct influence on policy will she be have?

Will she be allowed to address the most pressing issue in the education and empowerment of Saudi women - the absolute abolishment of child marriages and female genital mutilation?

How much of the appointment had to do with Madame Secretary Hillary Clinton's appointment?

Guess again fellas.

Madame Secretary will not rest until women are no longer treated as reproductive chattel, until arranged and child marriages are outlawed, until little girls are afforded the same educational opportunities as boys and until "honor killings" and selective female infanticide is stopped.

She will not rest until women receive equal pay for equal work, until all women and children have access to healthcare.

She will not rest until all women are treated with respect and dignity in every society across the globe - starting in Saudi Arabia.

In other words, in her words, she will not rest until women's rights are human rights.

Here are her recent words of warning.

January 13, 2009 Senate Confirmation Hearing.

HILLARY CLINTON: ...it is heartbreaking beyond words that young girls are attacked on their way to school by Taliban sympathizers and members who do not want young women to be educated.

It's not complicated: They want to maintain an attitude that keeps women...unhealthy, unfed, uneducated. And this is something that results all too often in violence against these young women, both within their families and from the outside.

This is not culture.

This is not custom.

This is criminal.

And it will be my hope to persuade more governments, as I have attempted to do since I spoke at Beijing on these issues, thirteen and some years ago, that we cannot have a free, prosperous, peaceful, progressive world if women are treated in such a discriminatory and violent way.

So Mr Saudi King - one woman is a start. But a titular head to claim advancement while you allow children as young as 8 to be sold into "marriage" and while you sanction the mutilation, without anesthesia, of young girls' genital regions for the sole pleasure of your disgusting savages is not going to cut it.

A First Lady having "tea with Ambassadors" and a top diplomat fighting for women's rights are two very different things.

The most recognizable woman in the world - the woman with the most power on the world stage - is viewed by oppressed women in every country as their champion.

She is coming, and she will make a difference, whether you like it or not. You're women have had enough, as have all women throughout the Arab World.

The path to peace is held in their hands and wombs - not in their husbands', brothers' and sons' hate-filled souls and human detonator bodies.

She is coming, and she will make a difference, as long as barry's ignorance and ego and gyne envy doesn't get in her way.

First Lady Hillary's Rodham Clinton's Speech: "Women's Rights are Human Rights"

Beijing, China 1995 (text & video audio)

Named #35 of the Top 100 Speeches of the 21st Century

Imagine that. A tea-sipping woman delivered the 35th all time greatest speech in the 21st century, while the self-proclaimed supreme orator and second coming of Lincoln has done nothing with his words, except to try to destroy her with them. And after all his filthy empty words, he appoints as top diplomat a woman whose only foreign policy experience was mindlessly chatting over tea.

What does that tell you about his words? His judgment? His integrity and character?