Rice silent on women’s rights in Middle East

[maddezmom]

Tony Allen-Mills and Jon Swain



SHE may be America’s most powerful woman but Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, made clear during her tour of the Middle East last week that she is not about to become its most outspoken supporter of women’s rights.
During her week-long sweep through Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Rice steered clear of confrontation over one of the region’s most volatile issues — the role of women in Islamic societies.

Her admission that there were “boundaries” to the US drive for democratic reform in the region — notably in Saudi Arabia, where she declined to take up the cause of women, who are barred from driving cars — spurred accusations of American hypocrisy.

Critics claimed it also reduced the effect of a hard- hitting speech in Cairo, where Rice urged Middle Eastern rulers to “abandon the excuses” they had advanced for avoiding the “hard work” of democracy.

~snip~
more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1669434,00.html

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Suh-prahz! Suh-prahz! Suh-prahz!

Her admission that there were “boundaries” to the US drive for democratic reform in the region

Where were the boundaries of forcing Democracy in Iraq?