Clinton backs 'brave' Saudi women driver protest

[bemildred]

Source: AP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday lent her support to "brave" women in Saudi Arabia who are protesting the Islamic kingdom's ban on female drivers, making her first public comments on an issue that has become an irritant in complex ties between the U.S. and Saudi governments.

A day after the State Department said it was handling the issue through "quiet diplomacy" and not public pronouncements, Clinton praised the protesters, but stressed they are acting on their own, on behalf of their own rights, and not at the behest of outsiders like herself. Clinton's comments came after the activists appealed for her to use her position as America's top diplomat and standing as a well-known advocate for women's equality to speak out in support of their aim.

"What these women are doing is brave and what they are seeking is right, but the effort belongs to them," Clinton told reporters at a State Department news conference with Defense Secretary Robert Gates and their counterparts from Japan. "I am moved by it and I support them, but I want to underscore the fact that this is not coming from outside of their country. This is the women themselves, seeking to be recognized."

The protests have put the Obama administration, and Clinton in particular, in a difficult position. While Clinton and many other top U.S. officials personally find the Saudi ban on women drivers offensive, insulting and anathema to a modern and just society, the administration is increasingly reliant on Saudi authorities to provide stability and continuity in the Middle East and Persian Gulf amid uprisings taking place across the Arab world. Thus, some officials have been reluctant to antagonize the Saudis over the driving issue.

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[DonCoquixote]

1. Hillary, you are so tiring

The arab world is not going to care about you when you have given Israel carte blanche to kill, and because we know you helped talk O into bombing Libya. I see how some like you because you are a woman, but no one can call you a liberal.

[JI7]

2. you don't speak for the Arab world , many people in the arab world

especically women appreciate what she is doing. just because there are comfortable one issue type people in America doesn't mean the rest of the world is the same.