On June 6th, the BBC published this article, about Uber’s entrance in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  It should be good news that a company like Uber is expanding, and offering services to people in more countries.  And it is good news.  However, it still shows us that in this day and age, women in places like Saudi Arabia are not treated equal.  The government forbids women from driving, so while it is very progressive for a company like Uber to enter the market in this country, it still brings forth wounds and opens scabs to the women of the country.

On June 7th, the BBC published this article, about a woman in Pakistan who burned her daughter to death for marrying a man whom the family did not approve of.  This is quite obviously not good news.  It is incredibly sad and frustrating to see the violent death of a young life.  This brings up the subject of honor killings which still take place in several countries in the world.  However, a quick search on the internet will show you that the victims of most of these “honor killings” are usually young women.  Again, bringing us back to the subject of women being treated as the lesser.  As advanced and globalized as our countries become, we see more and more of these stories in our news.

On June 13th, the BBC published this article, about a Dutch woman being convicted of “having sex outside of marriage” in Qatar, after she had reported that she had been raped.  By now, I’m sure you are seeing a pattern of inequality of women in several different countries.  In this particular case, it is very interesting that a woman who is not a citizen of Qatar, is still treated like not only as lesser but as criminal for reporting a crime committed against her.  While there are laws against rape in the country, they recommend women to fight and cause physical harm to their rapist so they have physical evidence and are more readily believed.  But what if they can’t fight?  What if they are drugged.  What if they are drunk.  What if they are told that if they don’t resist, the attacker will let them live.  In essence, they would be considered liars and charged with having sex outside of marriage, as it is illegal for anyone to have sex unless they are married, and to only have sex with the person they are married to.

I have no point about these articles.  Just a pattern of legalized inequality in countries whose economies are growing and whose involvement in the world political spectrum is ever increasing.  I don’t know what to do to solve these issues.  I can only hope that other countries bring on them enough pressure, and their own citizens begin to push against these archaic laws that have no place in our shared society.  We should not be afraid to travel abroad and be called a criminal if we are raped.  One can only imagine the sort of treatment a man would receive if he were raped in a country like Qatar, and tried to report it.

I guess in the end I do have a small point.  Inequality hurts us all.  Inequality for anyone in this world affects us.  Maybe not directly, and maybe not in your day to day life, but it affects all of us.  We can be better than this.

We are better than this.

Lets show it.

Quirkily yours,
The Quirky Digest