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"...in the 1960s, women couldn’t legally drive a bus or even open a bank account without their husband’s permission."

It would be laughable, if only it weren't so sad.

Funny how we decry Islam for the oppression of women, when only a few decades ago we weren't much better.




I'm sure oppressed women in the kingdom or where ever gain great comfort from knowing that 50+ years ago, 10,000 miles away, women were possibly restricted in one aspect of their lives as those women are today.


Yet we aren’t any longer and they still are. What’s your point?


No point other than that it’s easy to forget that Western “enlightenment” is a very recent development.

That’s not to equivocate bank account restrictions with being stoned for adultery. Or that we shouldn’t push for even moderate Islamic countries to adopt liberal policies towards women’s rights.

It’s just an interesting perspective on Western history that gets lost on the moral high ground.


Also the Islamic countries seem to be changing in the same direction. eg from Pinker

>Polls find that young Muslims in the Middle East are about as liberal as young western Europeans were in the early 1960s.


I don’t see your point. The US was decades behind Europe in abolishing slavery. That didn’t mean it wasn’t justified to criticize the US for that delay. Also, as a practical matter, we are talking much more than a few decades behind.


A gruesome argument. What appropriate time frame should we establish for public head and limb cutting or homosexuals executions then?




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