Sarah Swick, Minaret of Freedom Institute, www.minaret.org
On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to meet with a group of Saudi women at the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington. The women are educators in Saudi Arabia and are visiting the U.S. in order to learn more about religion and education in America. During the discussion time, I asked the women how they felt about the Freedom House report on Saudi textbooks teaching hate. The women did not know about the report and said that they did not know of textbooks like those described. They questioned the authenticity, translation, and context of the report. They said that the problem does not come from textbooks but rather a small minority of individual teachers who teach hate—the problem, according to them, is not institutionalized. The women insisted that their open minds were proof that the Saudi educational system does not preach hate.
However, their immediate defensive reaction after I asked the question reveals another problem facing Saudi-American relations. It seemed that they were defensive because to them it seems like Saudi Arabia is constantly being “attacked†by outsiders. They reiterated that Saudi society is different than American society and they questioned why Americans were concerned about Saudi textbooks rather than protesting against hate-preaching by various right-wing figures in America. It was clear from the emotion in their voices that the women are passionate about changing how Americans view Saudi Arabia. Indeed, the women are further proof that our image of Saudi women is not accurate—the women were intelligent, well-spoken (most almost fluent in English) and successful career women. Moreover, the very fact that a group of female Saudi government workers made the trip unaccompanied by male relatives is proof that, perhaps, our image of Saudi society needs “updating.â€
