It says plenty that empty chair, the one with, apparently, powerful Norwegians coddling its gilded edges. That the empty chair at the nobel peace award was for Chinese dissident and not Saudi woman's rights activist Wajeha al-Huwaider or any number of champions of the rights of women, children, farmers, the impoverished and war terrorized in our, and allied, lands is plain expected, unlike the swank chair. That 5 old white Norwegian men with a nod from a moldy old monarchy can still dish up a ceremonial ruckus unnerves me in its hypocrisy.
On Western apathy toward the treatment of Arab women - "I wish I knew why the situation of the women in certain Arab states is not condemned by the countries of the world, and does not enrage their citizens. Why do the human rights activists ignore their suffering as though they do not even exist? Why isn't the cry of these millions of women heard, and why isn't it answered by anyone, anywhere [in the world]? Why? Why? Why? Is it because they are women, while our patriarchal world is ruled by men without an ounce of compassion in their hearts? Maybe that is [indeed the case]."
Wajeha al-Huwaider; quoted in Sand Gets in my Eyes
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