Saudi Arabia vs Iran - The Arbitrary Choice

I've heard a news recently about a Canadian woman who married a Saudi guy, and now cannot leave this country - not allowed to leave. She and her two kids are effectively prisonners. I asked one of my Emiratis friend who studied a lot, and told me that EVERYBODY in Saudi Arabia (except people visiting Mecca) needs a state-sanctionned visa to effectively leave the country.

That is right, you cannot leave the place if the state does not allow you to. Even if you are not citizen, even if you are citizen. I began asking him the comparison of the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia.. How exactly they treat their own people.

1) On the matter of citizen's right, Iran is way better, as there is a crushing dictatorship in place in Saudi Arabia that overrules all courts, where Iran actually has a proper law system.

2) On the matter of women's right, Iran is by far better (recently, women have been allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, while in Iran they are allowed to hold office!)

3) On the matter of freedom of religion, Iran punish harshier than Saudi Arabia, but Saudi Arabia is much more inquisitorial and punishes more often (it's a smaller country, please remind)

4) On the matter of Freedom of press, Iran is, again, much more liberal than Saudi Arabia. While it's far from being on par with the occident, it's by far not as strangled as Saudi Arabia.

5) On the matter of the way they treat their citizen, Saudi Arabia technically have more money, but there is much more disparity between its citizen. On the other hand, Iran have a lot of social programs, more public healthcare healthcare, etc...

The only way Iran is worse than Saudi Arabia is it's political posturing, since Iran is more confrontional than Saudi Arabia.

I am really wondering why we (USA & Allies) choose to back Saudi Arabia over Iran when human rights are concerned? Why people in this board will so quickly denounce Iran as a bad place to live? I am not saying that Iran should be left off the hook, nor that it's a nice place to live in (still better than Iraq or Saudi Arabia). But.. at the way Saudi are treating any people on its territory, it's definetly horrible.

Why do we allow it?

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Reply #1 Top

I am really wondering why we (USA & Allies) choose to back Saudi Arabia over Iran when human rights are concerned? Why people in this board will so quickly denounce Iran as a bad place to live? I am not saying that Iran should be left off the hook, nor that it's a nice place to live in (still better than Iraq or Saudi Arabia). But.. at the way Saudi are treating any people on its territory, it's definetly horrible.

Why do we allow it?

I think it has something to do with the act of war perpetrated by Iran against America. Since you obviously don’t know this I will inform you.

 

In 1979 terrorists invaded US soil and took hostages. They held these hostages for 444 days before they were released. The minor fact that Iran has called us the Great Satan and our ally Israel is the Little Satan and their call for our destruction and death. For some reason this was not looked upon kindly by the U.S. Government, or the American people.

 

Up until that point Iran was our best ally in the region and a close friend. Well, up until the President of the United States withdrew support of the rightful ruler of Iran allowing the current crop of idiots to take over the nation. Prior to this happening women were allowed to drive, vote, and even swim in public. Thanks to that dimwit that was president at the time stopped supporting our friend and ally we did not have a nation state that actively supported terrorism outside of the Soviet Union.

 

You can’t say we started the problem because we tried to work with them prior to their act of war. Their response to what they perceived as weakness was to declare war against us.

 

Now with that said look at our current president, he is following the same path that led to the attacks upon our people and our nation that was started by the last president that tried to work with Iran.

 

You need to understand that trying to work with these people is seen by Iran as weakness. Weakness seen in that part of the world is not deserving of respect. If you are weak you must be subjugated and or destroyed. This is the legacy of one idiot that is being followed by the new idiot in the White House. Thank you President James Earl Carter Jr. for the deaths of hundreds of Americans due to your ignorance of the way the world works. Thank you President Barrack Hussein Obama for ignoring what works and going with what has been tried and failed.

Reply #2 Top

No love lose for either place personally, but if you support them so much why not move there? Maybe then you can provide a accurate story instead of you pro-Iran opinion piece. Oh and if you're a journalist make sure your credentials are up to snuff, it could land you in prison as a spy. LINK Looks like she is spying on the annual mud and rock harvest in this photo.

Reply #3 Top

No love lose for either place personally, but if you support them so much why not move there? Maybe then you can provide a accurate story instead of you pro-Iran opinion piece. Oh and if you're a journalist make sure your credentials are up to snuff, it could land you in prison as a spy. LINK Looks like she is spying on the annual mud and rock harvest in this photo.

(for Paladin77's piece, I am aware of the past of violence that occured between your two countries)

And it wasn't really a "pro-Iran" piece, Nitro. It was a comparison between the two country. Just because somebody say that someplace is better than Saudi Arabia is not a declaration of love for that someplace, you really jump to fucked up conclusions.

You clearly don't seem even remotely interested in checking your main ally in this side of the middle-east when it comes to citizen's right, etc.. It's all an affair of convenience, and you don't have any problem in letting your past leader swim in the money that came from over there. In the meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is one of the most lobbyist in the muslim world promoting backward ways of doing things and opposition to secular governements, the very thing we are trying to avoid in the muslim world.

Not to forget that the Saudi were providing 45% of the foreign troops that came supporting the insurgency in Iraq against you.

The whole blog is not to provide a positive insight on Iran, but to provide a negative one on SA. Why do our governements seems perfectly okay with the way the Saudi Dictator are treating their people and don't seem to say/do a damn thing about it?

Reply #4 Top

The whole blog is not to provide a positive insight on Iran, but to provide a negative one on SA. Why do our governements seems perfectly okay with the way the Saudi Dictator are treating their people and don't seem to say/do a damn thing about it?

You liberals are never happy are you? If we interfere with another country, we are the bad guys. If we leave them alone, we aren't sensitive enough. How far back do I go to find an article with your non-support for the US World Police? Damned if you do, damned if you don't, right? Some countries need to bring about change from within, and if you think for a moment the previous administration didn't lift a finger to help you're sadly mistaken. It's really dangerous when you start believing your own propaganda. I'm sure you can find something besides what your personal feelings what you to hear.

Anyway we have enough enemy sympathizers, socialists, and degenerates here in the US to deal with. Once their handled shouldn't we deal with Canada first, it's much closer?;)

Reply #5 Top

You clearly don't seem even remotely interested in checking your main ally in this side of the middle-east when it comes to citizen's right, etc.. It's all an affair of convenience, and you don't have any problem in letting your past leader swim in the money that came from over there. In the meanwhile, Saudi Arabia is one of the most lobbyist in the muslim world promoting backward ways of doing things and opposition to secular governements, the very thing we are trying to avoid in the muslim world.

Iran was our ally in the area, they helped keep a lid on the saudi's until Mr. Carter ousted the rightful leader of Iran. This opened the door to us having to take an active role in the area where we were not wanted. Becaue of lliberal medeling in Iran we are stuck with having to deal with idiots we don't like.