from many of those countries and they all say the same things, that the restrictions are ameliorated by family and that they feel exposed and unprotected in western countries.

What the Saudi women want most of all is to be able to drive, so that they don't have to wheedle, badger and bully some man off the couch so they can go out and get a quart of milk and loaf of bread. Other than that, they were quite satisfied with the way things were.

It's always a mistake to judge somebody else's culture by your own without having a lot of the facts. While we hear appalling abuses of their system like rape victims being stoned to death for complaining about being raped, they see the appalling statistics of rape and general violence toward women here with the same alarm and count themselves lucky to be veiled and kept within the family's bosom.

"While we hear appalling abuses of their system like rape victims being stoned to death for complaining about being raped,"

This sort of treatment seems to be tolerated if not encouraged by the government and clergy of those countries. I was just wondering why we as progressives, seem to shy away from these facts. It's almost as if it were taboo to talk about it.
We should be mortified by the treatment of those women, and yet we sigh and turn our heads.

about our own mistreatment. The press likes to shy away from that, too. "Boys will be boys" you know.

What happens here is no way NEAR as bad as there, and
if you don't mind me saying so, "there is so much to do here"
is not an excuse to ignore what is happening there. Women are just as valuable there, as they are here. It outrages me.