With us or against us

While Bush goes on about the little girls in Afghanistan who are now able to go to school, his buttboy in Saudi Arabia doesn't allow women to vote. From the BBC:

The Saudi interior minister has said women will not be allowed to vote in the country's municipal elections starting in February 2005.

In response to a question about women's getting the vote, Prince Nayef bin Sultan said simply: "I don't think that women's participation is possible."

[. . .]

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy, governed according to a highly conservative interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

[. . .]

Women in the kingdom live with highly circumscribed rights. They are, for example, not permitted to travel unaccompanied by male relatives or allowed to drive.

It's amazing how resolute Bush is, yet he can hold his friends to a different standard. Bandar and the rest of the Saudi Royal Family should be under the executioner's blade for what they've done to their people, yet Bandar vacations with Bush in Crawford. I guess Bush figures that a Fundamentalist monarchy would be okay for this country. A Fundamentalist Christian monarchy that is.

Thanks to Kos for the link.