SAUDI WOMEN OBTAIN IDENTITY CARDS

The Saudi government understood that an American non-governmental counter-assault on the Kingdom could very well take the form of prying about the rights of Saudi women. That would be a natural for those in the United States who wanted to exercise imperial control over the affairs of yet another country, as open editorial pages filled fast with articles on the status of women in Saudi Arabia.

To meet the possibility of a gender counter-attack (so to speak) on the Kingdom, Saudi authorities announced in early December 2001 that they would provide identity cards to women-applicants.