In its latest human rights report, not a great read, the United Kingdom's House of Commons foreign affairs committee wondered if the government attitude to "countries of concern" isn't a wee bit too "low key." Britain's relations with Saudi Arabia, for instance, would benefit from a "bolder" approach, whereby ministers somehow acknowledged, if only for appearances' sake, the contradiction between — I paraphrase — a notional distaste for torture and the regular prostrations required if influential torturers are to shop British for their weapons.
On women's rights, the committee came close to being insistent, asking the Foreign Office to explain what, if anything, it is doing to safeguard women's interests "worldwide." That this barb, at least, hit home became clear last week when ministers welcomed a delegation from the Saudi Shura council, an appointed body, which featured, for the first time, a couple of women. Moved, some believe, by his intensive study of Naomi Wolf and the Jezebel women's website (a feminist blog aimed at women's interests), King Abdullah recently decided to place 30 women, including two of his family's princesses, in the 150-strong Shura, a change his dynasty would like to depict as reformist.
As reported by the U.K.'s Foreign Office, the foreign secretary, William Hague, duly applauded, in the run-up to International Women's Day, the great wisdom of these appointments: "A milestone for reform of women's rights in Saudi Arabia." And therefore, you gathered, for Britain. "We are looking with the Shura council into the means of exchanging experiences and into finding ways to benefit from them," said Andrew Lansley, Leader of the House of Commons (the member of Parliament responsible for arranging government business in the Commons) on a tour of the British Parliament. Might it be in women's interests, for instance, if Theresa May, the U.K.'s Home Secretary were invited to sit, more like a female Shura politician, apart from the men and behind a screen? "There are clear differences in the political regime of both countries," Lansley acknowledged, "but there are also many similarities."