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Iran and Saudi Arabia: Double Standards ?
I just posted in your other thread about Iran's regime and how they're dealing with the headscarf issue. Although you're correct about the double standard, as Saudi Arabia is even stricter, yet they still have good relations with the West and are considered an ally of the U.S.
One difference is that Iran has always been on many Americans' crap list since 1979, when they occupied the US embassy and held Americans hostage. They had mobs outside the compound, burning the American flag, chanting "Death to America" - all being broadcast to hundreds of millions of angry Americans who wanted to turn Iran into a parking lot. The Saudis seemed a bit more amenable towards good relations with America, probably because they could see that they were essentially defenseless against their more powerful neighbors to their north.
Is Islam to blame? I don't know. One thing I have observed is that a lot of the conflicts, violence, and enmity is often Muslims fighting other Muslims. Is it the fault of the belief if people who share the same beliefs fight each other? I don't think it's the belief, but the people who do the violence or carry out acts of tyranny and oppression.
Not a double standard....a different standard.
Iran was once westernized with much more
liberal (libertarian) dress & conduct, unlike
the Saudis. So there are many Iranians who
bristle at impositions by conservative Islam.
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
Think of it this way, as Islam spread throughout the world, it infected local areas differently based on pre-existing cultural norms. Islam normally eradicates virtually any cultural opposition but it may also inadvertently succeed in driving various behaviors underground. Here I am thinking of the Bacha bazi phenomena in Afghanistan. Not allowed under Islamic law, but common, regardless.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
No double standard. Saudi Arabia sells us their oil and they like us. Iran probably still sells us their oil but they do not like us. Therefore Iran bad, Saudi Arabia good.
... he asks (once again) hopefully.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
Yup, that is valid too. But now you have me wondering. Perhaps the OP was talking about a different sort of double standard.
I wondered too....US attitudes towards forcing
women's dress in both countries?
The headscarf, or hijab, is not mandatory in Saudi Arabia, and more Saudi women publicly show their hair now than in past years. Significant social (rather than legal) pressure exists on many women to wear it, however.
But to answer the general question about double standards, the US and its allies have intervened in Iran and antagonized it to the point of causing animosity since around the mid-20th century, whereas they have had a largely positive relationship with Saudi Arabia by supporting the House of Saud and benefiting from the country's oil.
Most American foreign policy is primarily not about freedoms or human rights; it really is mainly just about geopolitical and economic interests.
ronki23
Well-Known Member
If you're going to pick and choose from a religion then why bother following it at all.
? The women are obviously not Muslim or they're Muslim but don't want to cover their head: why bother following Islam if you don't do it fully ?
ronki23
Well-Known Member
It was mandatory until Prince Mohamed bin Salman took over
mikkel_the_dane
My own religion
I do think that it is not that simple as if there is only one true version of a religion.
Religions have scripture written in poetic
languages long long ago by ignorant
goatherds. Precision & rigor weren't used.
So there is much room for interpretation, eg,
abortion, women's dress, men's beards,
divorce, slavery, honor killings, pogroms.
What is "fully" to one reader of the Koran
can be wrong or even apostasy to another.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
So Saudi Arabia has had some reform. When did the protests start in Iran? I think that the reactions against Iran are due to how they treat their own citizens in this regard.
ronki23
Well-Known Member
September 2022
Heyo
Veteran Member
Because Iran has a very different culture to the Arabic countries. The Iranian people were and are much more progressive and oriented to "the West" than Arabia.
Because the Iranian government is not friends with the US, the Saud are.
I don't know enough about Islam to say but Muslims keep telling me that there is no direct rule to wear any headgear, only a request to cloth modestly and that applies to both men and women.