There is a video trending on YouTube at the moment that has been recorded by a man, staring women and aimed at the authorities.

Nothing new here, the ‘western world’ has been creating these types of videos for some years.  However, this video has been created in Saudi Arabia where Sharia Law exists.

The debate on YouTube that has followed appears to be one on values and who’s values are more important and where they originated. As you can see from the short excerpt below, women’s equal rights divide opinions and nationalities.  Is the location of a value more significant than the value itself? Where would this leave women’s equal rights if the location of those values is more important than the right itself?

Equal Rights for Women

Interesting that it is the location of the values that is in question here and not the value itself.

Women’s Equal Rights

The western world likes to hold itself as the leader of good values and way of living.  This is certainly true when you witness the current migration issues (excluding those fleeing war and trying to protect their families).  However, are we as righteous as we believe? It was not so long ago that wife selling in England was a way of ending an unsatisfactory marriage apparently by agreement. This practice is thought to have begun in the late 17th century when divorce was a practical impossibility for all but the very wealthy. This practice involved parading a wife, with a halter around her neck, arm, or waist, and the husband would publicly auction her to the highest bidder. By the 19th century, it became illegal – Not that long ago.

Cultural change takes time and many generations.  In the UK women have been fighting for equality since the Industrial revolutions which took place 1840 and 1870. Women are still fighting for equal pay even though we have the Equal Pay Act, created 46 years ago. Women are still earning less than men.

Does this mean we shouldn’t support those fighting for women’s equal rights? No of course not? The video released in Saudi Arabia (shown above with a short translation below) is a wonderful step.  It demonstrates that the struggle for equality is far from over.  The Russian pop group, Pussy Riot, were arrested for their video and in 2015 a member of the group Nadya Tolokonnikova was arrested for poor conditions in a women’s prison over slave-like conditions.

If you have the time, please watch the video and then read the comments. It’s so sad, people from both sexes are still arguing over equality and what that means. Is equality a Human Right, is it a Western Ideal?