Wish List: Make Women Matter In Our Foreign Policy

When President Obama named Hillary Clinton secretary of state and Melanne Verveer "ambassador at large for global women's issues," I thought that the oppression of women might start to matter more in U.S. foreign policy.
Clinton was the one, after all, who famously said at a 1995 women's conference in China that "human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights." As for Verveer, the White House said her nomination is "unprecedented and reflects the elevated importance of global women's issues to the president and his entire administration."

So, let's start with Saudi Arabia, where women can't drive, vote, leave the house without a male relative or work without a male relative's permission. The World Economic Forum last year ranked Saudi Arabia 130th out of 130 countries on women's participation in the labor force.

Only men were allowed to participate when municipal elections - the first elections of any kind in 40 years - were held in 2005. Women were told they would be able to vote in 2009. But there's no sign any elections will happen this year; The Guardian reported in February that they've been postponed indefinitely.

Women traveling alone to Saudi Arabia who are not met by a sponsor have "experienced delays" in leaving the airport or changing planes, the State Department says. It also offers this chilling warning: "Women considering relocating to Saudi Arabia should be keenly aware that women and children residing in Saudi Arabia as members of a Saudi household ... are considered household property and require the permission of the Saudi male head of their household to leave the country."

Among other U.S. allies, the news is increasingly bleak. In Pakistan, the government agreed to let the Taliban rule the Swat Valley and impose Sharia, or Islamic law. Human Rights Watch called the move "a grave threat to the rights of women" and others.

Girls' schools have been closed and women are no longer allowed to leave their homes unescorted by male relatives, the group said, and predicted "increased abuses against women and girls" in Taliban-controlled areas.

It cited a recent phone video of a public flogging of a woman in Swat: "The two-minute video showed a veiled, screaming woman face down on the ground as two men hold her arms and feet and a third man whips her repeatedly."

And then there's Afghanistan, where President Karzai recently signed the Shia Personal Status law. Human Rights Watch, having a busy month, said the law "includes provisions that require a woman to ask permission to leave the house except on urgent business, a duty to 'make herself up' or 'dress up' for her husband when demanded, and "a duty not to refuse sex when her husband wants it."

I know the oppression is all tied up with religion. And I know we need these countries -- for oil, help fighting terrorism, strategic reasons, all kinds of reasons. I just hope Clinton, Verveer and Obama can figure out some way to make our values -- and women -- matter.

Update at 3:10 p.m. ET: Karzai now says he'll fix the law, which Obama has called "abhorrent."