Yes. Because it denies the Saudis moral agency and seeks to excuse their transgressions through context.

It’s also derailing. Because it seeks to ignore the long, coherent, well argued case made by the article and instead to move the debate onto ground that you feel comfortable (indeed virtuous) discussing as a white American male.

It’s not all about you.

Thanks to Lauryn Oates for endorsing the brilliant article by Mona Eltahawy in “Foreign Policy’s first ever Sex Issue.” Oates more than justifies her enthusiasm by citing powerful excerpts from Eltahawy’s text. If like me and most other men, your halting progress towards understanding the wellsprings of feminist grievances; demands for reform and justice are plotted on a slow learning curve, then take the time to click on “The sex Issue” underlined in the first line of Ms. Oates commentary above and then be prepared to savor a rare four page masterpiece devoid of jargon. (Yes, only four pages!) You’re tired eyes will soon be pried open and you will see feminism graphically and holistically for the first time. Mona Eltahawy’s bears traumatic witness to the vile treatment that the peculiar male dominated system of Islamic states, cooperating with religious, social and cultural institutions, inflict on girls and women in Arab countries ranging from the “merely” hateful to the sadistic and homicidal. The atrocities herein illuminated will haunt and energize you forever.

You have only ten minutes until “Dancing With The Stars?” Well stay seated. You still have ample time to read those four pages. But having read them, how are you going to get out of that chair?

We would suggest, as many have, that oppression is about men <i>and</i> women. The fate of women in the Arab world cannot be extracted from the fate of men in the Arab world, and vice versa. El Tahawy’s article conjures an elaborate battle of the sexes where men and women are on opposing teams, rather than understanding that together men and women must fight patriarchal systems in addition to exploitative practices of capitalism, authoritarianism, colonialism, liberalism, religion, and/or secularism.

Translation: You were being too honest.