On Tuesday the king of Saudi Arabia decreed that women can now drive. A New York Times reader quickly equated the nation’s former ban on women drivers to America’s restrictions on abortion: 

One NYT reader's reaction to Saudi Arabia ending a widely criticized policy and agreeing to let women drive https://t.co/CEXKeWpLVy pic.twitter.com/ul6dmD9kX4

— The New York Times (@nytimes) September 27, 2017

Just one comment, right? The problem is that Arielle Clark expresses a delusion all too common in America: that American women are horribly oppressed. 

The Handmaid’s Delusion

It’s this delusion that leads the actors in Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale to compare modern America with their dystopian story. Based on a novel in which a fundamentalist form of “Christianity” forces women into sex slavery, The Handmaid’s Tale was produced around the time of President Trump’s election.

Suddenly, the show was “much closer to home than we could have ever anticipated,” lead actress and producer Elizabeth Moss said. Co-star Samira Wiley added its world is “dangerously close to the climate that we were starting to live in.” 

It’s this delusion that leads women across the nation to dress as the “handmaids” of the novel and show, protesting pro-life laws.

It’s this delusion that made leaders of March’s “Day Without a Woman” strike declare that lack of access to free abortion for all women is violence akin to forced sterilization. 

Perspective From Saudi Women

People like Moss, Wiley and “Day Without a Woman” strikers should consider Saudi women’s reaction to their king’s recent decree — their sheer thankfulness at the freedom to legally drive a car.

In an op-ed for Teen Vogue, Saudi native Jasmine Bager celebrates the “freedom of movement” her home country just granted women. In Saudi Arabia, women used to need a male family member to take them places, she continues. Or, they paid for pricey taxi services in order to get to work. Women who drove in violation of the law were jailed. No more.

Another New York Times reader, “Lisa P.,” posted in the comments section of the same report Clark responded to. “I am 16 years old and I have been living in Saudi for 11 years,” she writes.

I go to boarding school in the United States and I must tell you, when I heard this news, I started freaking out with pure joy. Back in Saudi … all women had to DEPEND on a man to take them outside their homes. This is not only a monumental moment for Saudi, it’s also a monumental moment for women.

We Can Do It — Seriously, We Can

Another fact about Saudi Arabia? Girls were only allowed to participate in public school sports as of this year. Compare that to the multiple opportunities for American women and girls to excel not only in school, but in professional and Olympic sports.

And remember that in Saudi Arabia, the law gives men legal guardianship over their adult female relatives. In Saudi law, women are still children no matter how old they are.

Not in the U.S. Here, women can do anything. They can become an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps. A top military general. A main party presidential nominee. Leader of a winning presidential campaign. Astronaut. CEO. And … you get it. 

Some other things American women can do? Have an abortion in all 50 states. Purchase birth control for as low $15 a month, as young as 12 years old, in 16 states. Buy cheap condoms at grocery stores in all 50 states. Obtain insurance coverage for contraception in 28 states or around the nation through Obamacare. 

Judging by the throngs of “handmaids” wandering around state capitols — and comments like Clark’s — you wouldn’t know that. You’d think American women were forced not only to carry their babies to term (and honestly, would that be so bad?) but to remain pregnant for the duration of their childbearing years.

Our Deceived Feminists

The modern feminist movement deceives many American women. It tricks them into thinking America oppresses them. That it cripples them with rank injustice. That they are victims with nothing to be thankful for. Worst of all, it’s taught them that the free, unrestricted killing of millions of innocent children (half of them girls!) is the pinnacle of women’s rights.

Modern feminism has made American women so cynical that something as basic as the right to drive in Saudi Arabia cannot be celebrated without acrobatic naval gazing.

It’s made them so cynical that something as basic as the right to drive in Saudi Arabia cannot be celebrated without acrobatic naval gazing, complaints about laws that protect helpless babies and whines about our (often boorish) president.

And in case feminists have forgotten, our president will enjoy the Oval Office eight years at best. He can be voted out in four. Unlike in Saudi Arabia, where the controlling monarch may change his mind about women’s rights at any time. Where is their gratitude for our democratic system, a blessing Saudi women would give everything to have?

To whine that America oppresses women because our nation restricts abortion instead of celebrating the real liberation of women in truly oppressive countries is just embarrassing. It proves how ungrateful, out of touch and self-obsessed we are.