Sweden should not back down from feminist foreign policy against Saudis

I have to admit that I was a little late in catching up with the tension between Sweden and Saudi Arabia. For latecomers like me, let me summarize the situation.

First let me start by recalling that the Swedish government announced a ?feminist? foreign policy when it took office in September.

Since then, Stockholm?s relations with Riyadh have nosedived after the Swedish coalition government?s leftist Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem told parliament in a February speech that the oil-rich state was a ?dictatorship? that violated women?s rights and whipped bloggers. Wallström particularly denounced the Saudi courts for ordering Raif Badawi to be jailed for 10 years and to receive 1,000 lashes for setting up a website that championed secularism and free speech. These were ?medieval methods,? she said, and a ?cruel attempt to silence modern forms of expression.? ?Who can argue with that?? asked Nick Cohen in his article on the issue in The Spectator magazine. Indeed.

However, in response Saudi Arabia withdrew its ambassador to Stockholm and stopped issuing visas to Swedish businessmen.

?Saudi Arabia has successfully turned criticism of its brutal version of Islam into an attack on all Muslims, regardless of whether they are Wahhabis or not,? wrote Cohen in his article.

The row grow even bigger when Sweden ended a military deal with Saudi Arabia after Wallström was prevented from making a speech at an Arab League meeting in Cairo. Wallström had been invited as an honorary guest to the Arab ministers? meeting, in praise of her government?s decision to recognize Palestine in October. Her cancelled opening speech - published by the Swedish Foreign Ministry - mentioned neither Saudi Arabia nor Wallström?s feminist foreign policy...