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Sweden’s feminist foreign minister has dared to tell the truth about Saudi Arabia. What happens now concerns us all

Margot Wallström’s principled stand deserves wide support. Betrayal seems more likely

28 March 2015

9:00 AM

28 March 2015

9:00 AM

If the cries of ‘Je suis Charlie’ were sincere, the western world would be convulsed with worry and anger about the Wallström affair. It has all the ingredients for a clash-of-civilisations confrontation.

A few weeks ago Margot Wallström, the Swedish foreign minister, denounced the subjugation of women in Saudi Arabia. As the theocratic kingdom prevents women from travelling, conducting official business or marrying without the permission of male guardians, and as girls can be forced into child marriages where they are effectively raped by old men, she was telling no more than the truth.

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