TOW #14 - Saudi Arabia: Women Arrested For Violating Driving Ban

On November 30th, a Saudi Arabian woman videotaped herself driving a car and posted it on youtube. This demonstration protested the law of Saudi Arabia that it is illegal for a woman to drive. The next day on December 1st, she was arrested by officials. When it comes to women’s rights, Saudi Arabia remains one of the most restrictive countries in the world. Guardianship laws mean that a woman cannot marry, work or travel abroad without the consent of a male relative. This story was covered by Inquisitr an internationally recognized news web site with a strong presence in the USA, and is currently is one of the top 2500 web sites globally and one of the top 1000 web sites in the USA.  This media used biased diction to tell the story of the Saudi women drivers, and make them seem like the victims. It wrote very biasedly for example when they mentioned, “The religious practices of Saudi Arabia are so radical in fact that many...” The use of the words such as radical creates a one-way viewpoint on the topic, and only sheds a light on the media's side of the story. This effectively helps their purpose of showing the bravery of the women activist and their story. Using biased diction, they are also able to help appeal to pathos. It appeals to Pathos because the specific diction creates a rebellious mood, and is followed through when describing that other women have followed in the footsteps of defying the driving ban. The mood affects the reader and immediately could make the reader feel for the women protesters. This is effect in the sense that getting the mass to agree with the protesters, which successfully told the story to make the women drivers look good. It is intended that the article’s effectiveness is t gain awareness so that people will reach out to try and help the women drivers of Saudi Arabia, and maybe can overturn the guardian laws that are established there. I believe that this was an effective use of rhetorics in order to achieve their purpose because it draws in the audience through telling the story of a law against a simple right, and then uses pathos to raise awareness and to help the women of Saudi Arabia.