Huma Abedin’s mother told then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton not to talk about sensitive issues like the prohibition on women drivers in Saudi Arabia, just before Clinton gave a speech at a Saudi women’s college.
“Do not even mention driving for women!” Saleah Abedin wrote in an email to Clinton. “The last visitor received a torrent of rejoinders from the students who said they have more important challenges to contend with.”
Saleah Abedin lectures on sociology issues at Dar Al Hekma, a women’s college in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where Clinton gave a speech in February of 2010. Her daughter Huma was a long-time aide to Clinton.
That email and others were uncovered by the conservative-leaning Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The watchdog group has been in numerous legal battles with the State Department in the last two years to obtain as many of Clinton’s emails as possible during her tenure.
Other lines advised Clinton to avoid using terms like “democracy/elections/freedom.”
“Don’t sound sympathetic to ‘women’s plight’ or be ‘patronizing’ as other visitors have done and made the students extremely annoyed,” Abedin wrote. “They rightly consider these as in-house issues that they would like to address themselves and not for outsiders, no matter how well intentioned, to come in and tell them.”
A Fox News analysis of Clinton’s speech found no instances using the words “freedom” or “democracy,” and only used the word “elections” in reference to Iraq.
Clinton was more vocal on the issue of Saudi Arabian women drivers in 2011.
“What these women are doing is brave and what they are seeking is right, but the effort belongs to them,” Clinton said in a news conference that year. “I am moved by it and I support them, but I want to underscore the fact that this is not coming from outside of their country. This is the women themselves, seeking to be recognized.”
