Can Hillary Clinton credibly claim to be a champion of women’s rights?

By Scotty Reid

Political troubles continue to dog former Sec of State, former US Senator and former First Lady Hillary Clinton and all this is before she has announced an official campaign to seek the Democrat’s 2016 nomination for President. Clinton continues to stone wall and be non-cooperative in inquiries into her private email server she maintained as US Secretary of State. Emails related to Clinton’s Libya trip where she oversaw the head-scratching overthrow of its globally recognized government headed by Prime Minister Muammar Gaddafi are not among those she has turned over to congress that is narrowly investigating events that took place in Libya in 2011. In a widely circulated video, the former Secretary of State is seen getting confirmation of the killing of Libya’s prime minister that she called for publicly. Yet, the confirmation text and/or email letting Clinton know that Gaddafi was dead have been presumably scrubbed from her private server.

If conspiracy to murder a head of state and ally in the so-called war on terror is not enough to derail the presidential hopefuls aspirations, perhaps taking money for her private foundation from countries with horrendous human rights violations including widespread violations against women is enough to make Clinton shelve her plans to become CEO of America.

Republican Senator Rand Paul, who has been touring historically black colleges to discuss civil rights and criminal justice reforms, leveled damaging charges of hypocrisy at the self-declared champion of women’s rights.

“Anybody here think it’s a good idea for Hillary Clinton to be accepting money from Saudi Arabia?” Paul asked. “Anybody here think that she ought to send it back to Saudi Arabia?”

The Clinton Foundation has been accused of accepting donations in the tens of millions from countries in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia where women’s rights are pretty much non-existent and women are the frequent victims of heinous crimes.

Senator Paul went on to say that taking money from “a regime that punishes women who are raped” terminates Clinton’s credibility as an advocate for women.

Human Rights Watch says about Saudi Arabia,

HUMAN RIGHTS IN SAUDI ARABIA

Saudis are increasingly and openly discussing government affairs on Twitter and Facebook-a ban on women driving, arbitrary detention of peaceful dissidents and terror suspects, and corruption, among others-but the government in 2011 banned public protests, tightened press laws, and arrested scores of peaceful rights advocates and protesters. Saudi Arabia struggles with a poorly defined and nontransparent justice system based on religion that metes out draconian sentences. Women and minority Shia citizens face systematic discrimination. Immigration and labor restrictions on migrant workers facilitate widespread abuse. Western countries remained largely silent about poor rights conditions in the kingdom.

Like the email controversy, Hillary Clinton has yet to adequately explain how the Clinton Foundation could accept tens of millions of dollars from countries with the worst women rights records.

Related: Graphic execution of Saudi woman in the street