Saudi Arabia is not that bad of a country

IntroductionSaudi Arabia is a middle eastern country which is under theocratic rule. Theocracy is proven to be a bad form of government, secular nations have often shown that they do better. Saudi Arabia has a large amount of human rights violations, it is oppressive towards women and ethnic/religious minorities and etc. Religious FreedomOne thing about Saudi Arabia that constitutes it as a bad country is it's oppresion of religion. People whom aren't Muslim can only publically practice their religion in a private place or inside their own home. [1+2] A country should not prohibit such a basic right to individuals. Saudi Arabia also has a strict and literal interpretation of the Qu'ran and Sharia law. One thing that this prevents is critical thinking, people aren't going to question their religion one bit. Islam is enforced and all it's values. A Jew reading a Torah in public would likely get arrested. A non-muslim in Saudi Arabia must also abide by nearly all Sharia laws or bad things could happen. A person shouldn't be attacked or anything for simply questioning Islam and applying critical thinkingTo further show religious intolerance, textbooks in Saudi Arabia have shown this: [3]"The report's findings contradict claims made repeatedly by senior Saudi government spokesmen that they have thoroughly revised their educational materials. Over a year ago, Saudi embassy spokesman Adel al-Jubeir stated: "We have reviewed our educational curriculums. We have removed materials that are inciteful or intolerant towards people of other faiths." The new Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal, while on a nation-wide speaking tour earlier this year, asserted: "We eliminated what might be perceived as intolerance from old textbooks that were in our system." Just last week, on May 18, the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud Al-Faisal stated that "…the whole system of education is being transformed from top to bottom. Textbooks are only one of the steps that have been taken by Saudi Arabia." However, the report shows that these textbooks: Condemn and denigrate the majority of Sunni Muslims who do not follow the Wahhabi understanding of Islam, and call them deviants and descendants of polytheists. Condemn and denigrate Shiite and Sufi Muslims' beliefs and practices as heretical and call them "polytheists;" Command Muslims to "hate" Christians, Jews, "polytheists" and other "unbelievers," including non-Wahhabi Muslims, though, incongruously, not to treat them "unjustly"; Teach the infamous forgeries, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, as historical fact; Teach other conspiracy theories accusing Freemasons, Lions Clubs and Rotary Clubs of plotting to undermine Muslims; Teach that "Jews and the Christians are enemies of the [Muslim] believers" and that "the clash" between the two realms is perpetual; Instruct students not to "greet," "befriend," "imitate," "show loyalty to," "be courteous to," or "respect" non-believers; Assert that the spread of Islam through jihad is a "religious duty;" Instruct that "fighting between Muslims and Jews" will continue until Judgment Day, and that the Muslims are promised victory over the Jews in the end; Include a map of the Middle East that labels Israel within its pre-1967 borders as "Palestine: occupied 1948." sourceshttp://www.expatarrivals.com...http://www.uscirf.gov...;https://freedomhouse.org...TortureSaudi Arabia is known to torture people much like in medieval Europe. For example, an Australian in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 500 lashes for "blasphemy" [1] This isn't uncommon either, A saudi blogger known as 'Raif Badawi' was sentenced to 1000 lashes for insulting Islam. For this reason, his wife and Children have even fled to Canada. [2] He was also sentenced to 10 years in jail for such a minor thing. Simply making a joke about Islam could have dire consequences, a good country shouldn't allow for such torture against this little of a thing. Recieving so many lashes for something that small is immoral, the UN recgonises this as a human right violation.sourceshttp://www.israelnationalnews.com...http://www.theguardian.com...https://treaties.un.org... Women's rightsWomen in Saudi Arabia suffer from discrimination and unequal rights to men. A good country should dictate equal rights to both genders. Women can not travel alone in Saudi Arabia, in fact some women have even escaped Saudi Arabia due to their horrible treatment. Women and men are also mostly forbidden to interact with each other publicly as they are often segregated. Women are also often treated poorly compared to men, as 53% of Saudi men report that they find domestic violence acceptable. 30% of men have even reported as abusing their wife or such. Women also must literally hide themselves in clothing. sourceshttp://listverse.com...http://www.wnd.com...http://www.ijreview.com...I don't have much time to write my other arguments so I will end it here