Evertilova sees women's tennis being exploited by Saudi Arabia
Analyzing the article
Washington Post
Our Analysis: 1 Fallacy
Lately, we seem to be so inseparable that you might as well call us Evertilova.
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WTA Tour officials, without adequate consultation with the players who are the very foundation of the sport, are on the verge of agreeing to stage the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia. ...we oppose the awarding of the [WTA} tour's crown jewel tournament to Riyadh.
The WTA's values sit in stark contrast to those of the proposed host. Not only is this a country where women are not seen as equal, it is a country where the current landscape includes a male guardianship law that essentially makes women the property of men.
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Under Saudi law, a woman must have a male guardian to marry, and when she does, the guardianship passes to her husband. Wives are required to "obey" their husbands in such matters as whether to travel together, where to live, and the frequency of sexual relations. The unequal status of women remains deeply embedded in Saudi law, and women who actively protest this injustice risk indefinite imprisonment -- for they need a male guardian's permission to leave prison even after they have served their sentences.
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Progress on women's and human rights has been promised by the kingdom before, and 1 token measures have been adopted -- yet the principle of male guardianship was made even stronger when it was codified into law in 2022.
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The WTA should revisit the values upon which it was established.
We believe that those values cannot even be expressed, much less achieved, in Saudi Arabia.
Taking a tournament there would represent a significant step backward, to the detriment not just of women's sport, but women.
- Nut-picking • By focusing on the ongoing lack of rights for women in Saudi Arabia while making only a passing mention of "token reforms", the authors are selectively presenting information to support their position. There have been some notable reforms in recent years, such as allowing women to drive, curtailing the power of the religious police, opening up certain sectors of the economy to women, allowing women over 21 to apply for passports and travel without permission from a guardian, and appointing women to high-level government positions. By not mentioning these reforms, the authors present an incomplete picture of the progress, however gradual, on women's rights in Saudi Arabia. This could be viewed as a form of "nut-picking" - emphasizing the most negative or extreme examples that support one's argument while ignoring those that may weigh against it. While their text makes some well-argued points, it likely should have acknowledged recent reforms in Saudi Arabia. Doing so would have presented a more balanced representation and perhaps strengthened the authors' calls for further action by showing even recent progress to be insufficient. By omitting the reforms altogether, the text leaves itself somewhat vulnerable to accusations of biased portrayals rather than dealing with those changes in making its case.
References
- Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (2024, Jan 24). We did not help build women's tennis for it to be exploited by Saudi Arabia.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/01/24/evert-navratilova-wta-saudi-arabia/
Disclaimer
Note that there being one or more apparent fallacies in the arguments presented in this article does not mean that every argument the arguer made was fallacious, nor does it mean there are not other arguments in existence for the same or similar position that are logically valid. Also note that checking for fallacies is not the same as verification of the premises the arguer starts from, such as facts that the arguer asserts or principles that the arguer assumes as the foundation for constructing arguments. For more about this, see our 'What is Fallacy Checking?'
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