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May 5th, 2006

Pulse of the Saudi Blogoshpere

Ahmed Al-Omran · 09:16 · Middle East & North Africa

Let's start our roundup for this week with the coverage of international media on Saudi Arabia, which has drawn the attention of many bloggers. Mansur posts a comment on a story from the BBC website. He says:

Now what kind of Deputy Minister would share this kind of information with a BBC dimplotic correspondent? He claims that the “best of years of my life” were when he “shared a house with two lesbians.” If this Deputy Minister were named, he would be ashamed!

Meanwhile, Saudi Future posts about a story she read from the LA Times on Shiites: “Thank you America media, you proved you are smart, know a lot about the Saudi areas, and there people. And most of all, you don't spread propaganda!” she wrote. She also has another post on the ignorance of American media when it comes to Saudi issues.

Women's rights remain a big concern to Saudi bloggers, and this time Ruba has an angry post on why women can't vote. “The leaders of Islam nowadays are doing nothing but ruining the image of Islam and misusing the adelh, (sunnah and Quran). Anyway I still don’t get why we cant vote? I want rational excuses.” She thinks we should not allow people to take Islam and change it to the way they want it and what suits them. “That's wrong,” she added.
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April 28th, 2006

Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere

Ahmed Al-Omran · 12:21 · Middle East & North Africa

Football and ice hockey, hijab and fatwas, bloggers meetups, and much much more from the Saudi blogosphere this week. Let's go…

Starting with Swalfy, who did not seem so surprised that Riyadh Gitex, which supposed to be the biggest IT exhibition in Saudi Arabia does not has a website. He went to attend the exhibition, but he could not find a parking space, so he decided to leave. “I decided to leave and come on another year, maybe Gitex 3000, when we don't have to leave our houses to watch the latest technologies,” he said (Arabic).

Saudi Future takes the time to tell us about the different kinds of punishments for students in high school. “Yes people, you will one day get caught, so you must face… the punishment,” she said.

Wearing hijab inappropriately is something that Leeno is not so happy about. She wrote: “I have nothing but admiration for women that are veiled, especially in a non-muslim country where stigmata continue to exist. However the 1/2 hijab syndrome is mind boggling to me.” (more…)

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April 13th, 2006

Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere

Ahmed Al-Omran · 12:15 · Middle East & North Africa

It had been a relatively quiet week in the Saudi blogosphere this week. However, several good posts can be found by bloggers from inside the country, and also by those who live abroad. So, let's get it started…

A new community website for Saudi bloggers has been causing much controversy, and Saudi bloggers, as well as some Arab bloggers, have reacted to a post written by the co-founder of the first Saudi blogging community. Farooha, the other co-founder, wrote: “you cannot regulate the Saudi blogosphere. You cannot “refine” it nor “filter” it or whatever else I read that you wish to do to it.” The Egyptian Sandmonkey also wrote on the same topic:

They know that this is the one medium of free thought and expression left in the arab world, and that scares the shit out of them, because, as they so rightly fear, Freedom of speech, expression and thought is their enemy. They can only prosper in an environment of censorship, rules and restrictions put and approved by them, while us, the evil old guard, will prosper anyway.

Aya, another Saudi blogger, says she is proud not to belong to the new community: “I have a couple of questions here, first: What makes this community official ? As far as I know, there is nothing official about blogging. Bloggers are independent individuals who don’t officially belong to anyone. Isn’t this an oxymoron “Official – Bloggers”?” she wrote.

Moving to another topic, Fedo has noticed a new fad among Saudi female bloggers, which is writing about sex, and called them to stop doing this because “writing about sex is cheap.” After reading some news of a recent sex scandal, hibbalicious seems to be worried. “This is such a bad situation, what does it reflect about what is happening in our societies now?, not just in Kuwait but in many Arab countries, people are becoming more and more sexually promiscuous, and thats not just single people but married people as well,” she wrote. Meanwhile, Ubergirl calls to change the name of Saudi Arabia to Sexist Arabia. She also has an interesting post on demonic possession.

Responding to a post by another blogger, Dodi wrote on women's rights: “Discrimination and racism do exist everywhere in your society and ours!! A woman is my country is very well respected. Go to a travel agent and you go first, a bank or any other office and you will be served first. I went the High Minister of Education and we waited in a room and the employee himself came to us, took our papers helped us with all he could and even offered us BREAKFAST!!!” Now to let's go to Misso's questions: “What happened to the gallant and chivalrous image of a man? What happened to the dream of a “they lived happily ever after”? Is this sensible thinking that comes with the wisdom of age? Or is it the resignation of women who saw and knew better and are just trying to make it work. But then again, I can’t help thinking why try to make it work if it is not working for you?”

Finally, here are three more posts that also worth mentioning: Aya asks: What Saudis are famous for?. Dotsson was getting bored with Saudi blogs, but he found six new bloggers that really changed things around, and last but not least, let's see how a weird coincidence brought two Saudi bloggers to meet.

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April 7th, 2006

Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere

Ahmed Al-Omran · 11:10 · Middle East & North Africa

It's another eventful week in the Saudi blogosphere, so let's get started with our weekly roundup…

Providing a proper work environment for Saudi women was one of the major goals of the new labor law that was published few months ago, but the question is: how the employers are going to put this goal in practice? Not very well so far. Dodi has recently went to a job interview, only to find out that she had to give up her hijab if she wanted that job. She wrote: “for the first time in my life I felt humiliated in a way that I never experienced before. For the first time I am rejected because of my religion and for the first time I felt exactly what do woman in France and Turkey and other places go through just because they are Muslims!!”

On the recent news of a Saudi-Pakistani cooperation to develop a nuclear program, Aya says there is nothing solid about these claims, and she believes that Saudis are far more concerned with another bomb, aka the lingerie bomb!

Ubergirl78 has recently read A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, and she thinks it is a great book. She does not care about all the controversy around it. “The man wrote a very good book,” she wrote, “Who cares that he lied a little bit!? The only difference between James Frey and Dave Pelzer is that unfortunately for James, everything he mentions in his book is on record somewhere else. That's why he got found out.”

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March 30th, 2006

Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere

Ahmed Al-Omran · 08:49 · Middle East & North Africa

Mohsen Al-Awaji was freed after 11 days of detention, and Aya thinks this action by the government is a tangible lesson for Saudis: “Don’t you dare to criticize the government because we are capable, at any time, of stripping you from your freedom and dignity.” Riyadhwai seemed happy about the release of Al-Awaji, but he disagreed with some opinions Al-Awaji spoke of during a talk show on a Kuwaiti TV channel before his detention. The topic discussed was women's driving, and Al-Awaji has an opposing position on this matter. Riyadhawi thinks Al-Awaji has insulted the Saudi society (Arabic) when he described Saudi youth as “sexually hysteric,” and that he made a huge mistake by such generalization.

Prometheus posts (Arabic) on the story of Abdul-Rahman, the Afghani man who converted to Christianity, and he thinks no one is hurting Islam than Muslims themselves. “Islam has nothing to do with what going on here. Koran is very clear on that there is ‘no compulsion in religion,' and to believe or not is a matter of personal freedom,” he wrote. Another topic of interest to him was the new statistics which recently reported that Al Arabiya news channel has surpassed their competitors Al Jazeera in the percentage of viewership in Saudi Arabia. “There is a difference between covering news professionally and neutrally, which is what Al Arabiya does, and “making” the news and shaping them to promote a certain political or partisan ideology. And this exactly what Al Jazeera does,” he added (Arabic).

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March 23rd, 2006

Fouad Al-Farhan: We Have to Move On

Ahmed Al-Omran · 10:07 · Middle East & North Africa

If you have been following Global Voices for more than six months, then you probably have read the name of Fouad Al-Farhan in this space several times before this one. Actually, one of my posts here back in October 2005 featured a post by Al-Farhan, when he left a meeting with Karen Hughes, undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs at the US Department of State during a visit to Saudi Arabia. So, who is Fouad Al-Farhan?

Fouad Al-Farhan is one of the pioneer Saudi bloggers. He was born in 1975 in Taif, west of Saudi Arabia, and received his higher education in the United States. He graduated from Eastern Washington University with a degree in marketing, then joined Ball State University for a masters degree in computer sciences. “Although Bush and his gang have been trying to remove all my good memories from my life in America, but I still think that I have lived the best years of my life there, moving between different states such as Oklahoma, Texas, Washington, and Indiana,” he told me during an interview via email.

Al-Farhan, who has a great interest in the American and Saudi political affairs, and who has been following the active liberal and Islamic movements in the Arab World, says that he has been reading blogs and observing their effect on the American life since the beginning of the blogging revolution. However, it took him about four months to decide to start his own blog. “I was carefully studying what I want to offer. I wanted to be special, and to be committed to this new thing in my life as much as possible,” he says after about nine months since he started blogging.

Bloggers can be so different from each other, but most of them have one thing in common: they want to express themselves. Al-Farhan is no exception. “I want to express my freedom, ideas, and hopes, publicly and in a way that is unusual in the Saudi society. I think blogging is the best tool to do that now,” he says. Other reasons which encouraged him to start his blog are the limitations on freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia. “The television stations are completely owned by the government. The newspapers are highly censored, and some of their chief editors have been in their positions for more than 30 years. This is why you find our media boring and primitive,” he added. Al-Farhan thinks that blogging can help young Saudis to make the government hear their voice, and to let the world know that they share the same human values, ambitions, and interests with them.

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March 15th, 2006

Saudi Bloggers React to the Arrest of a Writer

Ahmed Al-Omran · 02:07 · Middle East & North Africa

According to several Saudi blogs and forums, the Saudi authorities have arrested the Islamic intellectual Dr. Mohsen Al-Awaji after he published an article on the web, in which he criticized Ghazi Al-Gosaibi, the minister of labor. In his article, Al-Awaji accused Al-Gosaibi of leading a group that tries to change the identity of the Saudi society. Al-Awaji also attacked Al-Gosaibi for writing the preface of the controversial novel Banat Al-Riyadh.

The government did not release any statement regarding this arrest, but one of the notable things that followed the arrest was the blocking of some websites that published the article. The recently blocked websites include Al-Wasatia forums, owned by Al-Awaji himself, Al-Wifaq electronic newspaper, and the infamous Al-Sahat forums.

The local press did not report this story at all, but some Saudi bloggers have written about it. Fouad Al-Farhan says he was really disturbed (Arabic) when he heard the news of arresting Al-Awaji, as well as the blocking of the websites. “I have disagreed with Dr. Mohsen in several meetings and in this blog, but I don't agree on arresting any human being because of his opinions,” he said. Al-Farhan thinks Al-Gosaibi is a bad minister because he has not found any practical solutions for the unemployment crisis, add that what Dr. Mohsen said in his article is not just his opinion, but also the opinion of many people inside the government and the society. “So, do we all deserve to be arrested?” he asked.

On the other hand, Riyadhawi thinks that Al-Gosaibi is a devoted minister (Arabic). “There is a difference between freedom of expression and personal attack. Apparently Dr. Al-Awaji did not see this difference, and committed the latter under the name of the former, but he did not expect that it would develop into this,” he wrote.

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March 11th, 2006

Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere

Ahmed Al-Omran · 13:32 · Middle East & North Africa

So, what's the most interesting stuff Saudi bloggers have been talking about in the past seven days? Let's take our weekly tour in the Saudi blogosphere to find out.

Aya posts on her experience with the current state of the Saudi blogosphere, saying she is very encouraged by finding many interesting and well written Saudi blogs. “Although things don’t always come easy for Saudi bloggers, the will of Saudi bloggers is flourishing and thriving. The internet, after all, has no ceiling & one can always find ways around censorship.” she added.

Mo5 o 7ekma has a strong post on women's driving (Arabic):

Yes, I'd like to get my own car, and I'd like to drive it myself. Neither you, nor anybody else on this earth has the right to ban me from something that my religion did not ban me from. There is not even rational justifications for this ban. I say, we demand women's driving because it is our right, and that's enough.

However, she says that she does not like it when non-Saudis who do not live in Saudi Arabia talk about this topic, trying to analyze, criticize, and condemn, because their analysis usually lacks perspective and accuracy, “and even if they had those, it is still a domestic affair,” she added.

On the same topic, Aya also wrote:

Driving a golf cart in an already segregated event might seem to some as a trivial issue, however, it is certainly not for the self-appointed anti-anything related to women’ progress camp. Their logic is simple: If women drive golf carts today, they will want to drive real cars tomorrow, certainly, a major sin that should be uprooted as early as possible.

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March 2nd, 2006

Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere

Ahmed Al-Omran · 16:23 · Middle East & North Africa

Different topics were under the spotlight in the Saudi blogosphere during the past week; including terrorist attacks, crash of the stock market, and nationalism. So, let's get started with our roundup for this week…

Writing about the latest terrorist attack on oil refineries in Abqaiq, east of the country, Abu-Joori says he wishes that this failed attack would be the last alarm to some Saudis who kept on making apologies for the terrorists (Arabic). “We were the ones who exported this destructive ideologies, and now they are coming back to us in the ugliest form,” he added. Meanwhile, Maha was worried because the two terrorists killed were too young. “What made them do this? I was expecting older people, but now that I know they are young and my age, I started to feel sorry for them. They just wasted their lives and was it for a good cause?” she asked.

The changes in the Saudi society were the subject of a thoughtful post by Prometheus. He thinks that liberals “have been fighting gallantly for what they believe, repulsing fierce attacks of the self-proclaimed guardians of Islam who are trying hard to tame all others into their deviated teachings,” and that they should come forward and make their voices heard in order to spread the “noble ideals of tolerance, peace and coexistence.”
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February 25th, 2006

Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere

Ahmed Al-Omran · 01:56 · Middle East & North Africa

Many different and interesting topics were discussed in the Saudi blogosphere this week, so let's start our roundup right away.

What is the difference between democracy and American democracy? Hassan thinks he has the answer (Arabic). “In democracy, those who gain more votes should win. In American democracy, those who win should not harm America, and if they won, they have to be hurdled in every possible way. The evidence on this is the American stand from the Hamas government in Palestine and the Iraqi government.”

Farooha had a recent visit to the neighboring island kingdom of Bahrain, and was not very pleased with the behavior of her countrymen there. She wonders, “where the hell we were on the day God handed out civility and manners?” and says that “we probably overslept that morning.”

Aya writes about women's driving, calling it the most polarized issue in Saudi Arabia. She added:

If women ever get their right, there will be a “Saudi Arabia before women driving” and a “Saudi Arabia after women driving.” Things will never ever be the same again. And for this same reason this issue gets more resistance, it is not just about a car and a woman being alone together, no, it is about opening Pandora’s Box.

Green Tea has a short comment on the sentence of an Austrian court to jail the British historian David Erving. He writes (Arabic):

Excuse me, I think I'm getting confused! But isn't this story goes under the so-called ‘freedom of expression' that they keep on telling us about it. Or is it just applicable to our prophet (peace be upon him) and our religion, and not to their proclaimed Holocaust!

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