For a cross-section of the lives of upper middle-class women in Saudi Arabia, you can’t find much better than Rajaa Alsanea’s Girls of Riyadh. Nor will you find a better exposition of the terrain filled with land mines and quicksand that constitutes Saudi social life, a terrain difficult to negotiate as a woman or a man.
This story, cleverly framed through the device of weekly additions to Internet social group newsletters, tells the story of four Saudi students in the women’s section of the University of Riyadh: Sadeem, Qamrah, Lamees and Mashael. In many ways, these girls are living trivial lives, concerned about clothing, make up, hair styles, but most of all, the quest for love. They are among the pampered class, certainly, and perhaps not very sympathetic these days, overloaded with the antics of celebutantes as they are. But they are a very real representation for a very real segment of Saudi society, and not a small one.
Hopes and expectations are raised, then dashed as they run headlong into the reality of Saudi Arabia’s conservative culture. Regional differences, differences in the assumed ‘nobility’ of certain tribal backgrounds, religious differences, all play parts in complicating life. A woman with an American mother will face obstacles in getting married. Having sex with one’s legal husband—signing the marriage contract makes the marriage legal—but before the marriage celebration, leads to one character’s being divorced because her husband thinks her a slut.
Life for these girls is incredibly complicated, in part because they are so restricted in what they can do. The author, Rajaa Alsanea, has said in interviews that the problems depicted in the book would largely disappear if women were given the freedom to work. With the exception of the royal princesses, who just won’t be allowed that luxury, she’s right.
When the book was published, it was at first banned in Saudi Arabia. The book was taken to court to determine whether it ‘defamed’ Saudi Arabia and its cultural values. Many found it to be ‘non-representative’; others, that it promoted sinful behavior. In the end, it merely portrays young women, with perhaps too much time on their hands (not a rarity in the Kingdom), who are looking for happiness.
Some reviews have labeled the book a ‘sex novel’. Hardly.
There is allusion to sex, both hetero- and homosexual, but there’s not a steamy scene to be found. If you found Jane Austen novels left you panting, then maybe you’ll find something here. Otherwise, you won’t.
The English translation of the book provides useful footnotes explaining various terms and aspects of Saudi life. It also includes a forward to the translation (done in part by Alsanea) which points to the deficits in the translation, for instance, the lack of regional dialects, itself a point of contention within Saudi society.
The book won’t tell you everything you ever wanted to know about young women in Saudi Arabia, or even those resident in Riyadh. It will, however, reward the reader with good insight into the problems Saudi women and men confront on a daily basis as they try to find a middle way between strictly conservative tradition and other values as simple as romantic love.
If you’ve an interest in Saudi culture and the way it is changing, this is a good place to start. For those with no familiarity with the culture, it will seem unredeemably harsh. For those with familiarity, it will seem sad. Definitely worth reading.
In a win that beat the odds, Iraq’s national team defeated the highly favored Saudi team in the Asia Cup (football/soccer) final.
Iraq upset all odds to win first Asian Cup
JAKARTA (Reuters) – Iraq beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 on Sunday to win their first Asian Cup and provide a fairytale ending to the continental football championship.
The Saudis had been bidding to become the first four-times winners of the event but Iraq, riding a wave of global sentiment, upset the hot-favourites for a rare slice of sporting glory.
Here’s a peculiar story from Arab News, re-reporting a story from the Arabic daily Al-Watan.
What’s peculiar is that there’s nothing about the woman being detained or punished for her role in the matter as well as the ‘let off with a warning’ consequence for the man involved.
The Saudi religious police have sought legal action against women deemed to have acted immorally in the past (See the story of the ‘Qatif Girl’, for example.). Blackmail is, I am sure, a criminal offense in the KSA, not to mention an example of moral turpitude. So why no prosecution? Why wasn’t the man turned over to the police?
I’m willing to believe that the events happened as portrayed. But if they did, they’ve raised questions about the transparency and uniformity of behavior by the religious police.
Virtue Commission Foils Blackmail Attempt
DAMMAM, 29 July 2007 — The Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice announced yesterday that it has recently foiled a young Saudi man’s attempt to blackmail a married woman for sex by threatening to reveal compromising photographs from her life before she was married, the daily Al-Watan reported yesterday.
Omar Al-Dowaish, the commission’s chief in Dammam, said the woman confessed to having “some wrong things†and he claimed that she sought help from the commission to lead a moral and chaste life.
The woman told the commission members that she tried her best to dissuade the man from his evil plans. She even offered to pay him a large sum to forget the past and leave her to live as a good wife. But the man was adamant and threatened to publicize the compromising photos on the Internet unless she obeyed his wishes.
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Everyone knows that Saudi Arabia gets pretty hot in the summer. Most don’t know—and apparently that includes some Saudi employers—that there are labor regulations that require outdoor workers to be given breaks from that heat. Employers are required to let their workers retreat from the heat when temperatures go above 45°C (113°F). In most parts of Saudi Arabia, that means there are going to be extended periods during the summer when workers are permitted to get out of the sun for their health’s sake. This Arabic daily Okaz story, translated by Saudi Gazette, notes that the Saudi human rights group has received a complaint from the Eastern Province concerning violation of this rule.
Hot Weather Forces Workers to go on Strike
Hyia Al-Dousari — Okaz
MORE than 200 construction workers of Asian origin stopped work Thursday because of the harsh climatic conditions.
The workers employed by a construction company in Jubail Industrial City urged the management to change their duty timings. But the company officials visited workers’ residential quarter and allegedly threatened to terminate their services if they did not return to work by Saturday. The workers admitted regular salary payment, but they claimed that their request to compensate them for working under the hot sun went unheeded.
The Ministry of Labor has issued a circular banning construction work in open areas during noon time in July and August.
The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) has called upon the organizations concerned and government agencies to cut the working hours of field workers during summer, especially of those who work under the scorching sun for long hours.
Temperature in the Eastern Province is ranging between 46 and 48 degrees Centrigrade.
Good piece from Associated Press’ Donna Abu-Nasr on a young Saudi jihadist who has seen the light. The piece reports on Saudi governmental efforts to get these young jihadists to understand that the so-called religious legitimization of their cause is false and is, in itself, anti-Islamic.
The piece is worth reading in its entirety.
Saudi turns his back on jihad
Donna Abu-NasrRIYADH, Saudi Arabia – The last time Ahmed al-Shayea was in the news, he was in the hospital at the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad, being treated for severe burns from the truck bomb he had driven into the Iraqi capital on Christmas Day, 2004.
Today, he says, he has changed his mind about waging jihad, or holy war, and wants other young Muslims to know it. He wants them to see his disfigured face and fingerless hands, to hear how he was tricked into driving the truck on a fatal mission, to believe his contrition over having put his family through the agony of believing he was dead.
At 22, the new Ahmed Al-Shayea is the product of a concerted Saudi government effort to counter the ideology that nurtured the 9/11 hijackers and that has lured Saudis in droves to the Iraq insurgency. The deprogramming, similar to efforts carried out in Egypt and Yemen, is built on reason, enticements and lengthy talks with psychiatrists, Muslim clerics and sociologists.
…Al-Shayea says his change of heart began when he was visited by a cleric at al-Ha’ir Prison in Riyadh following his repatriation from Iraq.
He says he put two questions to the cleric: Was the jihad for which he traveled to Iraq religiously sanctioned? And were the edicts inciting such action correct in saying the militants should not inform their parents or government of their intentions?
No and no, came the reply.
“I realized that all along I was wrong,” al-Shayea told The Associated Press in a two-hour interview at a Riyadh hotel before returning to an Interior Ministry compound that serves as a sort of halfway house for ex-jihadists rejoining Saudi society.
“There is no jihad. We are just instruments of death,” he said.
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US newspapers are running stories today about plans by the US government to sell advanced weapons to the GCC States (including Saudi Arabia) and Israel. The stories note that the Kingdom has requested ‘Joint Direct Attack Munitions’—JDAMs—the formal designation of what are popularly called ‘smart bombs’. The articles do not discuss exactly which munitions the other Gulf States are to receive. For Israel, again there’s no citation of specific weapons systems. Instead, Israel is to receive $30 billion in new aid—strictly military—as Israel has reached a point of economic development that it no longer qualifies for developmental aid.
All the reports focus on the fact that the assistance is predicated on perceived threats from Iran to the entire Gulf region.
In order to mollify Israel’s concerns about the KSA’s possession of ‘smart bombs’, the US is expected to put conditions on where they may be deployed, i.e., not at air bases nearest Israel. The article in The New York Times says that the Israelis are not afraid of an attack by the Saudi government, but are concerned about the potential acts of a rogue pilot or what might happen if the Saudi government were replaced by a radical group.
The New York Times: U.S. Set to Offer Huge Arms Deal to Saudi Arabia
The Washington Post: U.S. Plans New Arms Sales to Gulf Allies
McLatchy Newpapers: U.S. plans to sell arms to Saudi Arabia, Egypt
Cynic that I sometimes am, I wonder if the flash of negative media coverage of Saudi Arabia over the past week is linked to this. There are those in the media, Congress, and other government offices that simply do not like Saudi Arabia for a variety of reasons. Negative publicity on the eve of sales like these could very well be used to try to scuttle the deal in Congress. But maybe that’s just me.
Arab News‘s weekly ‘Review’ has a feature on Saudi efforts to preserve (and restore) its native wildlife. Most interesting to me was the discussion of the role of the spiny-tailed lizard (dhub) in the ecology of the Saudi deserts. The lizard, up to about two feet in length, has been an emergency food reserve for Bedouins. Now, it is being severely reduced in numbers by hunters who want to partake of it as part of their traditional values. [Some 20 years ago, while camping in the desert near Khafji, on the Kuwait border, our Bedouin hosts offered us dhub tail. And yes, it tastes like chicken.] The article is an interesting one.
Lunching With Wolves
Roger Harrison | Arab NewsSTILL as death and fangs gleaming in the crepuscular evening light, the beige reticulated predator lay with seemingly geological patience motionless against the ground.
Stepping smartly over the lifeless eight-centimeter body-length camel spider (not a true arachnid but a member of the order solifugae), researcher Moayyad Shersha, a field research assistant, gently lifted a cage with a slightly dazed desert fox (Vulpus ruepelli) into the truck. We were ready to head out to the release point, which in this case was where the animal was captured.
“We get lots of those running about here,†he said nodding at the spider. “Annoying at night when you sleep out.â€
Right; sharp intake of breath and point noted.
At this point it is important to set the right tone. As is the way with scientists who spend their lives researching and recording species in their care they like to keep the taxonomy of their beasts accurate even if the effect of their personal image disturbs the occasional less knowledgeable visitor. Their familiarity with the Latin names — and the creatures themselves — comes with practice. To acknowledge their professionalism the correct taxonomy will be used to introduce species — thence forward the more familiar identification.
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That this Reuters story follows the story appearing in today’s The New York Times suggests to me that it’s picking up its tone, if not its details, from the earlier piece.
Rice, Gates face uphill battle to convince Saudis
Sue Pleming and Andrew GrayWASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates travel to the Middle East next week seeking Arab support to stabilize Iraq but they may face an uphill battle from Saudi Arabia.
U.S. officials are increasingly frustrated with Sunni Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia that harbor doubts about Iraq’s Shi’ite-led government, seeing it as unable to pacify the country and too close politically to Shi’ite-dominated Iran.
A senior State Department official said on Friday Iraq’s Sunni Arab neighbors must send an “affirmative” message of support to the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and to Sunni moderates in Iraq.
“We want to see all of the neighbors, particularly such key partners as Saudi Arabia and the (United Arab) Emirates, play in Iraq the kind of supportive and constructive role that will be in their interests as well as ours in the region in confronting the negative forces,” said the official, who spoke on condition he was not named.
Rice and Gates will deliver this message when they meet ministers of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council as well as Jordan and Egypt in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Tuesday, followed by meetings in Saudi Arabia.
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Through an e-mail, I was pointed to this essay from the “Yale Globe”, a publication from the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. The third part in a series looking at the issue of tolerance in the Arab and Islamic world, it points out that it is to the Saudi government’s benefit—and that of Saudi society—to become more tolerant of religious diversity. While the Saudis have made progress in limiting the reach of certain extremists, it needs to go further, the author argues, in actively supporting religious practice by non-Muslims and non-Sunni Muslims who live within the Kingdom. Very interesting reading.
Here are links to Part I, External forces promoted anti-Semitism in the Arab world, and Part II, Religion provides little basis for the conflict between Palestinians and Israel.
Interrupting a History of Tolerance – Part III
Saudi Arabia recognizes that religious intolerance is a self-defeating policy
Fahad Nazer
YaleGlobal, 26 July 2007WASHINGTON: The daily atrocities that are committed in the name of Islam in Iraq and elsewhere and the increase in violence in Afghanistan, where a resurgent Taliban attempts to re-impose its draconian rule on the country, are a constant reminder to Muslims worldwide that the Muslim community might face an existential threat from within.
The potential of a spillover of sectarian violence from Iraq to its neighbors, along with the ability of Al Qaeda and its affiliates to survive despite the international community’s best effort to eradicate it, has led some to assert that the Muslim community is in dire need of effective leadership. Saudi Arabia is best positioned to assume this mantle. However, to do so, it must begin by changing its own policies on religious freedom.
As the birthplace of Islam and the location of two of Islam’s holiest sites, Saudi Arabia holds special standing in the Muslim world. Religious edicts from its scholars hold sway with many of the 1.3 billion Muslims around the globe, especially the majority Sunnis. Its eminence puts it in a unique position to influence how many Muslims think and act. The terrorist acts committed by militant Islamist groups as well as the violence and hysteria that followed the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in European newspapers in 2006, highlight the pervasiveness of militancy, radicalism and intolerance among many Muslims.
The critics should give the Saudis credit for cracking down on radical religious clerics and imams who propagate a venomous ideology of hatred and violence. Officials do a better job of hunting down and confronting Islamist militants, imprisoning or killing most of their leaders. The rhetoric from Saudi leadership has also been encouraging, with King Abdullah using the occasion of a meeting of leaders of Muslim countries in late 2005 in Mecca to stress that Islam is a religion of moderation and tolerance and that terrorism is an ugly distortion of Islam.
However, the kingdom’s policies on religious freedom need some serious reevaluation. A lifting of the restrictions on Muslims’ and non-Muslims’ right to worship freely has the potential to play a much more positive role than any mere declaration. If the Saudis truly want to fulfill their role as the “custodians of the Holy Mosques,†they must take immediate steps not only to save Saudi youths from falling prey to the lure of Islamist militants, but also to provide much needed leadership to a worldwide Muslim community that is moving perilously close to allowing hate-filled proclamations and bloodthirsty acts of violence in the name of Islam seem like the norm and not the exception.
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With close to 25% of Saudis suffering from diabetes, improved care and diagnosis for them is important. This Khaleej Times article reports that sedentary civil servants are being diagnosed at a rate approaching 35% while the more active security forces have a rate near 11%. I suspect that a recent change in diet—starting with the inflow of oil money—has caused a propensity toward diabetes to blow up into a major public health issue. How the government deal with this will be a measure of its concern for its citizens.
SR42m diabetes centres for Saudi
Habib ShaikhJEDDAH — Eight new diabetes centres costing SR42 million are to be established in the kingdom next year, according to the health ministry, which recently signed a deal for the purpose.
Deputy Minister of Health for Executive Affairs Mansoor Al Hawasi signed the deal with Al Majal Arabian Group, which will overlook the establishment of the centres.
“The deal to construct diabetic centres in our country is aimed at providing health services in all villages and towns in the Kingdom,” Al Hawasi said and added that the ministry has continued to develop health services in rural areas.
“We aim to provide total health care to all citizens and expatriates in our country,” he said.
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Once you get past the sound of private axe-grinding on the part of unnamed officials, this piece from The New York Times does a fair job of reporting the dis-ease some American government officials are expressing about Saudi Arabia. One academic is quoted as saying that the Saudis are no longer acting as ‘vassals’ of the US… as if they ever were. Saudi Arabia has consistently acted in its own interests since its founding. That some have confused that with identifying itself and its concerns with the US is their error, not the Saudis.
The Saudis are concerned about what happens to/with the Sunnis of Iraq. But as one source notes in the piece, this doesn’t extend to the Saudi government’s support of Sunni terror in Iraq. The Saudis are even more concerned about those terrorists making their ways back to the KSA and conducting terror campaigns against the Saudi government and society.
I suspect that this article, rather harsh in tone, is the result of some government officials, antipathetic to Saudi Arabia, trying to frame next week’s visits to the KSA by SecState Rice and SecDef Gates before their arrival.
U.S. Officials Voice Frustrations With Saudis’ Role in Iraq
Helene Cooper, Mark Mazzetti and Jim RutenbergWASHINGTON, July 26 — During a high-level meeting in Riyadh in January, Saudi officials confronted a top American envoy with documents that seemed to suggest that Iraq’s prime minister could not be trusted.
One purported to be an early alert from the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to the radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr warning him to lie low during the coming American troop increase, which was aimed in part at Mr. Sadr’s militia. Another document purported to offer proof that Mr. Maliki was an agent of Iran.
The American envoy, Zalmay Khalilzad, immediately protested to King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, contending that the documents were forged. But, said administration officials who provided an account of the exchange, the Saudis remained skeptical, adding to the deep rift between America’s most powerful Sunni Arab ally, Saudi Arabia, and its Shiite-run neighbor, Iraq.
Now, Bush administration officials are voicing increasing anger at what they say has been Saudi Arabia’s counterproductive role in the Iraq war. They say that beyond regarding Mr. Maliki as an Iranian agent, the Saudis have offered financial support to Sunni groups in Iraq. Of an estimated 60 to 80 foreign fighters who enter Iraq each month, American military and intelligence officials say that nearly half are coming from Saudi Arabia and that the Saudis have not done enough to stem the flow.
One senior administration official says he has seen evidence that Saudi Arabia is providing financial support to opponents of Mr. Maliki. He declined to say whether that support was going to Sunni insurgents because, he said, “That would get into disagreements over who is an insurgent and who is not.â€
Senior Bush administration officials said the American concerns would be raised next week when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates make a rare joint visit to Jidda, Saudi Arabia.
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Asharq Alawsat runs a lengthy piece about the re-integration into Saudi society of a Saudi detained in Guantanamo. Without necessarily accepting the psychological analysis presented—because it is not coming from an objective, disinterested source—I do find the steps the Saudi government is taking to effect the re-integration interesting. Read the whole piece.
Life After Guantanamo
Turki Al-SaheilRiyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat- Many have argued that returnees from Guantanamo would not be able to resume their normal daily lives upon returning home, especially in light of the state of despair that they experienced as a result of their detention at the US facility for long periods of time.
Their cases knew no legal terms; and assumed a political nature, making their return back home only possible by way of diplomatic efforts. This was the reason behind the sense of uncertainty and despair prevalent among the hundreds of detainees at Guantanamo.
This grim situation caused some to attempt suicide, having lost hope of getting out of the detention facility. However; upon their return, the Saudi Interior Ministry had prepared a series rehabilitation programs designed to raise their spirits and reintegrate them back into society.
Mishal al Harbi was received in Riyadh as part of the first groups of detainees to return home after he sustained a stroke that left him partially paralyzed and in need of a wheelchair.
The US detention facility has witnessed numerous suicide attempts. Psychological experts maintain that suicide attempts reflect the state of absolute despair of life. Mishal al Harbi, who until recently had been receiving treatment at a hospital in Medina, has managed to overcome his feelings of despair and will be getting married to a Saudi women.
The impending marriage was blessed by officials at the Interior Ministry. However, before al Harbi could marry, he had to complete a number of rehabilitation programs, which the Interior Ministry carries out with all Guantanamo returnees.
But the situation with Mishal, who celebrated his wedding last month, had required more time by reason of the incapacity he suffered while inside the US detention facility.
In Medina, al Harbi lives with his large family, and his wife, whom he sees as the most beautiful thing in his life. He leads a quiet and normal life in the al Duwaymah neighborhood, which is one of the oldest districts in the city.
Assisted by some of his brothers, al Harbi entered into the reception area of his home in his wheelchair and spoke at length about his future plans.
Today, al Harbi aspires to raise a family and become a productive member of society. His chief worry is to find a job that could make him self-reliant. Al Harbi, who left school at the intermediate stage, wishes to establish a small business venture that could provide a fixed income for him and his immediate family.
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