The first step in solving a problem is recognizing that there is a problem. The next step is to define the problem so that one knows what it is that needs fixing.
Saudi government and society have realized that they have a problem with their legal system. They’ve identified various aspects of that problem and are well on their way to reforming the entire system. From new courts and new judges, to new facilities to efforts toward codifying the laws, much is being done.
But there’s a touchy problem that hasn’t really been addressed yet. It’s pointed out in this Arab News translation of an article from the Arabic Al-Eqtisadiah: Judges who confuse ‘official’ with ‘officious’.
Judges are to be respected for their knowledge and knowledge is something that can be acquired in schools. Wisdom is another matter. It’s as much a result of experience as judicial temperament. Some have it, some don’t. The writer, acknowledging that not all lawyers are wonderful, says not all judges are, either. Particularly dangerous are those who seek to impose flogging and jailing upon lawyer who disagree with them in court. Contempt of court is a long-recognized legal principle, particularly in ‘common law’ countries as the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Hong Kong. It empowers judges to punish those whose actions either insult the court or pervert the course of justice either in the courtroom or outside it. Usually, punishment comes in the form of fines or brief imprisonment—a matter of a few days. (There are exceptions.) It is, however, a rare thing. It’s not quite so rare in the Kingdom and we’ve seen many media reports of lawyers being jailed and/or flogged because they argued with judges.
There’s a difference between arguing with a judge and showing contempt of the judge. Contempt is a crime against the court and the position of the judge, not the person of the judge. By showing disrespect toward the position, one shows disrespect toward the entire legal system. But there are also disagreeable judges whose ‘wisdom’ is properly questioned, whose in-court rulings are subject to at least limited debate. Here, the writer is calling for both a written code of conduct and a board to which judicial complaints can be made against lawyers. This would take some of the power away from power-tripping judges and help the judicial system, he argues. That sounds about right to me.
Should lawyers be flogged?
KHALED AL-NUWAISER | AL-EQTISADIAHWe often read newspaper reports about judges taking punitive action against lawyers in some courts in the Kingdom.
It is highly disturbing to read or hear about such stories, which include reports where lawyers are evicted from courtrooms, jailed or flogged, all because of their differences of opinion or disputes with one judge or another.
We are afraid of turning such incidents into a trend encompassing society as a whole. After some time, perhaps university professors, doctors, engineers, teachers or other professionals may be awarded with similar flogging punishments.
Punishing a lawyer with lashes would have dangerous and negative ramifications not only for the legal profession but also for the image of the country and the smooth functioning of its judicial system as well.
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The Washington Post runs an acerbic piece taken from Muslimah.com, a website for and by Muslim women. In it, the author notes that the French and Belgian police [and now, apparently, the Italians as well] are in over their heads when it comes to enforcing the laws against wearing face coverings in public. She suggests they take lessons from the Saudi Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice and, if necessary, the Iranian Religious Guidance Patrols. These groups, she says, have long practice in oppressing women. They know how to do it with panache and not a drop of embarrassment!
What the Saudi morality police can teach the French
Uzma Mariam Ahmed — Contributor to AltMuslimah.comSince the enforcement of France and Belgium’s bans on face veils (“niqab”), the countries’ policemen have been assigned a singularly difficult task: making sure that Muslim women behave. Police are required to detain and fine Muslim women covering their faces illegally in public. The French police send some of these women to citizenship classes where they can learn the appropriate way to exhibit their spirits of liberté and égalité, while in Belgium offenders can also be jailed (sans face veils, of course). As French President Sarkozy stated when promoting the ban, the niqab is “a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement” of women. Recent news articles indicate that, at least in France, the police force is befuddled about how to enforce this ban and ensure that Muslim women are less subservient and debased.
Should they approach the veiled Saudi princesses shopping at Louis Vuitton with their security guards? Since that could lead to all kinds of trouble, not to mention antagonize the many Arabian princesses who are lovers of French fashion, perhaps they should instead focus on chasing after veiled housewives in minivans shuttling children to afterschool activities? How should the police handle those rebellious women living in the Muslim ghettos of Paris who cover their faces, particularly if they are carrying about in large numbers? Even more puzzling, how do the police determine if the women are donning the niqab by choice or have been coerced into veiling their faces by their husbands, brothers, or fathers?
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The Saudi-US Relations Information Service (SUSRIS) has an excellent essay capturing the stance of Saudi Arabia during this period of ferment in the Middle East. It links to a variety of articles by careful Saudi observers like Anthony Cordesman, Jean Seznec, and Gregory Gause that analyze why Saudi Arabia has been doing, why, and what’s likely next. They variously make good points about the conservatism of Saudi society as a buffer against abrupt change; about how Saudi Arabia is not playing the role of counter-revolutionary; and how it is willing to throw ensconced leaders under the bus when necessary. Definitely worth reading!
Where do the Saudis Stand?
Patrick W. Ryan | SUSRISThe assessment of where Saudi Arabia fits into the Arab Spring began with discussions about the Kingdom’s own vulnerabilities to the turmoil that was sweeping the region after unrest led to the downfall of regimes in Tunisia and Egypt early in the year. By March there were rumblings of a “day of rage” challenge in the country but when the day arrived the outcome met the expectations of Middle East scholar Thomas Lippman who forecast that “this is going to be the biggest non-event since Y2K.”
An effective combination of carrots and sticks was enough to set aside concerns that the Arab Spring posed a threat to the House of Saud. “Once again we are confronted with this persistent American belief that Saudi Arabia is an unstable state,” University of Vermont political science professor, and author of “The International Politics of the Persian Gulf,” Gregory Gause told SUSRIS in April. “There’s a lot of worry in the Washington community and a lot of interest in the media about how all this will play out in Saudi Arabia and what we’re seeing is that Saudi has been one of the most stable states in this period of upheaval.”
That view was echoed by CSIS Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy Dr. Anthony Cordesman who talked about Saudi stability in a time of change, “Saudi Arabia is scarcely immune to protest and dissent, and has long struggled with the challenges of reform. What is most striking about the Kingdom over the past weeks of crisis, however, has been the lack of any major challenge to government and the way it functions.”
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According to Al-Yaum newspaper from the Eastern Province, Saudi Gazette reports, up to 6% of government workers didn’t bother to show up for work during the first 10 days of Ramadan. The article says the government is going to come down hard on the slackers, with permanent cuts in their salaries possible.
If the celebrations following the setting of the sun are proving too taxing, I think perhaps the celebrants are doing it wrong. Ramadan is not supposed to be a month-long party that leaves everyone disabled the morning after.
CIB: 6% of public servants remain absent in first 10 days of Ramadan
AL-KHOBAR — Over six percent of the Kingdom’s public servants, including heads of departments and directors, were absent from work during the first ten days of Ramadan, stated a report by the Control and Investigation Board (CIB).
According to Al-Youm newspaper, the field report was compiled by the CIB’s 20 branches across the Kingdom.
It revealed that a number of government employees were repeatedly absent or failed to report on time.
Most of the absentee civil servants work for vital government agencies, delaying much-needed public services.
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Saudi Gazette has this inspirational piece about a young Saudi, still studying for his university degree, who decided he didn’t need to wait until graduation to start working. After trying once and failing, he tried again and is making a success of his t-shirt design business, even finding a way to breach the sex-segregation barrier. He’s earning a modest salary while studying, but is gaining a march on his soon-to-be fellow graduates. He learned from his earlier business mistakes and offers some helpful advice about how to succeed.
Why should I wait to get a job?
Naif Masrahi — Saudi GazetteJEDDAH — Gone are the days when graduates used to wait for their degrees to start applying for jobs. The dynamic and energetic youth of today are bringing drastic changes to the culture of work in the country. An increasing number of young individuals have stepped forward to make a difference and are engaged in work during their course of study in order to gain experience in the work field before they actually enter the job market.
Faisal Al-Olayan, 24, a student of Geomatics Engineering at King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, truly represents the dynamic youth of today. He works and runs his own business at the same time, which is all about selling customized T-shirts that are especially designed for youth, keeping in mind the identity of Islamic and Arab culture.
“This is the right time to start work,” he told Saudi Gazette.
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Carrying news agency coverage, Arab News reports that King Abdullah and Pres. Obama are agreed that the Syrian government must stop its ‘brutal’ repression of dissent now. The article cites growing international impatience with the Assad regime, but notes that no ultimatums are yet being proposed.
King Abdullah and Obama tell Syria killings ‘must end now’
WASHINGTON: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and US President Barack Obama demanded Saturday that the Syrian regime “immediately” halt its brutal crackdown on protesters, the White House said.
Speaking by telephone, Obama and his key Arab ally in the region “expressed their shared, deep concerns about the Syrian government’s use of violence against its citizens,” the White House said in a statement.
“They agreed that the Syrian regime’s brutal campaign of violence against the Syrian people must end immediately, and to continue close consultations about the situation in the days ahead.”
King Abdullah and Obama also discussed ways of strengthening bilateral relations as well as major regional and international issues, the Saudi Press Agency said.
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Arab News translates an interesting piece from the Arabic daily Al-Jazirah. In it, the writer notes that Saudis behave differently at home than they do abroad. He’s not talking about behaviors that are notorious because they simply cannot be done as readily in the Kingdom—gambling, drinking alcohol, etc. Instead, the focus is on how Saudis who obey laws and cultural norms while abroad seem to forget all that when they return home. Whether it’s littering or jumping queues, bad manners prevail.
The writer thinks it’s due to a lack of respect for—and enforcement of—local laws. He’s likely right.
Changing lifestyles and behavior of some Saudis
JASSER AL-HARBASH | AL-JAZIRAHWHY do we see the lifestyle and behavior of Saudis differ from one place to another?
The Saudis living in the compounds of Saudi Aramco, Shaybah Oilfield and the Diplomatic Quarter follow a different lifestyle compared to those in Riyadh, Jeddah, Abha, Hail and Najran. Let me explain my point, giving some examples.
When Saudis visit Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain or Western countries, they strictly follow traffic regulations and drive their vehicles in a cultured manner. They also drive carefully in compounds inside the Kingdom. But when they return to the streets of their towns and villages they forget about traffic rules.
The Saudis when they go abroad throw rubbish in garbage bins and will not throw beverage cans or water bottles from cars onto the streets. They follow the same rules while living in the compounds inside the Kingdom but when they return to the streets of their native places they forget this civilized lifestyle.
Let me give another example. Many Saudis show a destructive attitude toward public gardens and other infrastructure facilities as if they are taking revenge on their own country. At the same time they will not leave even a tissue or remove a plant or pluck a flower from public gardens in foreign countries as well as those in compounds.
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Arab News reports, briefly, that the Ministry of Education—responsible for primary and secondary education—is announcing that newly-built girls’ schools will have sports facilities. The Minister of Education says that the athletic programs will be run in accordance with Islamic values, but says that equality between the sexes is required by Islam.
Over the years, there has been a great deal of fuss over the issue of girls and sports. Many conservatives believe that it is somehow against religious principle, but their reasoning completely eludes me. It is indeed a big deal that state schools will now start to have sports programs for girls.
Govt girls schools to have sports facilities
ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: Saudi government schools have started establishing sports facilities for girls. The Education Ministry said 30 percent of new school sports projects would be allocated for girls.
A senior official at the ministry said construction of sports facilities for girls has started at some government schools.
The official did not say when the first such sports facility would be ready.
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While Shariah and Western courts differ in many ways, they both share a problem with media reporting on cases in prejudicial ways. This Arab News article discusses the case of a schoolteacher accused of raping 13 girls. As there have been two teachers so charged, I’m not sure which one is being discussed here. It doesn’t really matter, though, as the issue is larger than a single case.
Media does have responsibilities. Sometimes, it forgets them; sometimes, it intentionally ignores them in order to ‘grab more eyes’ and a few more riyals or dollars. The more sensational or salacious the story, the better it is for the media bottom line. The temptation, though, can lead to grave injustice toward the accused who, under both American and Islamic law is presumed innocent until proved guilty in a court of law.
For the Saudis, the case du jour is that of a serial rapist. In the US, it is the case of a mother accused of killing her child. In the American case, a jury found the mother not guilty. Media coverage before and during the trial, though, greatly prejudiced viewers against the mother. CNN’s Headline News coverage, led by the inaptly named Nancy Grace, was utterly disgraceful. In stirring up public prejudice, it led to death threats against jurors, judges, and of course the accused herself when she was acquitted. In fact, Reuters is now reporting that the mother is the most hated person in America!.
As the piece notes, though, the public does have a right to know that crimes are being committed, that arrests are being made, and that trials are taking place. Doing so without prejudicing legal process can be tricky, but journalists are supposed to be professional, able to do hard work.
Schoolteacher’s case highlights need to curb media trial
WALAA HAWARI | ARAB NEWSRIYADH: When the Saudi publishing law was amended in March 2011 many expressed their dissatisfaction as they considered it a way to restrain the media. The amendment aims to protect members of the Senior Scholars Authority, statesmen, government employees and any other individual or company from being defamed. However, some people believe that this amendment is simply there to protect any corrupt person from being exposed in the media.
In the case of a schoolteacher accused of raping 13 young girls, Fayez Al-Shihri, academic at King Fahd Security College and expert on information crimes, believes that the concept of free press has been misused. The accused was prejudged and slandered by the media before the conclusion of investigations and before the judge had said his final word.
“This is an obvious and clear violation of publication law, human rights and general social ethics,” said Al-Shihri, adding that publishing widely and without restrictions about the case violated press ethics.
Should the investigation prove the accused innocent, Al-Shihri pointed out, he would have the right to sue all publications and websites for slander.
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Saudi Gazette, coincidentally, runs a piece in which the National Society for Human Rights reminds readers that those accused of various crimes that led up to the disastrous floods in Jeddah in 2009 are also innocent, until proved guilty:
Arab News runs a piece that discusses the myriad issues involving domestic employees in Saudi Arabia. It covers the issues from the sides of both the employees and the employers and calls for major changes in the laws and in the way domestic labor is handled in the Kingdom. I think the piece well-balanced.
Issue of runaway maids
DR. KHALID AL-SEGHAYEROne of the most recent critical matters confronting the foreign labor force in Saudi Arabia is the phenomenon of the so-called runaway maids.
Published figure shows that 89 percent of Saudi households have at least one maid which brings the total number of housemaids, based on some unconfirmed estimation, in the Kingdom to over 1.5 million. Of these, more than 20,000 maids are said to run away from their employers yearly. The business of hiring housemaids in Saudi Arabia costs annually around SR41 billion and about SR50 million ($14 million) are lost because of the maids who run away.
Most of the maids who flee are from Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. According to some estimate, 67 percent of the housemaids in Saudi Arabia are from Indonesia and 50 percent of them often run away from their employers.
Multifaceted factors contribute to the unpleasant issue of runaways. From the perspective of the runaway maids, the work environment is completely inadequate and characterized by overwork, maltreatment by family members, poor living conditions inside their sponsor’s houses, very low wages that are not paid on a regular basis or on time, and also sexual harassment and impregnation. In sum, the maids say when basic human rights and dignity are denied they have little choice but to run away.
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In case you’re interested in the marvel of dates (Phoenix dactylifera, that is), Arab News has a special supplement. It covers things like the history of dates, their nutritional value, their increasing role in the Saudi eocnomy, and even the dawning of ‘designer dates.’
With things flying apart in both the UK and Syria, the Saudi government is cautioning its citizens to keep their heads down, Arab News reports. Saudis have been arrested in Syria under mysterious circumstances. Their whereabouts are unknown as are the charges against them. Some believe that simply having a Saudi—or other GCC—passport is enough to draw unwanted attention from the police state.
Dozens of Saudis held in Syria
ARAB NEWSRIYADH: Saudi citizens have been arrested in Syria for no apparent reason, a human rights official has claimed in Riyadh.
“There is no justification for the arrest of dozens of Saudis in various cities in Syria apart from the fact that they are Saudi citizens,” Chairman of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) Muflih Al-Qahtani told Al-Watan daily on Wednesday.
Al-Qahtani said the NSHR received a number of calls from the relatives of Saudis who were arrested while traveling in Syria.
“It is unfortunate that Syrian authorities arrest many Saudis because of their nationality. There are also reports of hostile treatment of Saudis and Gulf citizens,” he said.
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In the UK, it’s not a thuggish government that puts Saudis in peril, just thugs. So far, the riots and chaos in the UK do not appear to have much of an ethnic orientation. The mayhem is so widespread, though, that anyone could be accidentally caught up in it. And so, the Saudi government is warning its students studying there to stay inside and avoid the streets. This Arab News article notes that this comes at an inopportune time, Ramadan, which tends to feature an active night life on the streets, after Iftar.
Saudi students in UK told not to leave their homes
RIMA AL-MUKHTAR | ARAB NEWSJEDDAH: Saudi students affected by violent riots in London say they cannot go to the mosque, school or even shop for groceries.
The students have been asked to stay home and not leave their homes after a surge in violence and looting that has seen a number of London’s poor neighborhoods set alight. The unrest spread to the cities of Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool on Tuesday night.
“Having a curfew in Ramadan is very annoying, as us Saudis have a certain tradition that we like to follow in Ramadan where we usually meet with our Muslim friends for iftar (breaking of the fast meal) and pray Taraweeh together,” said Eman Youssef, a 25-year-old MBA student. “I cannot even pass by the grocery shop and buy my daily supplies in order to cook for iftar.”
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