Wednesday, November 4, 2009 · 27 Comments
Everything is going great in the awesomest Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Well, almost everything. Today I read three disturbing news stories which shed the light on some serious problems that we should immediately take care of. Otherwise, the whole fabric of society might disintegrate under the pressure of these most horrendous disasters…
First, let’s give it to Dr. Omaima al-Jalahma who has discovered a huge flaw within the healthcare system that has apparently held our hospitals back all these years: no rooms for ruqyah. Al-Jalahma suggests opening ruqyah rooms in all hospitals in the country, and facilitating the work of ruqyah practitioners, who, according to her, have no problem entering any hospital at present but would benefit from having dedicated rooms where they can offer their much-needed services.
Meanwhile, the Grand Mufti has said that wearing graduation gowns is haram because apparently it is part of the infidels’ rituals and customs that no God-fearing Muslim should ever imitate or even consider getting near them. The Grand Mufti, of course, does not use the cars invented and manufactured by the aforementioned infidels. He also does not appear on TV or use a mobile phone, because these, too, are invented and made by those nasty infidels.
Last but not least, a committee in Ministry of Interior has concluded that enough is enough and so they decided it is time to raid the market looking for what they described as “illegal abayas.” The committee, which included members of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, the Ministry of Commerce, the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, and the General Intelligence Service said those who sell illegal abayas have two choices: either modify them in a way that makes them Sharia-compliant or destroy them under the supervision of an official body without any compensation.
The committee, however, has not said what they are going to do about women who have already bought some of these abays and are wearing them. Rumor has it that they plan to open kiosks in every corner of every city in the country where these women can exchange their haram abayas with halal abayas at no charge.
Categories: Human Rights · Humor · Libs and Cons · Media · News · Politics · Saudi Arabia · Women's Rights
Tagged: abaya, graduation gowns, grand mufti, hospitals, omaima al-jalahma, ruqyah
Friday, October 30, 2009 · 5 Comments
I know some people think that human rights organizations in Saudi Arabia are a joke, and sadly sometimes they are, but I don’t think these organizations are useless. That’s why I feel so disappointed when I see that the Human Rights Commission (HRC) is still doing a poor job, and that its new president Bandar al-Iban has so far proven he is not all that different from his predecessor. In today’s Arab News, he talks about how his organization helped a woman called Fatima to put her abusive husband in jail.
That’s well and good, but it is certainly not the kind of work that HRC should be doing. As a government commission with the responsibility of ensuring that other government bodies are respecting human rights they are expected to offer an organized effort on a much higher scale.
I understand that HRC is not exactly working in Sweden, but I always wish they would try harder and go the extra mile. They need not to look too far: their peers at the National Society of Human Rights have been doing a nice job with their reports and occasional statements. It is hardly enough, but at least it’s a start. Am I expecting too much of HRC? Maybe, and the reason is because I think they are in a position where they could, and should, get much more done.
Categories: Human Rights · Politics · Saudi Arabia · Women's Rights
Tagged: domestic violence, HRC, Human Rights Commission, nshr
Thursday, October 29, 2009 · 7 Comments
Considering the large number of websites blocked in the country, this is actually pretty ironic:
Photo taken in Jubail, East of Saudi Arabia.
Categories: Humor · Photography · Saudi Arabia
Tagged: internet, internet cafe, jubail, photo
Monday, October 26, 2009 · 22 Comments
Another day, another outrageous lashing sentence.
On Saturday, a court in Jeddah sentenced 22-year-old female journalist Roazanna al-Yamai to 60 lashes for her alleged involvement in the infamous case of Mazen Abdul-Jawad, aka the TV sex braggart. Few minutes ago, AP reported that King Abdullah has waived the sentence and ordered the case be referred to the legal committee at the Ministry of Culture and Information. Well, this should have happened without a royal intervention, but I’m relieved the sentence will not be carried out.
This case aside, I am astonished by the very liberal use of lashing sentences by our right honorable judges. Is this some sort of fetish, as Asmaa once said? Do these sentences say something about struggle to reform the judicial system? Personally, I think that except for the few cases explicitly specified in Quran, lashing should be stopped once and for all. No human being should be given the power to inflect this kind of punishment on another human being, simply.
Categories: Human Rights · Libs and Cons · Media · News · Politics · Saudi Arabia · Women's Rights
Tagged: flogging, judge, judicial system, lashing, lbc, legal, mazen abdul-jawad, rozanna al-yami, talk show, tv
Thursday, October 22, 2009 · 9 Comments
Pictures taken with my iPhone.
Categories: Blogging · Photography · Saudi Arabia
Sunday, October 18, 2009 · 25 Comments
So the law that should regulate the work of civil society organizations in the country has been pending for about 3 years now, but this one gets passed. How can anything good come out of this?
Categories: Human Rights · News · Politics · Saudi Arabia
Tagged: firearms, guns, ministry of interior, moi
Saturday, October 17, 2009 · 27 Comments
Saudi Aramco is being sued for one million riyals. Not over their long time use of natural resources in the EP without considering the environmental consequences, and not over being a country within a country where the rules that govern the rest of Saudi Arabia do not necessarily apply, but over a dead animal. According to Saudi Gazette, Abdullah Al-Saiari is suing the giant oil company for causing the death of an alleged beauty contest female camel which died when she tripped into a big hole that Aramco had dug and filled it up with crude oil in a desert pasture land, 250 km west of Ahsa. 1m SR is probably nothing for a multi billion-dollars company like Aramco, but can a camel breeder win a case against the oil giant? The news item says the General Court in Khobar is looking into the case, but since Aramco is owned by the government, shouldn’t this case be brought into the Court of Grievances? Hmmm…
Categories: Humor · News · Politics · Saudi Arabia
Tagged: aramco, camel, justice, lawsuit, oil, saudi aramco
Thursday, October 15, 2009 · 7 Comments
The media circus launched in the honor of Shiekh Sa’ad al-Shethri and his rather lame comment was full of noise, but one of the rare voices of reason in the midst of the hoopla was that of Khaled al-Dakhil. In his column for Abu Dhabi-based al-Ittihad daily, translated here by the good folks at Meedan, he puts the event in perspective and offers some interesting, intelligent views:
This society has allowed strict religious discourse to shape people’s views and attitudes on issues such as these for decades, even centuries. The consequences of this must finally be faced. It is true also that there is misunderstanding over the issue of gender mixing, and that some people go too far in their complete and utter rejection of it, but once again the way of handling such an issue has played a role in that. This has caused the underlying principles of this confrontation to exist for a long time, and there was no way of avoiding it. It can be said that no-one wanted the row which erupted. The row was inevitably going to impose itself on everyone. It was waiting for the right moment and its justification, and that moment came, and that justification emerged with the opening of the University. The battle in reality was between the religious trend, which emerged due to the influence it had, and the reformist trend, which wanted to review many issues, starting with those which were necessary for the advancement of society.
Al-Dakhil is one of the few true liberal thinkers in this country. That’s why he is unwelcome in Saudi universities and media, which is a real shame, because it’s people like him that our country really needs. Oh, well…
Categories: Media · News · Politics · Saudi Arabia
Tagged: alshethri, kaust, khaled al-dakhil, mingling, mixing, saad alshethri
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 · 16 Comments
Although al-Yaum newspaper has enjoyed a monopoly in the Eastern Province for a very long time, it remains one of the weakest publications in the country. I was born and raised in the EP, and I used to read Ashraq al-Awsat, al-Hayat and al-Watan but not al-Yaum. Yesterday, they gave me another reason not to read them: they shamelessly stole content from a blogger, copying his blog post with pictures and everything. Here’s the piece published in al-Yaum, and here’s the original blog post written by Nathan, a student at KAUST.
With this kind of journalism, I don’t think the new newspaper coming to the EP will have a big problem to overcome the competition. Nathan is thinking about suing them, which would be awesome, but probably they have already embarrassed themselves enough.
Categories: Blogging · Media · News · Politics · Saudi Arabia
Tagged: alyaum, intellectual property, kaust, steal, theft
Thursday, October 8, 2009 · 7 Comments
As much as I was annoyed by the hooliganism that we have seen in Khobar on the National Day, I was much more annoyed by how the government decided to handle the situation. However, I’m relieved to see the National Society for Human Rights weigh in and release a statement condemning the manner in which these young men were punished. Flogging them publicly like that without a trial is wrong and in clear violation of the law. Now of course the language of the statement could be stronger, but I guess it’s better than nothing.
Categories: Human Rights · News · Politics · Saudi Arabia
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