Author Archives: Ahmed

MOCI’s stupid law is ready

MOCI are done working on their new law for regulating news websites. A spokesman for the ministry said the new law will also apply to websites of print newspapers, but the ministry does not plan to pre-approve their editors like they do with the dead tree news organisations. If the websites break the regulations, he added, they will be blocked. I guess that’s what this is all about. Making it easier for MOCI to block websites that they don’t like. The kind of enthusiasm and energy MOCI has put into this dumb idea is amazing. I only wish they would put this amazing effort into something more useful. But hey, that would be expecting way too much of them.

Women in Municipal Councils

While the municipal elections have been indefinitely postponed, much to the dismay of many reform-minded Saudis, al-Hayat daily published a story today about an interesting development. According to the paper, the municipal councils have been secretly discussing a request by the ministry seeking the councils’ opinion on opening the doors to women to become members of the councils.

Unsurprisingly, councilmen are divided on the matter. While some of them welcome the inclusion of women in their chambers, other councilmen have their reservations. Abdulmuhsen Al al-Shiekh who heads Makka’s municipal council said he is against having women in the council, whether they were elected or appointed. He, however, is not against having women as voters.

This position might seem odd, but it’s actually similar to the position taken by some Islamists in Kuwait when the government there decided to give women their political rights and allow them to vote and run in the parliamentary elections.

Today’s Links

  • AP says that security forces has confiscated books of Abdullah al-Hamed, a well-known reformer, from stalls at Riyadh Book Fair. MOCI, unsurprisingly, denied that they know anything about it.
  • Speaking of security and censorship, rumor has it that starting this Tuesday BBM service will be disabled in Saudi Arabia. CITC has asked RIM to let them monitor the network but it seems unlikely that the Canadian company would allow it.

Today’s Links

  • Shoura Council finally decided to open its doors to citizens. Shoura said it is ready now to hear the voices of concerned citizens through its Human Rights and Petitions Committee. The King is scheduled to deliver the annual royal speech launching the second year of the the Council’s fifth term Sunday. Unlike Saudi Gazette, I don’t think it would be anything like the State of the Union address.
  • In other news, the King has received the Jeddah Investigation report. I’m eager to hear the news of some heads rolling. I’m also curious to read the report but I doubt it will be made public.
  • Okay, so Fox News published a story on Saudi bloggers, but as SUSRIS blog correctly notes, the story has some holes. No surprise here, I guess.
  • I disagree with almost everything published in Lojainiat, but blocking the website is simply something that I’m not okay with. CITC should stop acting as policemen on our brains.
  • Typical case of Saudi flirting using text messages. A pretty lame attempt if you ask me. But hey, I never been into this kind of thing so maybe you don’t want to take my word for it.