Author Archives: Ahmed

Discrimination Against Shittes

When journalists ask officials in Saudi Arabic about the discrimination against Shiites in the country, they usually answers, “there is nothing in the law discriminates against them.” But what everybody else than the government can see is that there is a clear discrimination. In fact, I think it is even worse when the government applies some kind of unwritten law against such minority.

Here’s an example. This incident happened to a close friend of mine. My friend’s father owns a business in my hometown, Hassa. However, my friend is the one who practically runs the business. He is very ambitious, and he has some big dreams. One of his dreams was to expand their business by starting a factory to manufacture machines directly related to their original products.

He has a plan, he has resources, and based on the government’s claims of encouraging new industries in the country, he decided to start the first step in the project which is getting the required permissions of the ministry of agriculture. He made the required papers, and sent them to the ministry’s branch in the city. After few days, the ministry called him to come to their offices in order to receive the reply.

When he went there, the official told him that his project did not get the required permission. My friend, unpleasantly surprised, asked about the reasons of rejection. The official said, “you know, your name does not qualify.” (الاسم ما يأهل) An expression that simply means, “you are not allowed because you are Shiite.”

My friend was so depressed that he called me to discuss migration to Canada! I felt so sorry for him, but also felt so angry on this behaviour by the government. The government does not allow Shiites to own large businesses, to become ministers, or even to become principals of elementary schools, and they shamelessly deny any kind of discrimination!