Author Archives: Ahmed

Churches in Saudi Arabia

While Saudi Arabia doesn’t allow people of religions other than Islam to practice their faiths publicly here, the land of the Kingdom could be the home of one of the oldest churches in the region.

The Assyrian International News Agency website recently published some photos of what they called the Jubail Church, of which its ruins were accidentally unearthed in the 1980’s by a group of people attempting to dig their vehicle out of the sand. The website claims that the government has acknowledged the existence of this church but will not issue permits to visit it.

My friend Bandar Raffah has previously written about the Jeddah Church and took some photos of the building, which unlike the one in Jubail remains unfenced. He was also able to get an official confirmation that it is indeed a church although no information are available on its history.

Alexandria… Why?

After I returned from my trip to Egypt last February, I wrote, “Egypt Air seriously needs to consider a rebranding.” One month later, an Egyptian blogger wrote about the same thing. (Is it just me or is the third paragraph of his post is almost identical to the first paragraph of my post?) Anyway, few weeks later, Egypt Air indeed announced a rebranding, updating their logo and colors, and becoming Egyptair.

Why I’m bringing this up now? Because today I will be taking one of their planes to visit the land of the Nile again for a few days. I will be speaking at a conference organized by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). The conference will tackle the Role of Libraries in Freedom of Expression, Tolerance, and Access to Information, and it will take place at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria.

I’m looking forward to be there and meet the people. If you would like to do a bloggers meet up or something like that, please drop me a line.

23 September, Revisited

Today is the National Day of Saudi Arabia. On the same day two years ago, I wrote this, and it has become one of my favorite posts because I felt that it says a lot about myself and the message I’m trying to deliver through this blog. It saddens me to admit though that very little has changed since then. Have things become worse? No, because I don’t think it could get any worse. The country is changing, but at a glacial pace that is leaving me and many others dejected and frustrated. It is just disheartening to move in slow baby steps when we can — and should — take leaps ahead to the future. Here’s hoping our dreams won’t be deferred any longer.

P.S. I will be traveling with my family later this week and I don’t think I will be able to update the blog for two weeks or so. I will be back on the 2nd week of October.

Another Human Rights Prize for Al-Lahem

Abdul-Rahman al-Lahem, the well-known Saudi lawyer, was awarded earlier this year the International Human Rights Lawyer Award from the American Bar Association, but sadly he could not receive the award in person because he is not allowed to travel outside the country.

This week, al-Lahem has received another honor, winning the 2008 Human Rights Defender award from Human Rights Watch (HRW). The international organization called the Saudi government to immediately lift the ban on foreign travel for al-Lahem so that he can attend the award ceremonies in London, Paris, and Geneva this November.

“Barring al-Lahem from travel only highlights the severe and arbitrary limits to basic freedoms and fairness in the kingdom,” Christoph Wilcke, senior researcher on Saudi Arabia at HRW said.

I hope these calls will not fall on deaf ears, and I hope to see our two local human rights organizations make a statement, not just on behalf of al-Lahem, but also for all activists who has been working to promote the culture of citizens’ rights. It has been almost four years since the travel ban was imposed on the lawyer who has shown exceptional courage in his relentless effort to defend human rights in the Kingdom. Once again, it is about time.

The End is Nigh?

Saudi Arabia’s top judiciary official has issued a religious decree saying it is permissible to kill the owners of satellite TV networks that broadcast immoral content. The 79-year-old Sheik Saleh al-Lihedan said Thursday that satellite channels cause the “deviance of thousands of people.”

He did not name any particular channel, but many of the top Arab TV networks like Rotana and MBC are owned by members of the royal family or people closely connected to them. Is this the end to al-Lihedan reign at the top of the judiciary system, especially with the upcoming reforms proposed by the king last year? It is about time.

UPDATE: Al-Lihedan says he was misunderstood and that his statement has been taken out of context. Yeah, right. Whatever!

Those New Cool Thobes

As people in Saudi Arabia are usually dressed either in black — for women — or white — for men —, I usually try to appreciate the moments when I’m abroad and enjoy the colorful clothes people wear, spending much of my free time walking down the streets and observing others.

That’s why I was glad to see my friend Faiza Ambah elegantly profiles Saudi fashion designer Yahia al-Bishri, the man who put color back in menswear here. His boldness also inspired others like Siraj Omar and Lomar Thobe to redefine the traditional Saudi garb. However, and from what I have seen, it seems that young Hjiazi men are embracing the new trend more than their counterparts in Najd, which is to be expected as people in the central area are more conservative.

Although I only wear a thobe occasionally as I prefer my casual outfit of jeans and t-shirts, I personally like the idea of updating the thobe with new styles and colors, and I plan to get myself one of those cool Lomar thobes in the near future. The problem is that they are relatively expensive, as their creators admitted, but I think it is worth getting them for special occasions.

How about you Saudi boys and girls? What do you think of those new cool thobes? Yay or Nay?

Real Job of HRC

Turki al-Sudairi, chairman of the Human Rights Commission (HRC), told Arab News today that his organization has handled over 10,000 complaints since it was founded three years ago. He then went on to count the other great achievements his organization has made, including the formation of a higher committee to distribute booklets on human rights to official bodies.

Did you get that? Not just any committee, that’s a higher committee who will be responsible for the enormous task of distributing booklets. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t mean to belittle the work of HRC, but this kind of PR fluff just gets on my nerves, and a reporter like Walaa Hawari should know better. But what’s really bugging me about them is this: as a governmental organization, HRC has been given the power to question other government bodies on their abuses of human rights, but some of those bodies simply ignore HRC and continue their abuses like it’s 1994.

Apparently, HRC seem to think that they can’t do anything if other government bodies did not cooperate with them. But I think this is not the case. HRC is no less than a ministry, and if anyone thinks he is too good to deal with them they should simply report him to the Prime Minister, i.e. the King himself who signed the decree to establish this organization. People who use their positions and power to violate human rights should be held accountable for their ugly actions, and until we have an elected parliament or the Shoura Council members get some balls, this is the job of organizations like HRC.