Category Saudi Arabia

What Laws Are For?

Although I have previously complained about the vagueness of some articles in Saudi Arabia’s newly implemented E-Crimes Act, my conviction was that having a flawed law that could be rectified later is better that not having a law at all. Today, Arab News runs this story about a man from my hometown of Ahsa who has been prosecuted according to the new law.

A court in the Eastern Province city fined the man SR50,000, sentenced him to 22 months in jail and 200 lashes for breaking into an e-mail account of a young woman and getting personal photos of her. The man was found guilty of blackmailing the woman by threatening to disseminate her pictures online and to her parents if she did not agree to have an affair with him.

However, there is something here that I don’t understand. I have read the E-Crimes Act and I can’t find any mention of lashing as a punishment for committing any of the violations there. Under the new law, people found guilty of using computers to commit crimes could face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to SR5 million, but lashing is not one of the punishments the law stated for these crimes.

How come that this man is being sentenced to a punishment that can’t be found in the law? How can this happen? Are the judges free to add any punishment they think is appropriate for a crime even if it is not part of the law on which the accused is being prosecuted?

10 Must Read Saudi Blogs

More than a year ago, I posted my list of top ten Saudi blogs. Things have changed since then. Hadeel passed away, Rasheed moved from Jeddah to Abu Dhabi to Brazil, and few more others are no longer actively blogging. So I thought I will need to update the list. Similar to the old one, blogs from 1-5 are in Arabic, while those from 6-10 are in English, however, the list is absolutely in no particular order.

  1. Yassir al-Ghaslan: He is an old media guy, coming from Saudi Arabia’s largest media empire SRPC, but earlier this year he embraced new media big time: blogging, podcasting and vlogging. His blog also features some interesting guest bloggers.
  2. Ljo2 Qalam: In order to protect himself from a passing storm, Thmuar al-Marzougi decided to take his blog down for some time, but there is no question that this blog has been one of the most active and controversial destinations in the Saudi blogosphere in 2008.
  3. Marwan’s Blog: If Thumar bent to avoid a storm, then this guy has taken the blogosphere by storm. Marwan’s hot start has given the impression of a snarky edgy blogger who has nothing to lose, but he has obviously slowed down since he moved to Manchester to pursuit his education.
  4. Yazeed.net: Now this is different. Instead of offering his personal views and commentary like everybody else, Yazeed regularly features some nostalgia-inducing goodies from the ‘80s and ‘90s. Those should bring some really sweet memories for my generation of bloggers in our 20’s.
  5. Najla: She is articulate. She is sweet. She is controversial. She can be many things, but certainly not lame. This how I usually like to describe her: she has one of the most interesting female voices in the Saudi blogosphere.
  6. Crossroads Arabia: John Burgess keeps his spot on the list as he continues his daily effort to put Saudi Arabia in context. Essential reading for anyone interested in a country that is full of contradictions and paradoxes.
  7. In the Making: My friend Aysha has studies screenwriting in the US and recently came back home to tackle the absurdity of living in the capital. She seems to be coping well, but she is currently seeking a new direction for her blog. My suggestion: short stories from Riyadh.
  8. American Bedu: Carol Fleming’s blog got an honorable mention last time. Since then she moved the blog to a new domain and keeps adding valuable content. This daily updated blog is certainly one of my favourites.
  9. Hala_in_USA: I started reading for Hala al-Dossary in Arabic in al-Hayat daily where she writes regularly. She later moved to the US to study and started this English blog where we get a chance to read her observations about this experience among other things.
  10. Saudiwoman’s Blog: I’ve never met Eman al-Nafjan, but a friend of mine that I introduced to Eman blog met her and described her as one impressive Saudi woman. Some of my favourite posts on her blog include those about notable Saudi personalities.

I was going to list some blogs at the end that I think worth checking out, but I realized there are quite a few of those and I will probably forget many of them. That’s why I will advice you to keep an eye on the Lifestream section at the right sidebar of this blog where I frequently link to interesting posts from all around the blogosphere. Finally, I would like to repeat that this is strictly my opinion; if you think there are other blogs that should have been included in the list please do leave a comment or, even better, you can make up your own list and post it on your blog.

Related:

Want to Marry a Foreigner? Over Their Dead Body

The Shoura Council is an advisory body comprised of 150 members appointed by the King and serves as a quasi-parliament. Those members are academics, technocrats and businessmen. They are, in other words, the intelligentsia of the Saudi society, the crème de la crème, the elite, the… well, you get the idea.

However, I find myself rather gobsmacked by some of the conclusions they make and the recommendations they reach on some issues. Here’s a recent example: after being equally split over a need to simplify the regulations of Saudi marriages to foreigners, the newly appointed vice president Bandar al-Hajjar rejected the proposal. What a disappointing start for Mr. al-Hajjar who was just a few days ago the president of the National Society for Human Rights.

I do not understand the harsh restrictions enforced on citizens who want to marry foreigners. Why should the government bother with who one chooses to marry? I really do not understand the government’s obsession with interfering in the minutiae of people’s personal lives.

The argument offered by the proposal opponents is embarrassingly weak and wrongheaded they should be ashamed of themselves. “Such recommendations would greatly increase the number of Saudis marrying foreigners while we are fully aware of the complications that such marriages create,” they said. They also said changes would only exacerbate the problem of spinsterhood in the Kingdom. Are they trying to convince us that by taking these unfair measures they are actually protecting Saudi women?

As for the “complications” bit, the best response comes from Sabria Jawhar who says, “Well, those complications are created by the Saudi government in the first place. Perhaps minimizing the complications that exist in the law would help those marriages.”

Now how can a large group of supposedly intelligent people all agree on taking such an unintelligent position is just beyond me. Sadly, it is not the first time and this is not an isolated, single case. Remember the weekend thing?

Around one year ago, my good friend Khaled said that we should not get all worked up over the nonperformance of the Shoura Council because it is nothing more than a dead body that we should respectfully leave to rest in peace. I guess he was right all along.

Comedy Night in Riyadh

It is often said that in Riyadh people either pray or shop, and other than that not much is going on here. Tomorrow, however, will be an exception: Smile Productions are presenting a night of live stand up comedy performance, featuring Steve Gribbin and Kiven Bridges from the Comedy Story in London. The show will also feature 3 local talents for the first time on stage, so this should be interesting too. If you need more information, please contact Peter: phowarthlees@mac.com or call him: 0594370662.

The Obama Call

So President-elect Barack Obama called the other day…

obama_me

BARACK OBAMA: Hello, Ahmed? This is Barack.
ME: Hey Abu Hussein! What’s up dude?
BO: Just want to thank you for all the great work during the campaign. Really appreciate it.
ME: You’re welcome, and congrats again. It was awesome!
BO: So, how did you find my speech on election night?
ME: Well, not your best but it was good nevertheless.
BO: What do you mean? What’s wrong with it?
ME: Nothing wrong. It was fine. I especially liked the part where you said: “tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.”
BO: Good. Oh right, I wanted to tell you this, your King Abdullah called me yesterday.
ME: I heard. What did he say?
BO: He just wanted to say congratulation and do the typical Saudi mojamalat thing.
ME: Are you gonna meet him when he comes to DC?
BO: I don’t know. I’m really busy these days: the transition and the dog and the economy and a whole bunch of other stuff. I will see if we can squeeze a meeting in the middle of my crowded schedule but until now nothing is confirmed.
ME: I hope you get a chance to meet him. He’s a real gentleman.
BO: I heard a lot of good things about him. I will try my best, and inshallah it will work out. Is there something in particular you’d like me to talk with him about?
ME: I guess there are some important issues that you should discuss like…
BO: Listen Ahmed, I gotta go now, but it was really nice talking to you. Let’s get in touch again soon, ok?
ME: Mr. President-Elect, nice talking to you, as always.
BO: President-Elect! It sounds so good coming all way the from the other side of the world :-) Goodbye, buddy.
ME: Take care. Bye bye.

Minute 22

Sowar Magazine is a bi-monthly journalistic and documentary photography magazine that focuses on Lebanon, the Middle East and the Gulf. Back in July the magazine announced an interesting project called Minute 22. The project was about taking a single photo at the exact same time in the Arab world, the objective was to document, through pictures, what everyone else is doing during Minute 22, and the time was on Friday 22 August 2008 at exactly 2:22 PM Lebanon local time.

I’m not much of a photographer, but those who know me know that I don’t leave the house without my camera. So I decided to participate at Minute 22 and told others they should participate too. I wished I could be in Riyadh to take such picture, but I was going to be in Beirut. I did take some pictures anyway, not thinking any of them was good enough to make it to special issue of the magazine. After I came back home I sent them one of the pictures, and much to my surprise they liked it!

Now here’s the sad part. When the magazine came out this week I received an email from the magazine congratulating me that my picture was published, and that I can purchase my copy online from anywhere except Saudi Arabia. When I asked them why, they said they have tried to send issues in the past to Saudi Arabia but every time they bounced back! I guess the Ministry of (dis)Infromation don’t like photography that much.

However, someone from the magazine was nice enough (thanks Maisaa!) and sent me a scan of the page where my picture is featured:

me_ahmed-al-omran-spread

The picture, shown here in the upper left corner, was taken at Zico House in Beirut during the first Arab Bloggers Meeting that I attended last August. In the picture you can see my friend Alex, a Swedish journalist, speaking with her Lebanese colleague Sassine. They both work for Menassat, and they were probably talking about the interview they were going to do with me and other fellow bloggers later that day.