Category Saudi Arabia

Jeddah: Gurlz vs. Guyz

jeddah_boysI have said it before and I shall say it again and again: those Jeddawis never fail to impress me. Their latest is a 12-minute documentary featuring young men and women who talk about their views about the opposite sex and dating.

As I have said in a recent post, dating is a risky business in Saudi Arabia, and to have a documentary discussing it this way is truly amazing. The short film is produced by Izzaty Islamy, a two-year-old girl’s social club that sponsors monthly discussions and has conducted debate events at Dar Al-Hekma College and the International Medical Center. I can’t wait to get my hands on the film and watch it; and since it’s only 12-minute long the group might consider uploading it to YouTube or something like that.

Proud of You

Faris Bin Hizam has complained that some great accomplishments by the men and women of this country do not receive the attention they deserve in the mainstream media. He is right. That’s why I want to dedicate this post to these great people, especially women. I want to celebrate them and let the world know that our women are making a difference not just for Saudi Arabia but for the whole world.

I am proud of Dr. Huwaida Al Guthami, the heart surgeon at Prince Sultan Cardiac Center who pioneered some of most recent advancements in this field. Dr. Al Guthami was recently awarded with the King Faisal medallion of the fourth degree.

I am proud of Dr. Khawla Al Kuraya, the senior scientist at KFSH & RC and the director of research center at KFNCCC&R. She has recently received the Harvard University Scientific Achievement Award.

huwaid_guthami khawla_kuraya

buthainaI am proud of Buthaina Al Nassr, the first Saudi female news anchor. Buthaina was the first face to welcome the viewers at the launch of Al Ekhbariya news channel, and she continues to deliver some of the best reporting work on local issues on television.

These three women and many others work hard everyday to make life better for all of us. In addition to them, there are millions who do the same away from the limelight. Take my grandmother for example: although she was widowed twice when she was young, she worked hard to support her family and raised all of her children to become contributing members to their society. When my father (may his soul rest in peace) said he wants to leave school and get a job to help the family she firmly refused and insisted that he continues his education. He became a teacher and his brother became a dentist, and till this day, there is nothing my family puts more emphasis on than education. I am proud of her, and I am thankful that she continues to bless our life with her prayers and wisdom.

Succession and Women’s Driving

I don’t know why, but apparently we get a lot of our important decisions made during the last ten days of Ramadhan. Last year it was the new succession law, and this year we got the judiciary reform as well as the fine details of the aforementioned succession law. I guess our government is always inspired by the spirituality of those holy days.

Speaking of the government, I wonder how/if they are going to react to what Fawzia Al-Oyouni, a founding member of the Society for Protecting and Defending Women’s Rights, told Arab New today. She said they are planning to take field trips in markets, shopping malls and hospitals in order to educate as many women as possible and to spread awareness on women’s driving.

Working on the ground, like dating, is a risky business in Saudi Arabia. The public spaces Al-Oyouni talks about, such as markets and malls, are to a degree or another controlled by the infamous religious police. I can’t imagine they would allow anyone else to use these spaces for a cause that they have no sympathy with.

The King has always pledged his commitment to reform. He wants to make sure that his efforts in changing this country would last and the gains won’t be lost soon, and that the changes he is implementing for the good of the nation are solid and permanent. This is an issue where that commitment can be shown again.

Reforms on the Justice System

My recent visit to the United States has consolidated my views on the importance of an independent, transparent and powerful judiciary system for any modern country. That’s why I was very pleased to see that our outcry for a much-needed reform in the justice system in Saudi Arabia has finally reached the King who issued a royal decree to overhaul the whole thing. It is long overdue, probably, but it is here nevertheless, and thank God for that.

The new system is expected to take many of the powers currently possessed by the Higher Judicial Council. Now this is not going to be an easy transition, I think. Sheikh Al Luhaidan and his fellow clerics have been on the top of our judicial system for a long time, and the notion that they will give up their powers peacefully seems unlikely. But let’s hope we won’t see any of the old faces in the new supreme court.

Donuts and Pretzels

It was Dotsson who first reported that Krispy Kreme has finally arrived to Saudi Arabia, and now Mochness has the first review after getting a chance to try their donuts before the grand opening which is expected on the first day of Eid al Fitr. I had my first Krispy Kreme donut on my last night in Washington DC. We were like: “we ain’t leave DC without eating them!” But the thing that I really wanted to try while I was in the States was pretzels. Sara Dickerman in Slate says she is surprised by how little respect pretzels get in the snack-food world. I had a chance to try pretzels in New York and I have a picture to prove it! Now I need to know if there is a place in Riyadh that makes good pretzels.

eating pretzels

Block, Block, Block

After we got rid of the notorious ISU for good, it seem that now it’s the turn of CITC to prove that idiotic internet censorship is still well and alive in Saudi Arabia. After blocking liberal forums and some small blogs, they have decided to go big this time and block the Guardian Blogs. Probably this has something to do with Al Yamamah scandal, but the BAE investigation file pages where you can find out about the deal are still available. It’s not that they usually have a good reason to block websites in the first place, anyway.

Al Hameds on Trial

My brothers and I went this morning to the court here in Ahssa to finish some regular paper work. It was past 9 AM when we arrived to the court building. We entered the main hall to find a lot of people waiting while the court employees were chitchatting in different corners of their offices. None of the judges has arrived yet, we were told. The employees were sitting doing nothing because they could not turn on their computers. They told us if they turned on their computers the electricity in the building would blackout. (!) We were told to get back on Saturday, not even Wednesday! Some people blamed Amr Al Faisal when he ripped into the Jeddah court. Take that!

So, in what is expected to be yet another mockery in the Saudi legal system, Abdullah Al Hamed and his brother Isa were told to appear in a criminal court in Buraida next Saturday over their involvement in the women’s demonstration that was held in July. “The charge is that they incited the women to stage a sit-in, and tried to break through a security cordon,” Khalid Al Omair, a fellow activist, told AFP. These charges sound dubious, but with a legal system like ours anything can happen.

The only good thing about this rather disturbing piece of news is that the trial would be open to public. It will be a chance for those supporting the reforms to make a statement by showing up at the court on Saturday morning, and hopefully a big crowd would draw the attention of public and media.

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