Category Saudi Arabia

Women and Reformist Lawyer Arrested

Following their demonstration outside a state security HQ in Qassim, Rima al-Juraish and four other women were arrested today. Moreover, Abdullah al-Hamid, a well-known reformist and attorney of Rima al-Juraish’s husband Mohammed al-Hamily, was also arrested. Al-Hamid, who was previously jailed in the past after demanding constitutional reforms but was later pardoned by King Abdullah, has asked the authorities to allow his family to bring him his medicines. Read more here and here (Arabic).

UPDATE: The Interior Ministry have issued a statement confirming the arrests, claiming they took place after a search for weapons at Juraish’s home which uncovered three machine guns, three revolvers and some ammunition. However, it is said that it was the security forces themselves who brought the weapons when they raided the house at dawn, then planted them in a sofa and under floor tiles before arresting the group.

Saudi Arabia Outclass Bahrain

Saudi Arabia are through to the Asian Cup quarter-finals after they brushed aside Bahrain 4-0 in their last match in Group D. Korea also made it to the knock-out stage after they beat co-hosts Indonesia 1-0. Saudi Arabia and Korea will face Uzbekistan and Iran, respectively, in the next round.

First let me say that I have not expected our team to beat Bahrain easily, let alone with a big score like that. Bahrain have become such a rival in the past few years, and their team used to give us some hard time even when we won. Bahrain wanted to win in the time that they could have been through with a draw, and that’s where they made a huge mistake. I have never seen Bahrain play against Saudi Arabia in this kind of open play game before. It is true that such tactic has given them advantage in the first 15 minutes and they were very close to score on several occasions in the first half, but their attempts were blocked by a solid performance of Saudi defense and keeper al-Mosaileem.

yassir and talal

Although Saudi Arabia were the younger side, they knew how to deal with the match. On the 18th minute, Yassir al-Qahtani passed a clever ball over Bahraini defenders to Malek, who barely touches the ball in the way of Ahmed Al-Mousa who enters the box and beats the goal keeper to take the lead for the Green Falcons. Bahrain tried to equalize and had some good chances but could not score.

On the last minute of the first half, Saudi Arabia proved how they can be very dangerous on the counter-attack, when Yassir passed a long ball to Malek on the right flank who sent a low cross to Abdul-Rahman al-Qahtani to easily score the second Saudi goal.

Bahrain have had a good start after the break and could have scored early in the 2nd half but were again denied by al-Mosaileem. It did not, however, take long for Saudis to kill the game on the 68th minute when Taiseer al-Jassim fired a beautiful 30-yard strike into the top right corner of the Bahraini net. With 10 minutes remaining in the game, Taiseer scored again after a sweet play between Malek and Omar. We could have scored more, but at that point of the match it didn’t matter anymore.

Jeddah Film Festival

green monster picIf you are in Jeddah these days, you don’t want to miss this event: the 2nd Jeddah Film Festival or Jeddah Visual Shows Festival, as it is called, was opened at the Ismail Abudawood auditorium at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) last night and will run until Friday. They will be showing 48 films of different lengths and types, including some interesting titles such as “Women Without Shadows” by Haifaa al-Mansour. Arab News have the festival’s schedule, and you can find their official website here. Lucky Jeddawis, I’m officially green with envy!

Women Demonstrate in Qassim

Fifteen women and seven children have demonstrated outside a state security HQ demanding a fair public trial for their husbands, stop torture, and transfer them back to a local prison. Fouad al-Farhan, the blogger who has been on hiatus for a long time and now is back, broke the story on his blog.

This is important because it is the first time for women to hold a public demonstration in protest in Saudi Arabia. I doubt that mainstream media would actually cover the story, and hence it is important to spread the word online in blogs and forums. Go to Fouad’s blog now and sign your name in support of these women, and make sure this reaches as many people as possible.

UPDATE: Reuters confirmed the story.

RIYADH, July 16 (Reuters) – Wives of Saudi men detained on suspicion of links to militant groups complained to the authorities on Monday, saying their husbands should be released or face a public trial, families said.

“Our husbands and sons are in prison … We have sent telegrams and we’ve gone to the Human Rights Commission but it’s useless. So we are staging this sit-in,” Rima al-Juraish said by telephone. She said she was speaking from outside a state security headquarters in the Qassim region north of Riyadh.

She said the women wanted cases involving their families brought to court, legal representation for the men, an end to “mistreatment” and their return to a local prison.

Juraish said the detainees, who have been held for periods ranging from two to five years, were removed to Riyadh last month for induction in a “correction” programme run by clerics that authorities say has led more than 700 suspects to “repent”.

Will They Abide?

So the government have cautioned the the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. “The Ministry of Interior has instructed commission members to strictly abide by the law and hand suspects immediately over to the custody of police,” Arab News reported today.

The statement comes after a July 1 royal directive stating that commission field members must abide by a 1982 order that they have no authority to detain or process suspects. How come this order has been ignored for this long time is beyond my comprehension, but it is obvious that the Commission and those who support them are finally feeling the heat. They should. Unfortunately, it has taken the death of two innocent men for such thing to happen.

I should say, however, that such statement does not necessarily mean that members of the Commission will abide. I mean it has been there since 1982, right? What happens when you put a low and then don’t enforce it is that people start to ignore it and then simply lose their respect to the law afterwards.