Category Technology

Google Introduces Hijri Calendar

Dates, not that kind of dates and not the ones you can eat, can be confusing in Saudi Arabia because we use two calendars: the Hijri and the Gregorian. Since our country boasts itself as the bastion of Islam, the official calendar used by the government is the Hijri calendar. But since the Hijri calendar is lunar and the religious establishment here refuses to accept any other mean of moon sighting except the naked eye, this has led to some unpredictability and controversy over the years, especially when it comes to announcing the start of Ramadhan, Eid or Hajj.

Writer Mohammed Hasan Alwan captured this duality in his latest novel, where one of the characters complained: “That’s what makes time passing heavier on us, to live in a country that uses two calendars to audit its accounts. Why? A Hiri year, and a Gregorian year, and the year ends twice, and life ends twice.” The new Hijri calendar introduced by Google might not solve the problem of Mohammed Hasan Alwan’s character, but it should help the rest of us to avoid some confusion when it comes to organizing our life around two calendars. You can enable the Hijri calendar by going to the calendar settings and select the desired calendar from the drop down box next to “Alternate calendar”.

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.

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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.

It’s Good to Talk

Women’s driving and the mahram (male guardianship) have been two of the most pressing and controversial issues in the country during the past few years. However, serious debate regarding these issues has been almost absent from the local media in the past few weeks.

I slightly noticed the absence, but I thought it could be that people simply got sick of endlessly discussing these issues without seeing any visible progress. But I was wrong. According to Dr. Abdul-Rahman Al-Enad, member of Shoura Council, the Ministry of (dis)Information have secretly ordered the newspapers to ban any article on these two issues. He didn’t explain why MOI have taken such measures, but the message is clear: they don’t want anyone to talk about this.

Dr. Al-Enad, who is also a founding member of NSHR, revealed this secret and other juicy bits during a lecture on human rights and freedom of expression that he gave to a group of journalism students and teachers at KSU last Saturday.

Truth be told, I was a bit hesitant to attend the lecture because my recent experiences with Shoura Council members were not particularly encouraging. I’m glad to report this wasn’t the case this time. Dr. Al-Enad was frank, blunt and refreshingly as cool as a Shoura member can be.

He started his talk with a brief introduction on the principles of human rights and the international laws, then quickly moved to focus on the importance of free speech as a fundamental and indispensable right for the citizens any developing nation.

Dr. Al-Enad said that although the Press and Publications Law states that “freedom of press is protected in line with laws and Sharia,” such statement has no basis in The Basic Law, which serves as a constitution, where Article 39 states: “Mass media and all other vehicles of expression shall employ civil and polite language, contribute towards the education of the nation and strengthen unity. It is prohibited to commit acts leading to disorder and division, affecting the security of the state and its public relations, or undermining human dignity and rights. Details shall be specified in the Law.”

The devil is in the details. The Basic Law refers you to the Press and Publications Law, which in turn doesn’t offers much details. All what the latter has to offer is the vague sentence “in line with laws and Sharia.” What laws and what interpretation of Sharia, no one exactly knows.

As I previously said here, The Basic Law should be amended to enumerate the rights and duties of citizens, and one of these rights is freedom of expression. Dr. Al-Enad agrees, but says the problem is that the Shoura Council has no right to amend The Basic Law. Actually, the Council doesn’t even have the right to modify its own rules. Only the King has the power to do that.

However, the Council has the authority to review and approve lower laws. One of these laws is the E-Crimes Act, which has been passed in March 2007. I am concerned because the act contained some articles that are very stretchy and non-specific, and they can be easily used to target freedom of expression online.

I went to ask Dr. Al-Enad about this law after he finished his lecture. He told me he does not remember the details of the law, and asked if he can contact me later to talk about this. I gave him my card, and I’m still waiting to hear from him. Can I trust the Shoura Council to act positively to protect human rights and free speech, at least on this particular case? For now, I’m reserving my judgment until the esteemed member and I get a chance to talk. Because, you know, it’s always good to talk.

Rights Bodies Appeal for Two Saudis

Human Rights Watch has urged courts in Jeddah to dismiss a case against Rai’f Badawi, founder of Saudi Liberals forums. On May 5, the prosecutor charged Badawi with “setting up an electronic site that insults Islam,” and referred the case to court, asking for a five-year prison sentence and a 3 million riyal fine.

Badawi no longer owns or controls the website. After unknown hackers, who probably think they were doing some sort of electronic jihad, attacked the website several times and threatened him and his family, he sold the website and fled the country two weeks ago. A new owner announced a while ago that he took over the website, which has been offline for more than a week now.

It is understood that Badawi will be tried according to the E-Crimes Act that has been issued in March 2007. The act, which can be found here (Arabic PDF), contains some laws that seem to target free speech such as Article 6 which incriminates “producing content which violates general order, religious values, public morals or sanctity of private life, or preparing it, or sending it, or storing it via the network or a computer.”

The questions is: who defines and specifies what are those religious values and what are those public morals? I don’t know if this act has been approved by the Shoura Council or not, because I think it is unacceptable for the Council to approve such act that contains these vague laws and articles which contradicts international conventions and accords on which Saudi Arabia is a signatory.

amnesty_logo On a related note, Amnesty International are appealing for Muhammad Ali Abu Raziza, a psychology professor at the University of Um al-Qura, who has been sentenced to 150 lashes and eight months’ imprisonment for meeting a woman in a coffee shop. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this case and the reports on it in the local press has been full of contradictions. Therefor, I can’t make up my mind on who is at fault here.

However, I think the Commission should seriously reconsider how to define and deal with this whole “khulwa” thing. When a man and a woman meet in a public place like a cafe, a restaurant, or in the street where they are surrounded by people and others can see them, does it constitute a khulwa? I doubt that they will ever think this through but I guess it’s worth asking anyway.