There was a large number of scholarships for studying abroad in the past two years, but some questions were raised about the absence of any scholarships for arts and literature. In this column, Haifaa Al Mansur emphasizes on the importance of qualified cinema directors and cinematographers, which is understood due to the fact that she is one of the first Saudi directors. The current scholarships program is expected to last for about ten years, and I think it should include seats for studies in fields such as creative writing, fine arts, and journalism in the coming years.

On a side note, if you googled Haifaa Al Mansour name the top result would be a post I wrote yesteryear when she premiered her documentary Women with No shadow. Kinda surprising.

The world has gone crazy, that’s what comes to my mind when I read stories like these: a man divorces his wife of ten years and five children because he discovered that she owned a camera phone; another man kidnaps a drycleaner and rob him at knifepoint of SR300 ($80) because when the man went to pick up his dry cleaning a 10-riyal skullcap was missing. Craziness or what?

Homaidan Al Turki was sentenced yesterday to 27 years to life in prison in Colorado. The 37-year-old Saudi national, denied the charges and blamed anti-Muslim prejudice for the case against him. His lawyer said he would appeal the convictions, and argued that cultural differences were at the heart of the charges. To support Al Turki please visit this website.

Abeer Mishkhas is very angry about the possible new prayer arrangements for women at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, and I think she has every right to be angry. I was going to put some parts of her column here, but the whole thing is worth reading, so check it out. Hatoon Al-Fassi has written about this, too.

Malcolm Gladwell: “This is the age of zero tolerance. Rules are rules.”

NY Times: “Mr. Mahfouz, a slender, modest, shy man who once described himself as “a fourth- or fifth-class writer,” was often called the Egyptian Balzac for his vivid frescoes of Cairenes and their social, political and religious dilemmas.”