It has been a long time since I read anything by Mody al-Khalaf, but yesterday she was back with a good column at Arab News. This time, al-Khalaf comments on letter to King Abdullah that was written by 500 women asking for what they called “their Islamic rights.” These women asked the king to ignore the calls for “Western” rights for women.

Al-Khalaf makes a good argument, even though most of what she talks about is well-known to those of us who choose to look at things in a way that really makes sense. She writes, “I ask for my Islamic right to work in marketing, sales, catering, medicine, law, politics, engineering, fashion, the military or any other occupation which I might choose.”

Are we going to see Saudi women gain more rights this year? I hope so. I’m optimistic, and with people like al-Khalaf and others, including many Saudi female bloggers that I’m really proud of, I am sure they will. “And finally, as a Muslim, I ask for my right to choose. In any argument, a Muslim has the right to choose the interpretations he or she wants instead of being forced to go along with other people’s choices,” al-Khalaf concludes.

Good News For Me: According to a scientific study conducted in Saudi Arabia, there are more than 2,000 job opportunities available for Saudi pharmacists with the number expected to rise soon to 5,000.

As I expected, Swedish women were allowed to attend the match, and they were seated in the journalists’ area. But the local press did not report this story. Ignorance?

Shorooq al-Fawaz writes about the new Saudi obsession with stock market. Last year, we experienced several IPO’s that raised people’s interest in stock market, leading to what I liked to call The Stock Market Mania. Suddenly, the only thing everybody was talking about is the stock market, and the subject has become the ideal ice-breaker for everyone. When a public service such as the National Railways Organization starts to install huge screens showing MSNBC Arabiya 24/7 in the waiting areas of their stations, I think that we have reached a scary stage.

About half of the Kingdom’s population have participated in the last IPO in 2005, and with 30 new IPO’s expected in this new year, it is hard to see when all this mania will stop. A friend of mine told me that the growth of the stock market is an opportunity that should not be missed. It is the second boom. “Our fathers have missed the oil boom of the ’80s, and someday our children and grandchildren would come and say the we have missed a second boom,” he said.

To all blogging newbies and otherwise, here is the top ten reasons why nobody reads your blog.

I have been following the Saudi sports press in the past few days, and there are not much information about the friendly match against Sweden. The Saudi papers said the Swedish team would come without their stars because they are busy with their clubs, which is true, but there more that Saudi papers did not know about. A Scandinavian reader has told me the Swedish press reported that Saudis will pay for the whole trip of the Swedish team to the Middle East, including the accommodation in Abdu Dhabi and the cost for another friendly match against Jordan there. Now I can understand that we will pay them to come to Riyadh, even though that playing against the reserve team might be a total waste of money. But to pay for their trip to the UAE and to play another match there against Jordan? That’s just plain non-sense.

Something interesting might happen tonight in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia is going to play an international football match against Sweden, which pressured Saudis to allow women to attend the match. Sweden is going to play with their reserve team, as most of their stars refused to join the team for this match. However, according to FIFA website, the news that both Swedish and Saudi women would be blocked from attending the game did not go down well. “[I]t is important that Sweden very clearly speaks out when women are discriminated against. This is a good occasion,” Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds said.

The Swedish embassy in Riyadh say that Saudis told them Prince Faisal Stadium in Mallaz, where the match will be played, is open for everyone, including Saudi women. I really suspect this. I wish I was in Riyadh to attend the match and see how are they going to handle this. I’m afraid that Saudis told Swedish embassy such thing because they are sure no Saudi woman would dare to show up at the stadium. And for the foreign women, if there were any, they will seat them at the area dedicated for journalists and media people. However, I’d like to see some Saudi women in the audience at the match tonight.