Category Women’s Rights

Mixing Banned at Saudi Banks

Few weeks ago I was talking with a friend of mine who works in the HQ of the Saudi Hollandi Bank when he told me that squads of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice have been raiding his workplace lately. He said the commission were not happy about the mixed work environment there and demanded that the bank segregate men from women. At that time I thought the bank would ignore the commission’s calls because a) it is none of their business, and b) banks HQ’s have been mixed work places for years.

What do I know? Not a very long time after that incident, we read that an “unwritten” order to ban mixing of men and women was given to all banks. The order also demanded banks to allocate separate gates and elevators for women only. None of the local papers here reports the news, and AlArabiya.net which broke the story first do not mention who issued the order. So, as you can see, here we have an order that is unwritten and unattributed, and SAMA, which regulate banking in the country, is declining to comment. Female bank employees said the decision would negatively affect their careers.

I’m not shocked, that’s for sure, I have seen enough lunacy taking place in this land, but I got some questions: How on earth the banks are willing to comply to some unwritten order? How those affected by this can object to it? Why this applies to banks and other private sector businesses but not to Saudi Aramco, which is supposedly owned by the government? Can NSHR say and/or do something about this?

So much for promoting gender equality and empowering women…

Al-Yamamh Girls are Blogging

Mrs. Lobat Asadi who teaches English at Al-Yamamah College in Riyadh has sent me a link to her project website that is used as a part of the course she is giving there. I know this practice might be common elsewhere, but I think this is interesting because I’ve never come across anything like this happening here in Saudi Arabia. Mrs. Asadi also provides links (check out the left sidebar) to blogs by her students. She thinks many people will enjoy reading the thoughts of these young Saudi women, and that “they are much more intelligent than people give them credit for.” I agree with her that many people underestimate the capabilities of our women, and I’m glad that blogs are offering opportunities to change the conventional thoughts.

My Bad

I did not see that coming. I mean: I really, really did not see that coming. On the opening day of the fourth Saudi Media Forum organized by SAMC here in Riyadh, the minister of interior has made some bold statements:

Interior Minister Prince Naif yesterday urged the Saudi community not to endorse the culture of segregation between men and women. The remarks were met with applause from members of the audience where the prince was speaking.

“Segregation of men and women is not correct,” Naif told an audience consisting of officials, academics and media persons, who were attending an annual communication forum organized by the Saudi Association for Media and Communication here.

Don’t get too excited, though. Arab News have emphasized on these statements and decided to use them as one of the main stories on their front page today, but unfortunately they failed to mention this: these statements were made as a response to a question on the need for a Saudi women’s media forum. Of course we will read all kinds of (mis)interpretations of these few words by our pundits over the coming few days, but, and before what is going to be a media hoopla, I believe there is only thing I should say here: I’m not holding my breath.

Keif Al Hal: How Are We?

Although I had it on my hard disk since the middle of December, I have decided to wait and watch Keif Al Hal on the TV screen instead of my laptop 14″ screen when LBC aired it on New Year’s Eve. Before going into my opinion about the movie, let me say that I totally agree with Abdullah Al Ayaf, a Saudi director, that the whole fuss over who made the first Saudi movie is irrelevant. It doesn’t really matter which movie was the first as much as which one is the best.

Prior to watching the movie, I had read almost every review written about it. The only friend who watched it told me it was very, very bad. He described it as a piece of crap, the worst movie he watched ever. When it was time to watch it, I put all that aside and sat on the couch with my roommate trying to enjoy it without any of the reviews in mind.

I think the main problem with the movie is that it doesn’t tell the story very well. I never heard of Bilal Fadhl before, I respect Mohammed Ridha as a reporter and critic, but I think Keif Al Hal would have been better off if the story was written by Saudis.

All the issues that the movie touches on are real and persistent in our society, but the correlation between these issues and the story is sometimes vague. I think the movie makers have made a mistake when they tried to make it “all things Saudi.” However, credits should be given to them for not trying to presume/suggest/impose solutions for our social plagues.

Casting was also one of the weaknesses of the movie. I wonder if the producers considered at any point the likes of Abdul-Rahman Al Nemr, Nasser Al Qasabi and Abdullah Al Sadhan or other good local actors to play some roles. Choosing Emarati actors for some roles was wrong. None of the actors performed exceptionally; the performance was mostly average or below. I was expecting more from Hisham Al Huwaish (Sultan); Ali Al Sebaa (the father) was slow like a robot; and Khaled Sami (the grandfather) has taken it so far.

I think Rotana intention was to make a romance-comedy movie, but did not quite achieved that. The “thing” between Sultan and Sahar (played by Jordanian actress Mais Hamdan) can hardly be considered a love story, and the lame jokes of the grandfather doesn’t make it a comedy.

My verdict: good; not great, not even very good, but good nevertheless. It is definitely better than I expected, especially after all the negative reviews, and it left me optimistic about what Saudis can make in the movie business even in the absence of film theaters in the country. Considering the large number of good Saudi novels published recently, I think the next Saudi movie should be based on one of these novels instead of writing one from scratch. Novels such as Al-Irahbi 20 by Abdullah Thabit and Al-Bahriat by Omaima Al Khamis are two good examples to start with. My rating of Keif Al Hal: 2.5/5.