The Old Turtle

turtle-clipart_2Mazen Baleelah, member of the Shoura Council, has been working to pass a new law criminalizing sexual harassment in the workplace. Some people supported him in his effort saying it is long overdue; some other people thought he is exaggerating and that sexual harassment is not yet a pressing issue that we need to deal with by legislation. However, the most surprising reaction so far has come from some female academics who spoke to al-Madinah daily last week. They objected to the proposal because they think such law would encourage mixing of the sexes in workplaces. Baleelah was quick to respond that although none of the six articles in the new law encourages mixing of sexes, such mixing is a reality of our everyday life in this age that we need to address properly if we want move forward.

What do I think about all of this? Well, the Shoura Council is dead to me so I’m not expecting anything good to come out of that place. Also, it seems ironic that some women are standing against a law that should protect women, but hey, what do I know? Finally, are we moving forward? Yes we are! We are moving forward, but really really slowly, like an old quadriplegic turtle.

Shame On You

I feel ashamed that there are 270,000 unemployed Saudi young men and a similar number of unemployed Saudi young women in a country that employs more than seven million foreigners

— Ghazi al-Gosaibi, the minister of labor.

I hope that many other officials feel the same way. In a shame culture like ours, this can be a good thing.

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.

Related:

Mahmood’s Den No More

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This is long overdue, but better late than never…

My friend Mahmood al-Yousif, Bahrain’s blogfather, has decided to quit blogging after 5 years of enriching the Gulf cyberspace with his wisdom and humor. Mahmood’s Den was one of the first blogs in the region and one of the inspirations behind Saudi Jeans. I have had the pleasure of meeting Mahmood for the first time in Manama back in 2005, and then once again in Dhahran last year. I am sad to see him stop and I’m sure I will miss his intelligent witty comments, but now there is nothing I can do but wish him all the best in his future endeavors.

Want to Marry a Foreigner? Over Their Dead Body

The Shoura Council is an advisory body comprised of 150 members appointed by the King and serves as a quasi-parliament. Those members are academics, technocrats and businessmen. They are, in other words, the intelligentsia of the Saudi society, the crème de la crème, the elite, the… well, you get the idea.

However, I find myself rather gobsmacked by some of the conclusions they make and the recommendations they reach on some issues. Here’s a recent example: after being equally split over a need to simplify the regulations of Saudi marriages to foreigners, the newly appointed vice president Bandar al-Hajjar rejected the proposal. What a disappointing start for Mr. al-Hajjar who was just a few days ago the president of the National Society for Human Rights.

I do not understand the harsh restrictions enforced on citizens who want to marry foreigners. Why should the government bother with who one chooses to marry? I really do not understand the government’s obsession with interfering in the minutiae of people’s personal lives.

The argument offered by the proposal opponents is embarrassingly weak and wrongheaded they should be ashamed of themselves. “Such recommendations would greatly increase the number of Saudis marrying foreigners while we are fully aware of the complications that such marriages create,” they said. They also said changes would only exacerbate the problem of spinsterhood in the Kingdom. Are they trying to convince us that by taking these unfair measures they are actually protecting Saudi women?

As for the “complications” bit, the best response comes from Sabria Jawhar who says, “Well, those complications are created by the Saudi government in the first place. Perhaps minimizing the complications that exist in the law would help those marriages.”

Now how can a large group of supposedly intelligent people all agree on taking such an unintelligent position is just beyond me. Sadly, it is not the first time and this is not an isolated, single case. Remember the weekend thing?

Around one year ago, my good friend Khaled said that we should not get all worked up over the nonperformance of the Shoura Council because it is nothing more than a dead body that we should respectfully leave to rest in peace. I guess he was right all along.