in short…
USA … 1931
Saudi Arabia… 2007
Translation: “According to The Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice; passing coffee to women is not allowed.
When I saw this post over at Lalla Mona’s blog, I remembered Martin Luther King’s words. To her and everyone out there who aspires to reform this country, I want to say: don’t worry, you are not alone, and we shall overcome.
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I’m flying to Cairo this Tuesday to participate at a workshop organized by the Arab Network for Human Rights Information aka HRinfo.net, which is blocked in Saudi Arabia btw. The two-day workshop will focus on human rights and the internet — how activists can use the net to promote human rights and how the net can help the activists to do a better job.
I will be meeting some friends like fellow blogger Khaled Al Nassir and Wael Abbas, the Egyptian A-list blogger whom I’ve met in Beirut last year. I will also be looking forward to meet Gamal Eid, Ahmed Gharbia and Abdelmenim Mahmoud as well as the famous couple Manal and Alaa.
As I have to be back right away for school, I won’t have much free time to spend in Cairo, but any pointers on what I should do and what I should see are highly appreciated. I’m thinking about having a meet up with bloggers so if you are interested please let me know.
As if Yakin Ertürk, the special rapporteur of the United Nations Human Rights Council on Violence Against Women, needed more issues to talk about during her 10-day visit to the Kingdom, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice have decided to give her one more reason to tell us how we should treat our women (and men for that matter), and gosh how they hate it when they do that.
This sorry incident involving a Saudi-American businesswoman arrested in Riyadh for sitting in a Starbucks coffee shop with an unrelated man occurred on the same day Ertürk arrived to meet government officials, members of the Shoura Council and academics as well as individual victims of violence against women. She will subsequently report her findings to the UN Human Rights Council.
I’m glad that the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) have decided to speak out and stand up for the woman. They described the manner in which she was strip-searched in prison as “inhuman,” but to me the whole ordeal from the moment she was arrested is inhuman.
After recounting the outrageous violations committed by the Commission member against the women, an NSHR official said they will raise the issue with the Governorate of Riyadh. Moreover, the official said that they will ask the governorate that the woman be compensated for the damages she sustained.
However, based on past experiences with incidents involving the Commission, I think it is very unlikely that the governorate will hold them accountable for their misbehavior. Actually, one of the main problems with the Commission is the magnitude of power given to them in Riyadh that allow them to violate basic human rights and invade people’s privacy. Compare the situation in the capital to that in Jeddah and you will see what I mean. I think we are going to hear the same old rhetoric about how the Commission is not responsible for the mistakes its members make even if it resulted in the death of citizens.
I have said it many times before and I will say it again: until the government is serious about setting clear guidelines on what this Commission can and can’t do, we will continue to hear about atrocities like this one. In the past, many things like these used to pass unnoticed because people were too afraid to speak out against them, but times have changed and it is up to the people now to stand up for their rights.
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This is the post I wanted to use for my first participation in the Fouad’s Week event, but unfortunately I don’t have time to translate it now. So I will repost these quotes that I translated last month:
It is only the feebleminded who would use guns and violence to deliver his message.
We desperately need a time of calmness and reconciliation between the different leaderships in our society: Islamists, liberals and the government.
If you were a free citizen and think you have the right speak your mind on what is happening in our country and have something to say, be brave and say it in your real name.
In Saudi Arabia, there is no guarantee that you won’t be arrested because of your frankness and speaking your mind on your blog. But there is also no guarantee when you hide and write in internet forums using a pseudonym.
My advice to anyone that cares about common interest and is angry over what is happening in our country and keeps on writing at internet forums using a pseudonym is to join the blogging world and write using his real name to contribute positively in building the Saudi blogosphere.
Demanding the release of detained Saudi blogger Fouad Al Farhan, the Hands Across the Middle East Support Alliance (HAMSA) has called for a vigil today in front of the Saudi Embassy in Washington DC from 13:00-14:45. If you cannot attend, please take a moment to join over 1,200 other people and send a letter to Saudi officials calling for Fouad’s release.
On a related note, all bloggers are invited to participate in “Fouad’s Week,” a week long event in which we are going to embrace “We Are All Fouads” as a slogan. The event will take place between Saturday Feb 9th and Friday Feb 15th. You can read more on the goals of this event and how you can take part here.
The patient education course I attended on Monday was OK. It suffered a lack of organization and they were lucky the number of participants was small. It could have been chaotic, and it didn’t help that the presentations were lame. Not much to say about the sessions, and I’m pretty sure you are not even remotely interested in knowing stuff such as the fact that 24% of the Saudi population have diabetes and 28% of those are not even aware they are diabetics!
But what I want to say is that I was really impressed by the female pharmacists. Despite being locked kept in the upper deck of the otherwise mostly empty auditorium, they were very vocal and gave the speakers a hard time with tough questions and critical remarks. Fellow male students tried to keep up with them (or was it to get the girls’ attention? ;-) but to no avail.
After the end of the course, and since the weather was nice and sunny, I went to take a walk inside the King Abdulaziz Historical Center area, one of my favorite places in Riyadh. I had a good time but I missed a friend of mine that I used to enjoy walking and taking pictures with. Speaking of pictures, I have taken some many of these during my walk; a couple of them are shown above and you can find the rest here.
Living in the so-called Kingdom of Humanity, one can’t help but wonder: is there a way to escape all the depressing news coming our way? It is hard to ignore all the disturbing stories of injustice and discrimination that keep jumping before our eyes. But at the same time, you don’t want all of this to get to you. You want to be happy and you want to be able to enjoy your day.
Sometimes you wonder: why do they make it so hard to love your own country? Frustrated and angry as you may be, deep down you know how much you love it and you are proud of it.
It is said that hope is such a thin rope to hold our lives on, but it seems that’s all what we’ve got these days. It is the thing that keeps us going: it gives Abdul-Rahman Al-Lahim the strength to keep on fighting, it gives Wajiha Al-Huwaider and Fawzia Al Oyouni the courage to keep on rallying, and it gives people like Fouad and Hadeel a reason to keep on blogging and speak out.
Saudi Jeans 
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