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Saudi Arabia

PR by Saudi Commission of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice

Mar 6th, 2009
by khanserai.
4 comments

Saudi Arabia is infamous for it’s “religious police” who are actually not police but civil servants entrusted with policing society for moral wrongs. Affectionately called Hayya, infamously called Mutawwas, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice tends to have a love-hate relationship with the population.

The recent change of the Commission leadership by King Abdullah was noted by many. The new head has since then made several statements about the new role of the commission, and the need to tone down the tension.

A noteworthy attempt is the Commission PR booth at the Riyadh Book Fair (March 3-13, 2009 at the new Riyadh Exhibition Center). Amidst the religious books by Saudi publishers, the varied books by Lebanese and Egyptian publishers and the kids books by Syrian publishers is the Commission booth. Not to be confused with the Commission resting/tea area by the info counter, it features examples of items that they have confiscated, photos of items found in raids and also the reasons WHY they are banned. There were also several Commission members explaining things at this fairly popular booth!

If one did not know better, just by the items on display you would assume that they are the Saudi Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) equivalent with a special twist of having an Improper Use of Magic Office a la Harry Potter.

Judging by the number of people that thronged the booth, it was clearly a hit! Perhaps the Hayya need to further reach out through such toned down and educational means. It would certainly give them an opportunity to develop a friendlier relationship with the population.

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Insulting Royalty- Saudi Arabia and Beyond

Mar 3rd, 2009
by khanserai.
6 comments

Many countries with royal families tend to be extremely protective about defending their honor. Thailand was recently in the news because of the jailing of an Australian writer for insulting the monarchy and his subsequent pardon. A few weeks later a British professor ran from Thailand with similar charges against him. Several years ago Spanish magazines were pulled off the shelves for depicting insulting images of the royalty.

Saudi Arabia is similar to many of these countries regarding the high regard for the royal family, with an additional aspect- the Saudi monarchy are the ACTUAL rulers of the country, not just figureheads! This seems to elevate them to an even higher standard where criticism is not allowed at all and makes people very sensitive about the topic. Blogs that criticize the Saudi royals are blocked in the country as are several human rights web-sites.  Defacing the currency is a big no-no as it has images of the royalty on it. People discuss issues like corruption off the record in “safe” settings with trusted friends only. 

These cultural sensitivities were highlighted last week when the coach of the Al-Hilal football (soccer) team was fired and told to leave the country because he threw down his shirt that had the picture of Crown Prince Sultan on it. This happened right after his team won at the Crown Prince Cup. The organizers of the match did not allow the whole team to come to the podium; in anger the coach did not go to the podium and threw his shirt. The next day he was fired. His apology was not accepted.

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Free Tours of Riyadh: Saudi Tourism

Feb 23rd, 2009
by khanserai.
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SCTA offers free tours of Riyadh
Saeed Al-Khotani | Arab News

RIYADH: The Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) started operating free sightseeing tours on Saturday in Riyadh.

The newly appointed executive manager of Riyadh Tourism Development Bureau, Abdul Rahman Al-Jassas, told Arab News that these tours aim at introducing Riyadh’s landmarks to stimulate tourism in the city, increase the number of visitors and encourage tour operators to offer such tours regularly.

He said the tours are conducted in cooperation with the Saudi Arabian Public Transport Company (SAPTCO).

“According to the terms of cooperation, we pay for the costs of tour guides and advertising campaigns while SAPTCO provides transportation on modern, comfortable buses,” he said. “These tours, which operate twice a day, are free of charge for Riyadh visitors and residents and will continue until the end of the week. A tour guide will explain and answer any questions about the city’s landmarks.”

The trips start from Prince Salman Science Oasis on King Abdullah Road, north of Riyadh. The first tour starts at 4:30 p.m., and the second starts at 6:30 p.m. every day, Al-Jassas pointed out.

The tours cover most prominent landmarks in the city, such as Al-Aziziyah, Ghurnatha, the old Diriya town, the Kingdom and Al-Faisaliah towers, the King Abdul Aziz Historical Center, Al-Masmak Palace and the traditional rug market.

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Punishment for Gang Rapists- Saudi Style

Feb 21st, 2009
by khanserai.
3 comments

Saudi Arabia is becoming harsher with punishments for sexual crimes. Last week a teenager was sentenced to 5 years in prison and 500 lashes for black-mailing for threatening to publish a woman’s photos if she did not go out with him.

Two traffic cops were recently beheaded for gang raping an expatriate woman. It is unclear if the sentencing is because the woman is an expatriate or if this is an indication of longer term changes coming to KSA.

Along with more focus on domestic violence cases as well as child rights, changes are slowly creeping in.

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Change in Saudi Arabia- Short and Long Term

Feb 18th, 2009
by khanserai.
3 comments

As we have all read by now, Saudi Arabia has made some changes in its government and brought in more moderates. Some changes were expected, some were nominal while others are profound.

A lot of people focused on the first woman appointee as it heralds something new, however bringing in women is an inevitable change. No matter how much certain segments of society fight this change, it will happen – and within a generation. The reasons are obvious in a country where women will be majority business owners within a decade: demographics, telecommunications and education. By the way, a week or so before these changes, the first female Saudi cultural attache was announced for Canada.

Some are talking about the change of the Justice minister which is in line with the judicial reform that started a few weeks/months ago. Plans to overhaul the system were put into action several months ago.

Others are talking about the changes in education. This is aligned with the changes in curriculum that have already been started, as well as some of the “experimental” programs that have been tried out.

Changes in SAMA, Health and Info/Culture (along with all the other changes) were necessary for stability. The word is that several people maintained their positions/ranks however they have been reformed by internal pressure- better to reform yourself than be replaced!

The next big area is of course the change in the Hayy’a head (Commission for Promotion of Virtue and  Prevention of Vice). This is where it starts to get really interesting, not because of the change in person but because of the change in status quo in the ongoing tussle between the reform agenda of the administration and the religious right. There is a constant thrust-and-parry dance between society and the Hayy’a; the King has come down on the side of society.

The most profound and long term changes are the ones in the Shoura Council. Changing the head is of  course newsworthy. However this is the first time that all four Sunni schools of thought are being represented in the Shoura Council, not just the Hanbali school. Avoiding a history lesson, Wahabbism/Salafism is an off-shoot of the Hanbali school.

Including the other schools of thought on the Shoura Council dilutes the impact of Hanbalism/Wahabbism/Salafism. This is a long term change that has the potential to change the country in unprecedented ways; it effectively weakens the alliance between the House of Saud and the idealogues of  Ibn Abdul Wahab. There are different extreme end points that can come out of this (over the next few decades):

  • the door can be opened to move from a direct monarchy towards a constitutional monarchy
  • the religious right can feel threatened and destabilize the legitimacy of the monarchy
  • the country moves in the direction of becoming the next Dubai

Reality will probably lie somewhere between these extremes. The reign of King Abdullah has initiated the internal reform process. Crown Prince Sultan will have the choice of continuing on this path or reversing its course.

Several news story that cover the recent government changes are given below:

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Punishment for Gang Rape Victim- Saudi Style

Feb 8th, 2009
by khanserai.
12 comments

Many Saudis feel that their country is unfairly represented in Western media. There are biases for sure and some journalists/media outlets undoubtedly unfairly focus on KSA.

Part of problem however are the incidents that actually happen. Child marriages have recently been getting international attention but “Saudi-style justice” is not limited to children.

A story from the Saudi Gazette is posted below in its entirety (bold added for emphasis).

Girl gets a year in jail, 100 lashes for adultery

By Adnan Shabrawi

JEDDAH – A 23-year-old unmarried woman was awarded one-year prison term and 100 lashes for committing adultery and trying to abort the resultant fetus.
The District Court in Jeddah pronounced the verdict on Saturday after the girl confessed that she had a forced sexual intercourse with a man who had offered her a ride. The man, the girl confessed, took her to a rest house, east of Jeddah, where he and four of friends assaulted her all night long.
The girl claimed that she became pregnant soon after and went to King Fahd Hospital for Armed Forces in an attempt to carry out an abortion. She was eight weeks’ pregnant then, the hospital confirmed.
According to the ruling, the woman will be sent to a jail outside Jeddah to spend her time and will be lashed after delivery of her baby who will take the mother’s last name. – Okaz/SG

What the article delicately calls “forced sexual intercourse” is called rape by everyone else. Five people “assaulted her all night long” is called gang rape by everyone else.

What is outrageous is that the women who was gang raped is going to lashed and jailed. The sentencing in this case is similar to the case of the Qatif girl last year. Let’s see if human rights agencies pick up this story or not.

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Saudi Arabia and Bangladeshi Workers

Feb 7th, 2009
by khanserai.
2 comments

Bangladesh is one of the largest suppliers of manual laborers to Saudi Arabia. Some 300 new workers used to come in every month and become everything from construction workers to tea boys.

Very well networked, they are considered resourceful and hard working. They are also infamous for having their own “mafia” that is heavily engaged in prostitution, drugs and alcohol.

Since last year, for no openly declared reason, Saudi Arabia stopped issuing visas and extending iqamas for Bangladeshi workers. Saudi Gazette quoted the Bangladeshi embassy last December:

“Starting April 2008, no domestic helpers including house maids, drivers and agriculture labor were being recruited to work in Saudi Arabia, although no official notification was given by Labor Ministry to the Embassy in this regard,”

In line with this development, Saudi Arabian airlines has reduced its weekly flights to Bangladesh from 12 to 8.

There is a range of speculation about the reasons:

  • Reduction in crime
  • As Saudization continues and some jobs that were traditionally done by foreign labor are being moved over to Saudi’s, the need for foreign workers has gone down
  • As political alliances change, Saudi Arabia might be readying itself for increasing workers from some other country
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Religious Tolerance in Saudi Arabia

Feb 4th, 2009
by khanserai.
4 comments

Disclaimer: this post includes references to the following two news articles.  I do not know the veracity of the articles nor the legitimacy of the web-sites.

Saudi Arabia arrests Christian blogger

Pastor flees death threats

Churches, synagogues, temples are banned in Saudi Arabia however people are allowed to practice their religion in private. They are not permitted to practice in public or in large gatherings. Proselytizing is definitely banned, whether direct or indirect.

Last year was one of change. There was talk of negotiations between the Vatican and Saudi Arabia to open the first Roman Catholic church in KSA. Saudi Arabia hosted an interfaith dialogue conference in June, sponsored a 2-day UN conference to promote interfaith dialogue and is actually leading the same UN Faith Forum!

In light of these happenings in 2008 it is surprising that at the beginning of 2009 there would be reports of arresting a blogger talking about how he converted from Islam to Christianity, and death threats against the ex-pastor of a 300 person church (~ 150 members would congregate at his house, not all 300).

It would appear that the tension between the “Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” and the rest of the administration and population is heating up again. There are constant reminders of the different directions the country is being pulled in. Sometimes it is stories about probes into Vice cops raid of British universities fair and sometimes stories about arrests of Christian bloggers.

The situation is not going to get better anytime soon but at least the indicators of change are starting to appear.

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Saudi Patience: USA and Iran

Jan 24th, 2009
by khanserai.
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Prince Turki al-Faisal wrote a strongly worded letter on Thursday to President Obama regarding Gaza/Israel and the impact it can have on the special US-Saudi relationship.

The content can be seen at the Financial Times web-site. One of the things it mentioned was a letter President Ahmedinejad of Iran wrote to King Abdullah,

explicitly recognising Saudi Arabia as the leader of the Arab and Muslim worlds

Clearly something I had missed seeing in the news last week.

This was surprising as both KSA and Iran have been bandying for regional hegemony in the past. An open declaration that unites the Shias and the Sunnis could be a harbinger of more cooperation in the future as well. It can also change the stakes and influence that can be exerted on international politics to seriously and fairly address the conflict.

It turns out that what President Ahmedinejad wrote was slightly different. As per the Irani Press TV what he actually called King Abdullah was his official title/position :

the Saudi Arabian King and the Custodian of the Two Holy Places, i.e Makkah and Medina

Sighhh, my excitement was premature. President Obama, King Abdullah and President Ahmedinejad are no closer to each other today as they were yesterday. But hope springs eternal , after all, tomorrow is another day!

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Smoking in the Middle East

Jan 20th, 2009
by khanserai.
5 comments

Smoking is unfortunately a very common habit all over the Middle East. People light up EVERYWHERE with the exception of hospitals. There is no such thing as a non-smoking area in any public space and you are always inhaling second-hand smoke. Airports, shops, malls, restaurants, offices- you name it and people are smoking there. “No smoking” signs are routinely ignored by smokers. KSA is the largest tobacco importer in the world and no place is smoke free.

Arab News reports that:

It is estimated that 35 to 40 percent of the people in the Kingdom above the age of 15 smoke. Around 24 percent of male students between the ages of 13 to 15 and eight percent of girl students smoke.

What is great however is that the KSA Ministry of Health is starting to get serious about addressing the problem. A few initiatives (reported by Saudi Gazette and Arab News) that are in place or about to be introduced are the following:

  • Smokers will no longer be employed at the Ministry of Health
  • Companies associated with tobacco companies will be barred from MoH contracts
  • Health insurance will be higher for smokers
  • Anti-smoking clinics are being set up
  • The MoH has filed a lawsuit against 13 tobacco companies in the order of SAR 127 billion (~$33 billion!)
  • A new law is being drafted to:
  • fine people SAR 200 for smoking in public
  • have separate smoking and non-smoking areas in public places
  • youth under 18 years old should not be allowed into smoking areas

Some of the initiatives will also be proposed to other GCC countries. It would be wonderful if these are implemented all over the MENA region – and Asia too while we are at it!

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