Promoting Sorcery
Saudi Arabia is not a country in which I would like to live and work, or visit even, but its religious rulers are making a laughing stock of the place with their latest campaign against Twitter whose users they accuse of promoting 'sorcery'.
Now this is an ultra conservative kingdom, ruled by men with bizarre religious views which say that women can use modern inventions like washing machines and vacuum cleaners - yet can't be trusted to go out on their own or drive a car.
Now this is an ultra conservative kingdom, ruled by men with bizarre religious views which say that women can use modern inventions like washing machines and vacuum cleaners - yet can't be trusted to go out on their own or drive a car.
So, instead of giving social networks a hard time why don't the Saudi politicians give their Shura Council a swell deserved kick up the arse?
Because the world's been waiting patiently for months now to see if Saudi Arabia is capable of beginning to drag itself slowly into the 21st century.
Saudi Arabia has the highest number of Twitter users per capita in the world Associated Press
By Hugh Tomlinson - The Times
Saudi Arabia’s religious police have launched a crackdown on Twitter, which they accuse of spreading “vice and witchcraft”, in the latest backlash against social networking sites in the conservative kingdom.
The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Haia) announced that it had formed a task force to combat a rise in Twitter users promoting “sorcery”.
The crackdown underlines the contradictory attitudes to social media across the Arab kingdom. Saudi Arabia has the highest number of Twitter users per capita in the world and social networks are wildly popular among the kingdom’s youth.
Religious conservatives, however, are increasingly unhappy about what they argue is the corrupting influence of the internet. Social networks are blamed for a host of social ills, including an increase in witchcraft. “We will track down all those who are behind these accounts . . . before they become widespread and out of control,” said Ahmed al-Jardan, Haia’s spokesman.
Authorities are particularly unhappy about anonymous Twitter accounts that criticise the Government and swap gossip about alleged corruption among Saudi royals.
Sheikh Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, the Grand Mufti— the kingdom’s most senior cleric — has denounced Twitter as a “gathering place for every clown and corrupter”.
He said social networks like Twitter had become “a podium for spreading evil and bad ideas and exchanging accusations and lies” by many of their subscribers.
The crackdown comes days after the kingdom passed sweeping new anti-terror laws that could mean any action seen as defamatory to the State or king is deemed an act of terrorism. The legislation has been criticised by human rights groups as draconian and so vague that peaceful acts of dissent may be classed as terrorism.
Under the legislation, terrorists could be any individuals “who insult the reputation of the State or its position . . . inflict damage upon one of its public utilities or its natural resources” or people “who attempt to force the governmental authority to carry out or prevent it from carrying out acts that lead to the named purposes or incite [these acts].”
The law permits suspects to be held for 90 days without the presence of a lawyer during initial questioning. They may be held for up to six months with the possibility that confinement may be extended for a further six months.
Social networks have powerful supporters in Riyadh’s corridors of power, however. Prince Alwaleed, Saudi Arabia’s richest man, has invested $300 million (£182 million) in Twitter and is a staunch defender of social media’s power to remove barriers between the ruling family and the people. Last year, he denounced government threats to block some networking sites as “a losing war”.
Mad Mufti (6 December 20130
| Mufti and the Monarch |
What a plonker! - you have to say - while wondering why women are able to work other modern inventions such as washing machines without any of these men in beards batting an eyelid.
Anyway, the grand mufti - who is also known as - Shaikh Abdul Aziz Bin Abdullah Al Shaikh- said in recent a speech delivered that giving women the right to drive should not be “one of society’s major concerns”.
Well, of course not - because where would it lead - the next thing you know women would be demanding to be able to go out by themselves, unescorted by a male relative, choose whom to marry, if an when to have children - and what kind of education or career to pursue.
The mufti's comments came as women activists were assured by the Shura Council - and advisory body to the all powerful King - was still reassessing the controversial Saudi ban on women drivers.
Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are barred from driving - and this backward attitude has drawn condemnation from the international community.
Saudi Arabia's all-appointed consultative Shura Council is an attempt by the monarchy to substitute for and elected parliament - the council makes recommendations to the government, but the King remains the only and absolute legislator.
At least 16 women were stopped by police during a driving protest day last month and were fined and forced - along with their male guardians - to promise to obey the kingdom’s laws.
In addition to the driving ban, Saudi women are forced to cover themselves from head to toe and need permission from a male guardian to travel, work and marry.
I wonder if the grand mufti can really in touch with his feminine side - especially as a recent scientific study has declared women to be better and safer drivers than men?
Shurah Council (29 June 2013)
I've been scouring the internet searching for news of the Saudi Shurah Council - to see if this body has finally decided whether women in one of the most conservative of Muslim countries in the world - are able to drive.
Not able to drive in a physical sense, of course, because women in Saudi Arabia are able to operate plenty of other mechanical devices - ones that came along long after the motor car - such washing machines, air conditioning devices and TVs.
Yet the country's religious rulers don't seem to have a problem with women getting their 'hands dirty' on these domestic contraptions - so why do they get their knickers in such a twist about women being able drive a car.
It's a control thing, of course - whatever will these pesky women want next: the right to control when and if they have children, perhaps, what clothes they want to wear or the right to a decent education - and a job with a career.
But as soon as I know what the Shurah Council has decided - I'll share it right here.
What's the Point? (18 March 2013)
What's the point of the Duchess of Cornwall?
Is the question I'm asking myself after reading her comments about the 'remarkable' social changes this royal personage has witnessed - since her last visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabi in 2006.
Now the Duchess - or Camilla Parker Bowles as she is more commonly known - was at the the Bab Rizq Jameel Nafisa Shams Female Academy for Arts and Crafts in Jeddah - and the Duchess and said, quite spontaneously, apparently:
“I’ve noticed that since the last time I was here there’s been a sea of change. Talking to people, they all tell me they think there’s a big difference and they are all so intelligent and sensible. I have had so many more chances to meet women.”
Before adding that the cakes on display were so good - that she would like to take some with her.
Now I'm not naive enough to believe that members of Britain's royal family should be going off abroad fomenting revolution in other countries - fun though that thought might be - but surely this woman could have thought of something slightly more intelligent and worthy to say than these banal comments.
Meanwhile women in Sudia Arabia continue to fight back against one of the most conservative and repressive regimes in the middle east - because Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world to forbid its women citizens to drive.
The Saudi ban - which is a religious proclamation- is due to be debated again by the Shura Council - which advises King Abdullah (89) on such sensitive matters - the country being an absolute monarchy of course, as opposed to a democracy.
So the King's word is law - although he is open to argument from time to time, readers will be pleased to hear.
The Shura Council last debated the ban on women drivers in 2006 - and while at that time the King's advisory body rejected any changes out of hand - since then its 150 members include 30 women appointed by King Adbullah in January.
The Shurah Council has agreed to reconsider the issue after receiving a petition of more than 3,500 names - and its deliberation will be televised which is bound to reignite the public argument over women’s equality.
So here's hoping that women drivers in Saudi Arabia become a fact of everyday life soon - the only down side, I suppose, is that they'll have less time to make such famously good cakes.
