From Associated Press ...
Controversial Saudi columnist wants daughter to drive and vote
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia
Saudi newspaper columnist Hussein Shobokshi touched off a fury in this Arab kingdom when he wrote about a future in which his daughter could drive and he could vote. But he also caused delight at a time when Saudi Arabia has seen a modest push toward more social and religious openness.
Shobokshi said he wanted to "to ignite a dialogue and open these issues up for discussion" with his July 1 article in the Saudi newspaper Okaz.
The response to included death threats as well as a call from Crown Prince Abdullah, the country's reform-minded de-facto ruler. Abdullah "told me that he liked the article, but that I shouldn't make so many people angry," said Shobokshi.
Shobokshi is one of a growing number of writers emboldened by the recent openness in the Saudi press following nationwide shock at suicide attacks in the capital in May in which 34 people died, including several Americans, and then a shootout in the holy city of Mecca last month linked to the investigation into bombings.
US criticism of Saudi Arabia's lack of democracy and support for militant Islam since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States has also forced the government to open up. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.
Shobokshi said his article was rejected when he first submitted it to his editor at Okaz two months ago. He tried again with a new editor in the new climate of soul-searching.
The 39-year-old Shobokshi wrote the column as a bedtime fable addressed to his seven-year-old daughter.
He described arriving on time on the country's notoriously late national carrier and being picked up by his daughter, though women can't drive. He chats with her about his meeting with the female social affairs minister and an encounter with a new Saudi citizen of Indian origin. Saudi law does not grant immigrants nationality.
He talks about his plans for the following day: a stop at the ballot box and a religious lesson at Mecca's Grand Mosque - though all moderate sects have been banned from teaching there. At the end of the drive from the airport, he asks his daughter to speed up so they can catch the finance minister as he presents the national budget to the session of the elected parliament live on television.
"Saudi Arabia has been talking the talk, people are now anxious to walk the walk," Shobokshi said. "Being able to talk about our problems makes us feel better, like spending 45-minutes on a psychiatrist's couch. But now we need to see changes."
The majority of the people who responded were delighted, he said.
"They said that I wrote what they've always wanted to say. That I've expressed their dreams of what Saudi Arabia could be like. That they want this dream to be real," Shobokshi said.
In the three years he's written his column, Shobokshi has sparked criticism before, but he's never gotten this type of response. He's planning to compile the article and all the e-mails and faxes into a book.
"This is the most courageous article I have ever read," said economist Bishr Bakheet. "In one article, he opened up for discussion so many sensitive issues, women's rights, nationality laws, the press, the government budget."
"The things we've wanted to discuss all along but didn't have the courage to. Finally somebody said it," said Bakheet, who attended three gatherings in the capital Riyadh where Shobokshi's piece was distributed and discussed.
The negative reaction, however, has been scathing. Shobokshi received e-mails hoping he had cancer and calling him a goat, a cow, and an infidel trying to steer the country away from Islam. Letters to the editor complained about the idea of women working as lawyers and mingling with men. "Know your limits or you will be punished by God and by his followers on earth," said one e-mail.
It's a reminder that despite a modest opening up, Saudi Arabia is still one of the world's most conservative Islamic states. An editor whose Saudi newspaper was in the forefront of a campaign against Muslim extremism was removed from his post weeks after the bombings.
"This reaction confirms the fact that our society does not have experience in dealing with different points of view," said Suleiman al-Hattlan, a Saudi research associate at Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern studies. "People in general resist change and feel nervous that the article will change the social structure overnight."
Will someone get this guy with a Fatwa? Or is it the start of a revolution?
Controversial Saudi columnist wants daughter to drive and vote
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia
Saudi newspaper columnist Hussein Shobokshi touched off a fury in this Arab kingdom when he wrote about a future in which his daughter could drive and he could vote. But he also caused delight at a time when Saudi Arabia has seen a modest push toward more social and religious openness.
Shobokshi said he wanted to "to ignite a dialogue and open these issues up for discussion" with his July 1 article in the Saudi newspaper Okaz.
The response to included death threats as well as a call from Crown Prince Abdullah, the country's reform-minded de-facto ruler. Abdullah "told me that he liked the article, but that I shouldn't make so many people angry," said Shobokshi.
Shobokshi is one of a growing number of writers emboldened by the recent openness in the Saudi press following nationwide shock at suicide attacks in the capital in May in which 34 people died, including several Americans, and then a shootout in the holy city of Mecca last month linked to the investigation into bombings.
US criticism of Saudi Arabia's lack of democracy and support for militant Islam since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States has also forced the government to open up. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.
Shobokshi said his article was rejected when he first submitted it to his editor at Okaz two months ago. He tried again with a new editor in the new climate of soul-searching.
The 39-year-old Shobokshi wrote the column as a bedtime fable addressed to his seven-year-old daughter.
He described arriving on time on the country's notoriously late national carrier and being picked up by his daughter, though women can't drive. He chats with her about his meeting with the female social affairs minister and an encounter with a new Saudi citizen of Indian origin. Saudi law does not grant immigrants nationality.
He talks about his plans for the following day: a stop at the ballot box and a religious lesson at Mecca's Grand Mosque - though all moderate sects have been banned from teaching there. At the end of the drive from the airport, he asks his daughter to speed up so they can catch the finance minister as he presents the national budget to the session of the elected parliament live on television.
"Saudi Arabia has been talking the talk, people are now anxious to walk the walk," Shobokshi said. "Being able to talk about our problems makes us feel better, like spending 45-minutes on a psychiatrist's couch. But now we need to see changes."
The majority of the people who responded were delighted, he said.
"They said that I wrote what they've always wanted to say. That I've expressed their dreams of what Saudi Arabia could be like. That they want this dream to be real," Shobokshi said.
In the three years he's written his column, Shobokshi has sparked criticism before, but he's never gotten this type of response. He's planning to compile the article and all the e-mails and faxes into a book.
"This is the most courageous article I have ever read," said economist Bishr Bakheet. "In one article, he opened up for discussion so many sensitive issues, women's rights, nationality laws, the press, the government budget."
"The things we've wanted to discuss all along but didn't have the courage to. Finally somebody said it," said Bakheet, who attended three gatherings in the capital Riyadh where Shobokshi's piece was distributed and discussed.
The negative reaction, however, has been scathing. Shobokshi received e-mails hoping he had cancer and calling him a goat, a cow, and an infidel trying to steer the country away from Islam. Letters to the editor complained about the idea of women working as lawyers and mingling with men. "Know your limits or you will be punished by God and by his followers on earth," said one e-mail.
It's a reminder that despite a modest opening up, Saudi Arabia is still one of the world's most conservative Islamic states. An editor whose Saudi newspaper was in the forefront of a campaign against Muslim extremism was removed from his post weeks after the bombings.
"This reaction confirms the fact that our society does not have experience in dealing with different points of view," said Suleiman al-Hattlan, a Saudi research associate at Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern studies. "People in general resist change and feel nervous that the article will change the social structure overnight."
Will someone get this guy with a Fatwa? Or is it the start of a revolution?
