[Dean's World] Dave Price: Is Saudi Arabia Liberalizing?

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dave Price:
Is Saudi Arabia Liberalizing?
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1143484406.shtml


   [1]This article from Smithsonian Magazine seems to augur well for
   reform:

     Ebtihal Mubarak is one of several talented female reporters and
     editors on the Arab News staff. That in itself is a change from my
     days at the paper more than a decade ago... As she surfed Saudi
     Internet forums one day last fall, she came across a posting
     describing an attack on a liberal journalist in the northern city
     of Hail. =E2A journalist=E2s car had been attacked while he was
     sleeping,=E2 she said. =E2A note on his car read: =E2This time it=E2s =
your
     car, next time it will be you.=E2=E2
     A few years ago, such an episode would probably have ended with the
     Hail journalist intimidated into silence. But now, Mubarak worked
     the phones, speaking with the journalist, the police and outside
     experts, and put together a story for the next day=E2s paper, quoting
     the journalist: =E2What happened to me is not just a threat to one
     individual but to the whole of society.=E2 Thanks to the Internet,
     the episode became a national story, and the subject of vigorous
     debate.
     ...
     Then Toraifi repeated his views on Aljazeera, whose coverage had
     often been critical of the royal family. That, apparently, crossed
     a line: afterward, Toraifi said, Saudi intelligence detained him
     for several days before letting him go with a warning. Then an
     establishment newspaper offered him a column=E2writing about foreign,
     but not domestic, affairs. The gesture was seen as an attempt to
     bring a critic into the mainstream. But he dismisses concerns that
     he might have been co-opted. =E2I will continue speaking about the
     importance of democracy,=E2 he told me. (In December, he accepted a
     fellowship at a British think tank, where he is writing a paper on
     Saudi Arabia=E2s reform movement.)
     ...
     Economic reform, [Mohammed Khaled al-Faisal] went on, is =E2the
     chariot that will drive all other reforms.=E2 What Saudi Arabia
     needs, in his judgment, is more small and medium-sized businesses
     and the jobs they would provide.
     ...
     I asked if teaching had improved since 9/11. =E2The new teachers are
     good,=E2 said Ali, a smiling 15-year-old, =E2but the old ones are still
     around and still bad.=E2 The students said their teachers praised bin
     Laden, ridiculed the United States or described Shiites as
     unbelievers.
     ...
     When Hatrash took the stage, he played a series of guitar
     favorites, such as Jimi Hendrix=E2s =E2Purple Haze=E2 and softer rock,=
 to
     the seeming delight of the heavy-metal aficionados.

   They have a ways to go, but this sounds like definite progress in the
   advance of freedom.

References

   1. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/issues/2006/april/saudiarabia.php