...Or Does It Explode?

Friday: Fountain of Youth

Amidst the dirty, uneven streets, the fountain stands pristine and bursting with beauty.

Saudi Youth Profiled in Smithsonian Magazine

Reporting for Smithsonian Magazine, Afshin Molavi set out for Saudi Arabia to explore the desert kingdom's youth culture. "Young and Restless" is the result. Choice highlights follow:

Saudi Arabia is one of the youngest countries in the world, with some 75 percent of the population under 30 and 60 percent under 21; more than one in three Saudis is under 14. Saudi Arabia’s changes are coming not only from the authorities above, but also from below, driven by this young and increasingly urban generation...

And yet: after [27-year-old report Ebtihal] Mubarak exercised the power of the press, she faced the limited power of Saudi women. Once she filed her story, she hung around the newsroom, glancing at her watch—waiting for a driver, because under a patriarchal legal system Saudi women may not drive. “I feel like I’m always waiting for someone to pick me up,” she said. “Imagine a reporter who cannot drive. How will we beat the competition when we are always waiting to be picked up by someone?”

...Some of the most vitriolic abuse from Saudi religious authorities and ordinary citizens is directed at Shiites, who make up only 15 percent of the population. Though they share job anxiety with their Sunni peers, they feel that upward mobility belongs primarily to Sunnis.

Two of the youths attend a village school several miles away, while the other three go to the local public high school. The lack of a college in Qatif, many Shiites say, is an example of the discrimination they feel. I asked if teaching had improved since 9/11. “The new teachers are good,” said Ali, a smiling 15-year-old, “but the old ones are still around and still bad.” The students said their teachers praised bin Laden, ridiculed the United States or described Shiites as unbelievers.

...Public pop concerts are banned in the kingdom, so musically inclined young Saudis gather at underground events or in small groups. Hasan Hatrash, an Arab News reporter and musician, took me to a heavy-metal jam session in Jeddah.

...At a walled villa in Jeddah, young men were tuning guitars and tapping drums. Ahmad, who is half-Lebanese and half-Saudi, is the lead singer of a band known as Grieving Age. He introduced me around. A few of the musicians, including Ahmad, had long hair and beards, but most did not. One wore a Starbucks shirt—for his job, afterward.

...When Hatrash took the stage, he played a series of guitar favorites, such as Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze” and softer rock, to the seeming delight of the heavy-metal aficionados.

Throughout the evening, more young men arrived—but no women. Some took turns playing; others just watched. By midnight, the jam session had wound down. “This is a tame event, as you can see,” Hatrash said. “There is no drinking or drugs. We are just enjoying the music.”

I asked if he could envision a day when he could play in public, instead of behind closed doors. He just smiled and launched into another song. Someone jumped up to accompany him on the bass, and Ahmad mouthed the lyrics. The guy in the Starbucks shirt rushed out the door, late for his shift.

Kuwait: That's *Madame* Candidate!

Jenan Bushehri is shaking things up in Kuwait. Her groundbreaking move - holding a mixed-gender political rally in her quest to become the first Kuwaiti woman ever elected to the Kuwait City municipal council:

The first woman ever to contest elections in the state of Kuwait has launched her campaign by breaking a 44-year-old taboo in bringing male and female voters together.   

Hundreds of men and women attended the landmark event late on Tuesday which was held according to Kuwaiti tradition in a huge tent where they listened to Jenan Bushehri who is vying to win a seat on the municipal council.   

It was the first time women have attended an election gathering in Kuwait since polls were held for the first time in this oil-rich emirate in 1962, and the first campaign event ever to be addressed by a woman.   

Men and women were however made to sit slightly apart from each other although under the same tent. “I promise I will not disappoint you if you elect me,” Bushehri said in her address...

The other woman candidate is Khaleda Al Khader, a physician and mother of eight.   

Both women belong to the minority Shi’ite Muslim community who make up about 30 per cent of the native population but are just under half the number of voters in the constituency. The number of voters in the district was increased by almost 130 per cent to 28,000 after women were allowed to vote.

These are small steps, but notable nonetheless. A real sea-change will be when all Kuwaitis - not just the "native population" are able to participate in the political process. Such a move would increase the voting rolls by 200%. In the meantime, let's toast the small steps.

The League of Un-Gentlemen; or Arab Summit Dysfunctionality

So the latest Arab League Summit is about to kick off in Khartoum, with the ongoing ethnic cleansing of "non-Arabs" in Darfur making for quite a backdrop for this gathering of potentates. (As El Guapo might ask in The Three Amigos, "Would you say we have a plethora of potentates, Chefe?")

Actually, a bunch of folks are sitting it out this time, including Hosni, Abdullah (the Saudi, not the Hashemite), and Talabani (Iraq's Kurdish president). But some countries are trying to make up for the low attendance. Lebanon, for instance, is sending two leaders: Emile Lahoud is showing up to represent Syria, er... Lebanon. But Prime Minister Fouad Saniora rejects Lahoud as a genuine representative, and so is coming as well. (Does that mean Lebanon will get two votes on any resolution?)

Muammar Qaddafi, fresh from his appearance at Columbia University, showed up a day early in Khartoum, no dount to enjoy the city's famed traffic jams. The M-Man's early entrance surprised Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, who had to dash out of a minister's meeting to greet him. (Maybe Muamar just misread the invitation?)

It's fun to have a little laugh at this frivolous show of brotherly discord and essentialized identity politics, but there is a genocide unraveling in Sudan and a region-wide system of mundane civil rights repression presided over by these rulers. At the G8 summits, there are usually a merry band of diverse protestors outside the conference complex. Think there will be any equivalent today in Khartoum?

The Torturers of Bahrain - and Royal Decree 56

Chan'ad Bahraini has posted a link to an eye-opening documentary (watchable online) about British national Ian Henderson, who ran Bahrain's internal security service for 34 years, until the year 2000. (Talk about outsourcing!)

The film, titled Blind Eye to the ‘Butcher’, chronicles Henderson's story. As Chan'ad explains, under Henderson's reign:

hundreds of people were tortured, and tens of people died in police custody. Henderson, a British citizen has never been prosecuted in UK courts. Nor has he (or anyone else) been prosecuted in Bahrain, thanks to Royal Decree 56 of 2002 which gives amnesty to Henderson and all of his mates who were involved in the torture. Despite having blood on their hands, these guys walk free in Bahrain, while the victims have not even received an apology from the government.

In a subsequent comment, Chan'ad calls for what sounds like a commission of national reconciliation to expose the record of torture and acknowledge wrongdoing. This will require a royal repeal of Decree 56. Is the al-Khalifa regime up to it?

Omani Poet Arrested over Call for Civil Rights

The Guardian recently ran a brief profile of Omani poet and playwright Abdullah al Ryami, who has been detained and blacklisted by the regime of Sultan Qaboos. The article doesn't provide an enormous amount of detail, but Al Ryami seems like a good candidate for the next George Clooney movie on government witchhunts and suppression of free speech:

"If you say no to dictatorship and proclaim civil rights freedoms, especially freedom of expression, in an Arabic country," says the Omani poet and playwright Abdullah al Ryami, "you are in constant danger..."

On July 11 2005 - his 40th birthday - he received a summons to the headquarters of the security services. He presented himself for interrogation the following day and was escorted back to his home by a police officer for a search before being taken away again, without his mobile phone. His family had no news of his whereabouts or his condition for a week, and were unable to hire a lawyer to represent him...

Al Ryami first came to the attention of the authorities in July 2004, after an appearance on the Iranian television station Al-Alam where he cast doubt on the Omani government's willingness to implement democratic reforms. He was immediately put on a media blacklist, with his journalism, poetry and plays all removed from Omani radio, television and newspapers, and appearances as a commentator forbidden...

Shameem Sadiq at Amnesty International has followed recent events in Oman with mounting alarm. "Amnesty International is concerned at the deterioration in the situation of human rights in Oman following the mass arrests last year of those suspected of setting up a banned organization," she says. "Those who criticise the government, including Abdullah Al Ryami, are at risk of arrest and detention, possibly re-arrest, if they continue to criticise the government."

The opening quote from Al Ryami says it all. The very act of calling for civil rights is a daring move, and the results can cripple your career and even result in arrest. But Al Ryami appears to be taking it all in stride, even telling the Guardian that "physical arrest becomes an outlet for writing."

Prison may be a kind of writer's retreat, but let's hope Al Ryami doesn't have to endure any forced sabbatical.

René Magritte Could Have Said It...

An old post via DouDa Blog:

The Dictator Who Came to Campus

The dictator whose name has 73 different spellings - and who has managed to maintain his chokehold for 36 years (making him the longest serving dictator in the Middle East) - just got invited to  lecture at Columbia University. And lecture Qaddafi did!

Since making the trip in person would have been a little dicey, the Q-man (or the G-man, if you prefer) popped into the lecture hall via closed-circuit TV. The whole event - dubbed "Prospects for Democracy" - appears to have been a farce masquerading as a serious academic dialogue between Libyan and US academics. And who better to perform at a farce than good ol' Muammar. Take it away, buddy:

[Gaddafi] touted Libya's political system as superior to "farcical" and "fake" parliamentary and representative democracies in the West."

"There is no state with a democracy except Libya on the whole planet," Gaddafi said to the conference at Columbia University in New York. Libya's Jamahiriyah system, under which Libyans can air their views at "people's congresses," is genuine democracy, said Gaddafi, who spoke through a translator and was dressed in purple robes and seated at a desk in front of a map of Africa.

Gaddafi said Libya's new openness would not lead Libyans to covet what they do not have -- on the contrary, he said, the rest of the world would soon be emulating Libya. "Countries like the United States, India, China, the Russian Federation, are in bad need of this Jamahiriyah system," he said. "This is a savior to them." Challenged by the U.S. moderator about freedom of speech, Gaddafi said every Libyan was free to express his opinions at the congresses and that was a better forum than a newspaper.

There are myriad outrages here, not the least of which is Columbia's School for International Public Affairs (SIPA) co-sponsoring the event with the "Green Book Center." (For background on Qaddafi's Green Book, see here and here.) This joke of an institution is one big propaganda arm for the incoherent ramblings of a late 1960s revolutionary who has somehow managed to hang on to power into the 21st century.

One of America's elite universities has just legitimized the paranoid fantasies of one of the region's most notorious dictators. It's an insult to Columbia students, but more importantly, to the people of Libya. So how does the Q-man manage to keep pulling off these stunts? Are we that stupid?

Another Strike in the UAE

The guys at Mafi Wasta must be watching this news story with interest: workers on the building project for the world's highest skyscraper are fed up and on strike. Take it away BBC:

A strike at the site of the Burj Dubai - expected to be the world's tallest building - has entered its second day. Some 2,500 labourers at the Dubai site have walked out in a row over pay and working conditions, which sparked a night of violence two days ago.

Lost amidst the debate in the US over the Dubai Ports deal was the fact that the UAE has atrocious labor laws. Workers, the vast majority of whom are expatriates with few if any legal rights under UAE law, sometimes face terrible exploitation with little legal recourse. The abuses in the local construction business are legendary.

But lately, workers have not been taking the treatment sitting down. There have been a few strikes by construction workers in the last year, and it's interesting to see where this all is going.

 

The Effects of Six Years in Prison...

...and an 80-day hunger strike. Behold this striking photo of Akbar Ganji, released from Evin Prison on Saturday. He's gotten a shave and a haircut, but he still looks shriveled. Only the outside, we hope.

The image is one of a series on Arash Ashoorinia's excellent photoblog, which regular has photos on the latest news from Tehran. For a slightly more upbeat shot of Ganji, look at him enjoying new flowers for Norouz.

Oh, yeah, eid mubarak to all who celebrated Norouz yesterday. Let's have a good new year of peace and health and liberty.