Instants of Insanity

Happy Holidays. Enjoy the festivities!

In any case, found this old article. It’s quite amusing:

Top 10 Sin Cities of the World

Here an excerpt:

“Number 8: Manama, Bahrain

Welcome to the party oasis of the Middle East. Connected by a causeway to nearby Saudi Arabia, Manama is a popular spot for Saudis to kick back from their country’s restrictive laws. Here they can get hammered, go clubbing, mingle with the opposite sex, and if they’re really daring, they can pick up prostitutes — a practice that’s illegal but widely available. While Manama is still largely a Muslim city, a third of its residents are foreigners, so it has led to a much more liberal culture that gave women the vote in 2001, and let them drive cars. For many Saudi males this proximity to an open culture is irresistible and many jam the causeway and fill flights to the city every weekend.

Do you want to see what happens when Saudis cut loose and leave the rules behind? You may need to get in line.”

Christmas-New Year is usually a busy time in Bahrain. The few days before Ramadan are also busy since liquor is prohibited in most places during the Muslim holy month.

Someone has also put a speech bubble on the Saudi-Bahrain causeway on Google Earth:

I have listened to their ’single’ and the music is better than I have expected  (albeit sounding a bit video game-ish. The lyrics, however, are nothing to write home about. It is not that they are the first rock band in the country, but being the first (known) all-girl band brought them into the spotlights.

Saudi girl band challenges the rules limiting women

A Saudi girl band is defying the strict Islamic regime’s taboos on female expression of emotion and identity.

* Click here to listen *

he band, called the Accolade, has written an underground hit called Pinocchio, that has been downloaded from their MySpace page. While they cannot perform in public, the four students have been able to stage gigs in private compounds and make studio recordings of their material.

Saudi Arabia maintains a strict code of control over women, based on Islamic precepts. The rules prohibit women from appearing in public alone or without an enshrouding veil. Women officially cannot make independent travel, education or medical choices without permission from a senior male relative.

There is even an injunction against women drivers.

One of member of the band told the New York Times that its formation was a demonstration of generational change. “The upcoming generation is different from the one before,” said Dina, 21, a founder member and guitarist. “Everything is changing. Maybe in 10 years it’s going to be OK to have a band with live performances.”

But there are considerable risks in the limited exposure the women have sought.

Lamia, the lead singer who has piercings on her eyebrow and lip, said it had been difficult to come as far as they had. “In Saudi, yes, it’s a challenge,” she said. “Maybe we’re crazy. But we wanted to do something different.”

The women claim they will not challenge the conservative kingdom’s ban on female public performances - enforced by the stick-weilding officials of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice - but hope to stage a concert in more liberal Dubai.

“It’s important for them to see what we’re capable of,” said Dina.

Pinnochio’s English-language lyrics include explicit references.

I was just talking with a guy who wants to marry a European girl (living here). He said that the two of them have to visit the shrink at some hospital belonging to the governmental security body. This is so they can do a full psychiatric test in order determine if they are okay or if there is something wrong in their heads.

WTF. Seriously.

Why, it is valentine! The day of crimson red (except, that is, if you live in Riyadh)…

Red is Banned till Fri.

Monday, 11 February 2008

By Suzan Zawawi

RIYADH - Agents of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice visited flower and gift shops in the capital Saturday night to instruct them to remove all red items - from red roses and wrapping paper to boxes and teddy bears - from their shelves, shop workers said.

“They visited us last night,” said a couple of florists Sunday morning.

“They gave us warnings and this morning we packed up all the red itmes and displays.” The florists asked not to be identified.

Sunday was the last day people could buy red roses in Riyadh, until Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14 passes.

Every year, Commission agents visit flower shops a couple of days before Feb. 14 to issue warnings. On the eve of Valentine’s Day, they start their raids and confiscate any red items that are symbols of love, florists here said.

But as a result of the ban, there’s a black market in red roses.

“A single rose costs around SR5-7 but today the same rose costs SR10 a piece and the price will go up to SR20-30 on Valentine’s Day,” said a florist who caters to customers on Valentine’s Day from his apartment.

Loyal customers place orders with the florist days and sometimes weeks before Feb. 14. “Sometimes we deliver the bouquets in the middle of the night or early morning, to avoid suspicion,” said the florist.

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Need I say more?

Source

Cold, dust and mild wind doesn’t really mix >_<

I have finished reading Al-Aakharoon (The Others) by Saba Al-Herz (a pseudonym) a while ago. As the title does suggest, this is a book written in Arabic. It has been a long, long while since I have read a book written in Arabic. This is mainly because: 1) there isn’t anything worth reading 2) even if there is something worthwhile, the print quality is really, really bad. In any case, at first I made the mistake of ordering the book online but of course it didn’t arrive (we’ll get to that later). My friend, who recommended it to me has apparently forgotten to warn me about that. Oh well, $14 went to the waste. Nevertheless, a while ago I managed to buy it from Bookplus in Bahrain.

So why did it not pass the customs? Easy, the main character engages in some homosexual relationships and she recounts her experiences in 1st person POV throughout the book. Now, this is quite interesting but so taboo and supposedly out of place here. It even took me a while to grasp that fact. I totally didn’t see it coming; not in a million years. The book, however, feels more autobiographical than fictional. Of course, there is no way I can know which is true and which is fiction but it seems to me that lots of the contents is real. Well, it does not matter much.

And she speaks about facts, lots of these things happen here. It is not that many young people here are gays and lesbians by choice. They are mostly just like that until they get married since doing *it* before marriage is a big no-no. For guys, marriages are often costly. As a friend puts it “you buy a wife here”. For girls, they mostly have to wait for their knight-in-shining-armor (not always a knight, though, just anyone) to come and marry them. But since marriages are costly for the guys, not many marry until later in their youths. Hence, the number of girls who are considered spinsters (above 30) is nearly 2 million; nearly 1/3 of all the woman in Saudi Arabia. This number is set to skyrocket to 4 million within the next 5 years or so if the situation remained unchanged. In any case, that is a really complicated topic that touches upon many other fields like unemployment, ‘marriage equivalence’ and the whole man-woman relationship here. This is beyond the scope of this simple impression.

Anyhow, I kind of liked the book at the beginning, not only because of its bold choice of topic but because I can identify with lots of the things mentioned in it. One prime example is the American-sponsored Channel 3, which came way before the age of Satellite TV. It enabled me to watch the NBA, NASCAR, American Football and many other TV shows in my early adolescence. And then there were the talks on the Gulf Wars, the year 1400 AH (1980 AD), the Internet revolution and the whole ubiquitous Sunna versus Shia thing (and all the stupid action stirred by it). Additionally, the writer is from Qatif (in the eastern part of the country) where I live.

However, towards the end, the writer seemed to have lost her focus, which made the novel suffer a bit and she kept dragging on aimlessly for a while before coming to an abrupt end.

In all, this is a pretty decent novel. I guess it is part of the new “scandalous” novels written by female writers; a genre (if we can call it that) popularized by Riyadh Girls, which sucked (now available in English). It is recommended if you can read Arabic, are not wholly sensitive when it comes to issues about sexuality (although there isn’t anything I would call graphic here) and want to discover some of the secrets of the woman world here. There are many allusions, though, which may puzzle people outside the region.

Marrying a Non-Saudi Whilst Abroad

Rough Translation:

Item (G) of Article (First) of the council of ministers’ decision number 824 dated 10-11/7/1393 AH (9-10 August, 1973 AD) stated that anyone sent abroad cannot marry a non-Saudi, irregardless if s/he was an employee, a student with government scholarship or paying from his/her own pocket. If such thing occurred, the following will take place:

1) S/he will be fired from their job/delegation.
2) The marriage will be rejected and won’t be officially documented with authorities.
3) The non-Saudi wife/husband will not be permitted to enter the country. If s/he was a resident of the country, their residency will be terminated immediately.

Basic human rights and freedom of choice denied.

Of course, as with many rules, there are some shortcuts that require one to have/know some connections and with a respectable sum of money, you can bypass these rules.

Dissident Saudi Blogger Is Arrested

Popular Internet Commentator Had Called for Political Reform

By Faiza Saleh Ambah

Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, January 1, 2008; Page A07

JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 31 — Saudi Arabia’s most popular blogger, Fouad al-Farhan, has been detained for questioning, an Interior Ministry spokesman confirmed Monday. It was the first known arrest of an online critic in the kingdom.

Farhan, 32, who used his blog to criticize corruption and call for political reform, was detained “for violating rules not related to state security,” according to the spokesman, Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, responding to repeated requests for comment with a brief cellphone text message.

more…

I haven’t been paying attention to the blogging scene in the country, but this has provided some useful insights and some good publicity for all bloggers. There are reasons why one would fear to tread the political discussion grounds here. One would not want to suffer the backlash of the authorities and their raging wrath. They would find no trouble in throwing you behind bars if you dared criticized their handle on things.

I just gave up. I don’t care for this country any more. Call me a hater if you will, but there isn’t an iota of love or affection left inside of me towards it. I am sure, if I got to write about politics, it won’t be long before….

You guessed it.

Sign the petition to release Fouad now

Here is a great article by Lawrence Wright. The best written on Saudi Arabia in my opinion. It was originally published in The New Yorker but it is not available on their site any longer (archived) so here is another source:

The Kingdom of Silence

And Just in case it gets removed sometimes in the future, here is the full text…

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