UPDATE: Saudi Writer Arrested for a Suggestion

Dr. Abdulaziz Kuja

Dr. Abdulaziz Kuja

A followup to the last post titled “Saudi Writer Arrested for a Suggestion”. The ministry of culture and information which overseas the literary clubs in Saudi Arabia weight in on the matter. The minster of culture and information Dr. Abdulaziz Kuja has issued an order for the removal of the president of the Baha literary club and assign the VP as temporary president till new elections as a response for accusing a fellow writer of false accusations and for braking the ranks and complaining to the police instead of the ministry as regulations require.

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Saudi Writer Arrested for a Suggestion

Story

Dr. Ali Alrubai

Dr. Ali Alrubai

A Saudi writer was arrested in the city of Baha in Saudi Arabia where he was questioned, finger printed and photographed after the president of the baha literary club charged him with calling for the liberation of women. The writer Dr. Ali Alrubai was attending a lecture by a female intellectual, the lecture, as lectures involving men and women usually are, done in two separate lecture halls to separate the men and women and an audio broadcast is provided from the women’s section and a video broadcast is provided from the men’s section to the other section. During the discussion after the lecture Dr. Ali suggested that future lectures done by females be accompanied by a visual presentation to make the lecture more lively. This angered the head of the club as blasphemy and reported the matter to the police claiming that Dr. Ali is demanding that a video be broadcast from the women’s section to the men’s section which is a call for the corruption of Saudi culture, traditions and Islamic law. Dr. Ali denied the accusations as he only asked for visual presentation accompanying the lecture and not a live feed feed from the women’s section.

Source Alarabiya.net

Commentary

Now this is clearly crap and only an example of how far Saudi Arabia needs to move to pass the middle ages. When the head of an intellectual club uses the police to impose his dark ages ideas and the police supports him.

I’ll keep my eye out for any developments if they are reported on the matter although I think this is the end of it.

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The Children of Mansour & Fatima

The Children of Mansour & Fatima

It took four years for logic and justice to prevail in the case of Fatima and Mansour but no less it prevailed. For those who don’t know the case here is a brief summer:

Fatima and Mansour got married with the approval of Fatima’s father and were happy together with 2 kids. After the death of Fatima’s father her half brother went to court asking that the marriage of his sister be abolished under the claims that Mansour lied about his heritage and that he is not worthy of his sister. Keeping in mind that the couple were happy and refuse to separate the judge granted the divorce. Ever since Fatima has been in jail ever since with her youngest child refusing to leave jail except with her husband who has been raising their eldest child alone. An appeals court held the divorce valid but the supreme court just voided the divorce and reunited the couple. This officially ends the case.

This is only one case of many in Saudi Arabia of such stupidty, hopfully this is the begining of a trend to stop families from forcefully and lawfully divorce a happy couple.

A link to a news item in a local English newspaper: http://bit.ly/dCQDP2

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Podcast Relaunch Delay

I want to apologize to everyone that has been expecting the podcast relaunch yesterday. There will be a delay for the relaunch as I get my setup up and running. I’m still working on the equipment for recording the interviews and need to order it. If all goes well a new episode of “A Saudi Life” will be out before the end of the month so keep your eyes on the blog and twitter account as I keep you updated.

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So I need help here and was hoping someone out there can provide it. I am working on the setup for relaunching the podcast. I did some reaserch and decided to get the “M-Audio Fast Track Pro” as the input device on my Macbook Pro. Now I need microphones and am confused, so if anybody has any experience with microphones I would appreciate your help. I will be conducting interviews for the podcast at the office with my guest present so I will need two mics. Also my budget is limited specially since I might have to order it from the USA.

Thanks for any help.

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Well, Things are moving smothlly overall for the website and the relanch of the podcast. If all goes well the first episode of the relanch will be out Feb 1st, 2010. So a bit about the new format, I’m planning to devide the show into 2 parts mainly, first part will an interview with a Saudi or none-Saudi living in Saudi to talk about life in Saudi Arabia. The second part will be to answer questions about Saudi Arabia. Therefore I’m reachingout to people out there to send in their questions and for any residents of Saudi Arabia interested in sharing their experiance of life in Saudi Arabia to let me know to arrange a possible interview. I also would appreciate any feedback in regards to the website and the podcast.

All communications should be through the Contact Me link above.

Thank you all.

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ASaudiLife Will Be Back!

Well if anybody is curios I decided to bring the podcast back to life with a slightly different format. I will post more details as soon as I get the site back up and running, it needs some major work after the last server move. I also need to fix all the old podcasts.

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Saudi Blogs

Since this blog is going on hold I figured I’ll search and list some other English blogs from Saudi Arabia for those interested. I do not take responsibility of these blogs and I have no opinion regarding them. Please when reading them do know that they don’t necessarily represent me or my opinions.

http://saudijeans.org/

http://xrdarabia.org/

http://ayshak.blogspot.com/

http://americanbedu.com/

http://hala1.wordpress.com/

http://saudiwoman.wordpress.com/

http://www.saudideists.com/

http://ruhsa.wordpress.com/

http://susieofarabia.wordpress.com/

http://www.saudimac.com

http://www.khaled.us

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Blog and Podcast on Hold

Ok people sorry to say this but the podcast and postings on the site will be on hold for an undefined time. Due to personal reasons I will not be able to dedicate anytime to the blog or podcast. I don’t know when will I be back, could be a few days or a few years. I will keep trying to answer any email questions so keep those coming.

Thank you all for your support and I hope I can be back soon.

Peace to all.

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Out of Town

Just a quick note that I will be out of town or the next week or so and might not be checking the site or posting. I’m leaving to Dubai for a couple of job interviews and to explore the city as i have never been past its airport.

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