Saudi Arabia launches powerful ad campaign against domestic violence

Saudi Arabia’s first anti-domestic violence ad.

Saudi Arabia, a country not exactly known for progressive attitudes toward women, has launched its first major anti-domestic violence campaign — its latest effort to embrace, at least superficially, some women’s rights reforms.

The ads in the “No More Abuse” campaign show a woman in a dark veil with one black eye. The English version reads “some things can’t be covered.” The Arabic version, according toForeign Policy‘s David Kenner, translates roughly as “the tip of the iceberg.” A Web site for the campaign includes a report on reducing domestic violence and emergency resources for victims.

Exact figures on domestic violence are hard to come by. The State Department’s most recent human rights report cites estimates that 16 to 50 percent of Saudi wives suffer some kind of spousal abuse. Saudi law does not criminalize domestic violence or spousal rape, and social repercussions can make reporting violence of any kind difficult. Both rape and domestic violence “may be seriously underreported,” according to the State Department report.

The Saudi government has begun to address the problem, at least in name. In 2008, a prime ministerial decree ordered the expansion of “social protection units,” its version of women’s shelters, in several large cities, and ordered the government to draft a national strategy to deal with domestic violence, according to the U.N. Several royal foundations, including the King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue and the King Khalid Foundation, have also led education and awareness efforts.

None of this changes the fact, of course, that Saudi Arabia remains an often difficult place to be a woman. The World Economic Forum ranks the country 131st out of 135 for its record on women’s rights, citing a total lack of political and economic empowerment.

The country has a strong record on women’s health and education, however: On metrics such as enrollment in higher education, Saudi Arabia actually scores well above the global average.

Some of those well-educated women are leading the fight against domestic violence now.Maha Almuneef, a pediatrician, directs the National Family Safety Program, an anti-violence effort that has also benefited from the patronage of Saudi Arabia’s Princess Adela.

“Reporting violence and abuse should be compulsory and there should be a witness protection program,” Adela said at a 2009 conference on ending the country’s domestic abuse.

(Source / 01.05.2013)

Espionage ring in Saudi Arabia linked to Iran: interior ministry

Saudi Arabia arrested last week 18 people accused of espionage activity.

An alleged spy cell dismantled last week in Saudi Arabia had “direct links” to Iran’s intelligence services, the kingdom’s interior ministry said on Tuesday.

“Preliminary investigations and physical evidence that has been collected as well as the defendants’ statements on this case have all revealed direct links between this cell and Iranian intelligence services,” a ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency.

“These elements had regularly received sums of money in return for information and documents on important installations during the spy operation in the interest of these services,” it said.

On March 19, the interior ministry in Riyadh said authorities had arrested 16 Saudis, an Iranian and a Lebanese citizen in four regions including Eastern Province, where the Sunni-ruled kingdom’s Shiite minority is concentrated.

But Iranian media reported on Sunday that the Shiite-dominated Islamic republic has denied any link to the suspected spy cell.

“Investigations are still ongoing with members of this cell and legal procedures will be taken against them,” said the Saudi statement.

Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council have strained ties with Iran which they suspect of supporting Shiite opposition protests in GCC member Bahrain, which like its partners is Sunni-ruled.

According to the Saudi Press Agency, the suspects were found in Mecca, Medina, Riyadh and Eastern Province – where the country’s Shi’ite minority is concentrated.

The General Intelligence Presidency and the Saudi interior ministry caught the men in a joint operation, said the report, adding the ministry “received information on Saudis and expats spying for another country.”

The men were collecting data on “vital installation,” said the state news agency.

In an interview with Al Arabiya, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi said most of those arrested were from one sect, adding that they were spying for the Islamic Republic of Iran.

“Among those involved is a doctor and another is a Shi’ite cleric,” he said. “Others were working at [the Saudi oil company] Aramco.”

There are an estimated two million Shi’ites in the Sunni-dominated kingdom of about 27.5 million people.

Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign ministry denied on Sunday the alleged accusation Saudi Arabia made of the country’s involvement in the linked group of alleged spies.

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, denied that an Iranian national was involved in the alleged spying and called the allegations a “repetitive scenario,” according to Iran’s English-language Press TV on Sunday.

“Raising such baseless issues at the media level is merely for domestic consumption,” he said, according to Press TV.

(Source / 26.03.2013)

Saudi Arabia threatens to block Skype, WhatsApp, Viber

Saudi Arabia’s telecommunications regulator has threatened to block messaging applications, such as Skype, WhatsApp and Viber.

Saudi Arabia’s telecommunications regulator has threatened to block messaging applications, such as Skype, WhatsApp and Viber if telecommunication companies fail to monitor the applications.

The Saudi Telecommunications and Information Technology Commission urged telecom companies to examine possible ways for security oversight with the companies who own those ‘apps’.

The commission gave the telecom companies until the end of this week to respond. In case they say it is impossible to monitor the applications, the commission said it will consider procedures to block them altogether in the kingdom.

The Saudi telecommunication watchdog had addressed a similar case with BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) in 2010 when it ordered local telecommunication companies to suspend BlackBerry messenger services.

The Kingdom demanded access to the Blackberry’s encrypted network.

(Source / 24.03.2013)

Twitter is for clowns: Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti

Saudi Grand Mufti Sheik Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh

Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti has criticized the social media website Twitter as a “council of clowns” and a place for those who “unleash unjust, incorrect and wrong tweets.”

Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul-Aziz al-Sheikh made the statements during a speech to Saudi Arabia’s senior religious scholars on Friday, the Saudi-based al-Watan newspaper reported Saturday.

The Grand Mufti argued that the most of young people are wasting their time on chatting and using the internet, especially Twitter.

Saudi Arabia has three million Twitter users, more than any country in the Middle East, with a growth rate of 300 percent year-on-year, according to a report by the Social Clinic, a Jeddah-based social media consultancy.

Between 2011 and 2012, the number of Twitter users in the kingdom grew by 3,000 percent. The kingdom accounts for an average 50 million tweets per month most of which made in the Arabic language.

“Saudi Arabia has not been selfish either, with most of the tweets being in Arabic, Saudi Arabia accounts for 30 percent of the global tweets tweeted in Arabic, placing Arabic at the top of the pyramid of the fastest growing languages on Twitter, yes Arabic is the fastest growing language on Twitter,” according to statement published at the consultancy website http://www.thesocialclinic.com.

The capital Riyadh ranks 10 globally among the cities with most Tweets and is the only Arab city in the top 20 cities, according to the report.

In other social media platforms, with more than 6 million active Facebook users, Saudi Arabia has the highest Facebook user rate in the GCC, according to The Social Clinic.

(Source / 23.03.2013)

Saudi Arabia arrests 18 suspected spies

Authorities arrest an Iranian, a Lebanese and 16 Saudis accused of being part of “foreign spy network”.

The Saudi authorities have arrested 18 suspected spies, including an Iranian and a Lebanese, on charges of espionage for a foreign country, the interior ministry said. “Sixteen Saudis, an Iranian and a Lebanese were arrested in co-ordinated and simultaneous operations in four regions of the kingdom,” including the capital Riyadh and Mecca, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday. Interior Ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki told state television that the arrests were made four days ago and the suspects were being investigated before being handed over to judicial authorities. ‘Case of espionage’ “This is a case of espionage and those have been involved with a spy network working for a foreign country,” Turki told state television. “They were gathering information about installations and vital areas in the country and providing intelligence agencies of that state with it,” he added, without naming the state. News of the arrests come as rights activists on Tuesday reported that Saudi security forces had arrested several Shias across the kingdom, including two clerics, over the past days for unspecified reasons. Since early 2011, mainly Shia towns in the eastern province have seen sporadic protests and confrontations between police and Shia residents who complain of marginalisation. There are an estimated two million Shias in the Sunni-dominated kingdom of about 27.5 million people. (Source / 19.03.2013)

Saudi cleric issues rare warning in call for reform

RIYADH (Reuters) — One of Saudi Arabia’s leading clerics has delivered a rare warning to the government that it could face “the spark of violence” if concerns over detainees, poor services and corruption are not addressed.

The conservative Islamic kingdom avoided any major unrest among its Sunni Muslim majority during Arab Spring revolts elsewhere after King Abdullah pledged $110 billion in social spending and the powerful clergy backed a ban on protests.

Any signs of public opposition to the government are closely watched in the world’s top oil exporter and there have been increasingly frequent small demonstrations in recent months by the families of people held as suspected Islamist militants.

Sheikh Salman al-Awdah, a conservative who was imprisoned from 1994-99 for agitating for political change and has 2.4 million followers on Twitter, expressed his concerns in an open letter on the social media site.

He described a mood of stagnation which he said was caused by a lack of housing, unemployment, poverty, corruption, weak health and education systems, the plight of the detainees and the absence of any prospect of political reform.

“If revolutions are suppressed they turn into armed action, and if they are ignored they expand and spread. The solution is in wise decisions and in being timely to avert any spark of violence,” he wrote.

The issue of the detainees has brought some Saudi Islamists and liberals to make common cause against what they see as a punitive approach to state security in Washington’s closest Gulf ally.

A week ago two prominent human rights activists were jailed after years of campaigning about the issue.

The Interior Ministry’s security spokesman had two days earlier warned that activists were using the internet to rouse up street protests by spreading “false information”.

Most demonstrations on the issue of detainees have involved only a few dozen people, but in late February 161 protesters were arrested in Bureidah in the central Qassim Province.

Awdah wrote that Saudis “like people around the world” would not “always be silent about forfeiting all or part” of their rights, before adding “when someone loses hope, you should expect anything from him”.

Saudi authorities tolerate little public dissent and the official Wahhabi school of Islam discourages political involvement.

(Source / 16.03.2013)

Saudi Arabia jails two prominent activists

Founding members of the banned Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association are sentenced to 10 years in prison.

A Saudi Arabian court has sentenced two prominent political and human rights activists to at least 10 years in prison for offences that included sedition and giving inaccurate information to foreign media. Mohammed Fahd al-Qahtani and Abdullah Hamad are founding members of the banned Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association, known as Acpra, that documents human rights abuses. Qahtani was sentenced to 10 years. Hamad was told he must complete the remaining six years of a previous jail term for his political activities and serve an additional five years. They will remain in detention until a judge rules on their appeal next month. Saturday’s trial was open to the press and public, in what Saudi activists had described as a step forward for rights even as they decried the verdict. More than 100 people attended the hearing on Saturday morning, mostly supporters and relatives of the defendants. More than 20 security officers were also present in the room, prompting a protest from the defendants’ lawyer. ‘Politically motivated’ Acpra will also be disbanded and its funds confiscated, the judge ruled. Last year a court in Jeddah sentenced Acpra member Mohammad al-Bajadi to four years in prison. Another of the group’s founders, Abdulkarim al-Khathar is on trial in Buraidah. After the verdict, the police cleared the public from the court room as supporters of Qahtani and Hamad shouted that the trial was politically motivated. On Thursday, an Interior Ministry spokesman said that activists, whom he did not name, had tried to stir up protests in the world’s top oil exporting country by spreading “false information” on social media. Qahtani said in January he had never been to prison but thought he was “psychologically ready” for it, and that his family, who are in the United States where his wife is attending university, were also prepared. (Source / 09.03.2013)

V-Day in Saudi Arabia: religious police say won’t close flower shops

Florists and toy stores sometimes hide their red roses and romantic gifts out of sight to avoid being shut down during Valentine’s Day.

The head of Saudi Arabia’s Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice [CPVPV], denied on Tuesday plans to close shops selling flowers during Valentine’s Day.

Sheikh Abdullatif al-Sheikh told the Saudi daily newspaper al-Jazirah: “This is not our specialty. It is the specialty of other parties. We reject what violates the book (Quran) and the Sunna (the Prophet’s teaching) and Saudi Arabia’s regulations.”

“We deal with issues on a case by case basis, and if there is a violation our role is to liaise with concerned government parties,” he added.

Al-Sheikh’s statements followed widely-circulated reports that commission is planning to close all shops selling flowers on Valentine’s Day.

Previously, the commission banned the sale of red roses ahead of Valentine’s Day, forcing couples to think of new ways to show their love.

In 2008, it ordered florists and gift shop owners in the capital Riyadh to remove from their displays any red-colored items — from roses to wrapping paper and teddy bears.

Non-Muslims in the kingdom are allowed to celebrate the holiday behind closed doors. Most Western expatriates live in gated communities called “compounds” that are beyond the jurisdiction of the religious police.

In 2009, Florists and toy stores in were reported to have hid their red roses and romantic gifts out of sight to avoid being shut down. This was part of an annual struggle between the kingdom’s religious police and its love birds.

(Source / 12.02.2013)

Saudi clerics demand fair trials for prisoners

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – More than 100 Saudi clerics have signed a petition calling for fair hearings for prisoners held on security grounds in the conservative kingdom, which has arrested thousands of people in a campaign against Islamist militants.

The petition, prompted by the detention earlier this month of 11 women who staged a protest to demand the release of jailed relatives, also called on the authorities to treat women prisoners properly.

Rights groups say thousands have been detained in the name of security in Saudi Arabia, many of them imprisoned without a fair hearing or held for long periods without trial. They say some were detained merely for demanding political change.

The authorities deny holding political prisoners and say all those detained for reasons of security are suspected Islamist militants. They said over 5,000 people were detained last year in a crackdown on the militants and most had already been tried.

Conservative Sunni Muslim clerics hold powerful positions in Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam. However, some have also opposed the ruling family on issues ranging from social reform to the campaign against Islamist radicals.

The 100 clerics who signed the petition are from Qassim, one of the most conservative parts of Saudi Arabia and the heartland of its austere Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam.

Activists familiar with the petition said those who signed it were from a variety of ideological backgrounds, suggesting they may include both Islamists and comparative liberals.

“The issue of detainees has become the community’s issue,” the petition read. “The releases occurring are less than the (number) expected, which has resulted in growing frustration among the people.”

“This has become evident through the protests and sit-ins that are increasing in number and widening in scope and intensifying in tone… It would be wise to resolve this issue quickly,” it added.

The protest in which the 11 women were detained on January 5 is the latest in a string of small-scale demonstrations and sit-ins outside government offices in Qassim and the capital Riyadh over the past 18 months.

In September the then interior minister Prince Ahmed said no further protests about detainees would be tolerated.

All protests in Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter, are illegal. The government says it does not mistreat prisoners.

The petition said Islam forbids the mistreatment of women. The detention of women is particularly sensitive in more conservative parts of Saudi Arabia, such as Qassim.

The crackdown against Islamist militants came in response to a series of attacks by al Qaeda on government and Western targets from 2003 to 2005. The militants were crushed inside the kingdom but some fled to Yemen where they set up a new wing of al Qaeda that swore to bring down the Saudi ruling family.

(news.yahoo.com / 14.01.2013)

Saudi Grand Mufti warns Gulf public against unrest

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, the highest religious authority in the birthplace of Islam, issued a condemnation of demonstrations that appeared to blame Iran for unrest among Shi’ite Muslims in Gulf Arab states.

“The Arab Gulf is being targeted by attacks seeking to discredit religion and eliminate the material interests and wealth it holds,” Al-Watan newspaper quoted Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al al-Sheikh as saying in his Friday sermon in Riyadh.

Al-Sheikh warned people not to follow “enemies” who called on them to protest, saying they aimed to divide the people of the region.

Unrest has erupted among majority Shi’ites in Bahrain and minority Shi’ites in Eastern Saudi Arabia in the last two years. Sunni authorities have repeatedly blamed Shi’ite Iran, which denies involvement.

Tension has also run high over Iran’s disputed nuclear program, which Gulf Arab rulers fear could help Iran acquire nuclear weapons.

The al-Saud dynasty rules in alliance with clerics who back the royal family and have wide influence over Saudi society.

Al-Watan said al-Sheikh also lashed out at what he called “satellite channels that broadcast evil” and urged owners to use them to promote security and obey their country’s rulers.

(mobile.reuters.com / 24.11.2012)