Pulse of the Saudi Blogosphere · Global Voices
Ahmed Al-Omran

So, what's the most interesting stuff Saudi bloggers have been talking about in the past seven days? Let's take our weekly tour in the Saudi blogosphere to find out.
Aya posts on her experience with the current state of the Saudi blogosphere, saying she is very encouraged by finding many interesting and well written Saudi blogs. “Although things don’t always come easy for Saudi bloggers, the will of Saudi bloggers is flourishing and thriving. The internet, after all, has no ceiling & one can always find ways around censorship.” she added.
Mo5 o 7ekma has a strong post on women's driving (Arabic):
Yes, I'd like to get my own car, and I'd like to drive it myself. Neither you, nor anybody else on this earth has the right to ban me from something that my religion did not ban me from. There is not even rational justifications for this ban. I say, we demand women's driving because it is our right, and that's enough.
However, she says that she does not like it when non-Saudis who do not live in Saudi Arabia talk about this topic, trying to analyze, criticize, and condemn, because their analysis usually lacks perspective and accuracy, “and even if they had those, it is still a domestic affair,” she added.
On the same topic, Aya also wrote:
Driving a golf cart in an already segregated event might seem to some as a trivial issue, however, it is certainly not for the self-appointed anti-anything related to women’ progress camp. Their logic is simple: If women drive golf carts today, they will want to drive real cars tomorrow, certainly, a major sin that should be uprooted as early as possible.
After a recent visit to Jeddah and Mecca, @tz3naf was not pleased at all with miserable state of the streets of a city known as the “Bride of the Red Sea.” “We, people of Saudi Arabia, are supposed to benefit from the rise in oil prices, and not to keep on donating to Palestinians, or to rebuild what America destroys in Iraq and Afghanistan. Half of what was donated to Palestine could change the face of Jeddah,” she wrote. Moving to Mecca, she says that a Saudi won't feel like home there (Arabic), because there are so many Africans. Those Africans usually come for pilgrimage, but then they overstay illegally in the country to work in some jobs such as begging. “They are not just beggers; they also spread alcohols, drugs, black magic, and prostitution in this holy city,” she added.
Ubergirl lists ten things she likes about Riyadh, including Saks Fifth Avenue and the fact you can get a tan in December. Meanwhile, Leeno takes the time to give us a glimpse from Riyadh nightlife.
After reading Raja Al-Sanea's controversial novel “Banat Al-Riyadh,” Ahmed says (Arabic): “we read or hear everyday about young people who use drugs, drink alcohols, even commit suicide, and we don't see the same controversy that surrounded this novel. Is it because the main characters of the novel are women, or because the writer is a woman, or is it simply because we think our society is that ideal?”
Prometheus takes on the rise of Islamists in the power positions in the Arab World (the win of Hamas in Palestine and the win of Islamists in the municipal election in Saudi Arabia, to mention some examples). He thinks it was expected. He says that in the times of crises, people tend to look for shelter in religion. The Islmists keep on talking about dangers that threat our identity, which makes people become more religious, and to blindingly follow those who claim to talk in the name of religion. “All that extremism we see around us has nothing to do with Islam (Arabic), ” he writes. “It is a bridge the extremists use to take over the power, and to control the destiny of people. They do not hesitate for a second about committing every crime in order to reach their goal, which is taking over the power,” he added.
Trying to explain to a friend that everyone sets their own limits to what they are willing to risk with their lives in the hereafter, June wrote:
Muslims are people too and they are allowed to make mistakes just like everyone else. It annoys me because when Muslims start talking like that about Muslims they sound like Christians and Jews when they attempt to criticize Muslims when they do something wrong.
Finally, let's have some fun with Saudi Future, who tells us about the different kinds of teachers, and also provides the best way to deal with each one of them :-)