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

It's another eventful week in the Saudi blogosphere, so let's get started with our weekly roundup…
Providing a proper work environment for Saudi women was one of the major goals of the new labor law that was published few months ago, but the question is: how the employers are going to put this goal in practice? Not very well so far. Dodi has recently went to a job interview, only to find out that she had to give up her hijab if she wanted that job. She wrote: “for the first time in my life I felt humiliated in a way that I never experienced before. For the first time I am rejected because of my religion and for the first time I felt exactly what do woman in France and Turkey and other places go through just because they are Muslims!!”
On the recent news of a Saudi-Pakistani cooperation to develop a nuclear program, Aya says there is nothing solid about these claims, and she believes that Saudis are far more concerned with another bomb, aka the lingerie bomb!
Ubergirl78 has recently read A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, and she thinks it is a great book. She does not care about all the controversy around it. “The man wrote a very good book,” she wrote, “Who cares that he lied a little bit!? The only difference between James Frey and Dave Pelzer is that unfortunately for James, everything he mentions in his book is on record somewhere else. That's why he got found out.”
Farooha, who is back after taking some time off blogging, writes about the first full-length Saudi produced movie, and would like to thank the people behind this project, “were it not for each and every one of them, a Saudi movie would have been about as possible as snow smack dab in the throbbing heart of Riyadh on a steamy August afternoon.” Meanwhile, Aya has a little piece of advice: ” But hold your horses,” she writes, “the film will actually not be shown in Saudi Arabia. Oh I forgot, in order to show a movie you need a movie theater. And you know, the conservative elite won’t allow it. At least for now.”
After a recent trip to Mecca, AhMeD takes the time to tell us why he is so excited about his very first visit to the holy city, and writes his impressions on Ka'bah: “The Ka'bah isn't big, but it is so…so… glorious! I got this extraordinary feeling once I saw it in person, I felt that I was in the presence of something great and grand. It had nothing to do with me being a Muslim or not, actually at that moment I didn't think of my religion at all. It just felt that Im in the presence of something so great and wonderful.” On the other hand, Misso writes on her recent visit to the other holy city in Saudi Arabia, which is Medina, and describes at as a spiritual experience. Finally, Ahmed had a visit to Lebanon (Arabic), and says that he liked Lebanese restaurants, and he liked the family spirit he saw among the people there.
And now to our quick tour on some posts of note: Dotsson comments on the story of five Saudi women who underwent sex change surgery. He wrote: “Now this article is one of a kind! The next time, a woman tells me she's feeling kinda moody, I'm definitely gonna be wondering what is going on inside of her head and I hope I'll find a way to be more understanding. This is one trend, I sure hope doesn't catch on!!!” starlit_saudi has a picture from downtown Riyadh, and Bissa reports from a lecture she attended by Lubna Al-Olayan at her school.