The Saudi Blogosphere this Past Week · Global Voices
Global Voices MENA

Sleeping blogs, zombie computers, Saudi driving culture, Saddam Hussein's hanging, Arabic MTV, Saudi lesbian bloggers, Christmas, and more in this week's roundup. Let's get this started…
Relating to the demise of the blogging trend, mentioned in last week's roundup, Ahmad published a very interesting post about Saudi “sleeping blogs.” The number of Saudi blogs saw a sudden rise this past summer; many of these newly-born blogs have not been updated for more than two months so far. In a lighthearted manner, Saleh asks those reading his blog: “Is your computer a zombie?” He introduces a Wikipedia article titled “Zombie Computer” to his fellow Arabic readers. This past week in the Saudi blogosphere has also seen the emergence of two blogs published by Saudi girls that celebrate the lesbian lifestyle. “Saudi Ballerina” belongs to a 19-year-old single Saudi girl in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “Two Dykes and a Closet,” however, belongs to a lesbian couple that is also from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
When it comes to Christmas, and celebrating it in Saudi, Saudi blogs are divided in their opinions. Al-Failasouf posted (in Arabic) against the availability of Christmas decorations and sweets in many Saudi stores. He said: “In simple words, we are not responsible for bringing them happiness on their holy occasion, while our brothers everywhere are dying because of Christians like them.” Ahmed (a.k.a. Saudi Jeans) strongly opposes this view in a post of his. His rebuttal was: “This is what makes people like Debbie Schlussel object to Barack Obama's nomination for presidency because his father was a Muslim.” Now, if you want to hear it from someone who converted from Christianity to Islam and happens to be living in Saudi Arabia, you should read Nzingha's post about the celebration of Christmas.
On the Saudi driving culture, Margrave complains about young Saudi “weavers,” the one thing he refuses to get used to, and wonders: “Why do you [Saudi] guys have two or three different names for every main road?!” Crossroads Arabia has recently linked to a renewed US travel warning for Saudi Arabia:
Due to concerns about the possibility of additional terrorist activity directed against American citizens and interests, the Department of State continues to warn U.S. citizens to defer non-essential travel to Saudi Arabia. The United States Mission in Saudi Arabia remains an unaccompanied post as a result of continued security concerns.
In other news, Dotsson posted about the recent countdown for Saddam Hussein's death sentence. Suprisingly, the countdown seems to be already over; this is all while the US “frees 18 ex-Guantanamo detainees,” according to the article posted by Crossroads Arabia.
Now, to wrap up…
Ahmed (a.k.a. Saudi Jeans) posted about the founding of a new Arabic MTV, Muneeb posted an interesting article about how YouTube “helped Canadian police find a man they believe responsible for a murder,” Al-Failasouf posted (in Arabic) some observations of his on the severe gender segregation in Saudi Arabia, and, finally, Prometheus posted an article about the Commission‘s most recent breach of individual rights and abuse of a Saudi mother and her daughter. Saudi human rights lawyer Abdulrahman Al-Lahem is taking the case of the mother and her daughter to court and says “he had been waiting years for a case like this.”