Oprah vs Waad

How are Saudi women doing in the Nancy-Haifa wars?  Tough question.  Noticable progress towards women's political and cultural rights in Saudi Arabia is hard to discern - nothing comparable to, say, the Kuwaiti advances towards women's voting and their seating of a female cabinet minister.  Or, say, driving. 

On the other hand, satellite television penetration in Saudi Arabia probably exceeds that of any other country:  about 89% of Saudi households have satellite television dishes.  As Nagal el-Eseimy wrote a few weeks ago,

With the huge growth in the number of satellite television channels available in Saudi Arabia over in the last fifteen years, the country’s youths are increasingly turning away from local television such as Channel 1. The result is a gap between the younger population who is attracted to specialist children’s programs, available on satellite, and the older generation, which still remains loyal to Saudi TV. Channel 1 currently shows talk shows, political features such as “Waghan Lewagh – Face to Face”, women’s programs such as “Ahlamha- Her Dreams” in addition to cartoons, local programs, Arabic language series and religious programs.

Hisham Abd al-Rahim, a young Saudi man, won the second Star Academy contest on LBC - and you don't win Star Academy unless a lot of people from your home country vote for you, early and often.  Saudi officials don't necessarily like it - the main Saudi telecommunications agency reportedly banned its customers from using their mobile phones to vote on Star Academy because they considered the show indecent.  And Abd al-Rahim then got arrested by the Committee for the Protection of Virtue after he was mobbed in a shopping mall.  Whatever the merits of Abd al-Rahim's singing, his win sparked a really interesting public debate - among Saudis and in the wider Arab media about Saudis.    Faisal Abbass writes that

"to many people in Saudi Arabia, this show has only one name, “Academiat Al Shaytan(Satan's Academy)! Why… you may ask? Well, so that it would be named after its founders, the “evil devils in our world” as one Islamic 'awareness recording' suggests....  As in most countries around the world, reality shows have been the topic of major debates and have received a lot of criticism within Saudi Arabia, where these television programs have become the focus of many talks and recordings of the “Mashayekh Al Sahwa” (the Awakening Clergy). These cassettes, which are sold at one Saudi Riyal each, urge the boycott of such shows, which help “an alliance of infidels and promoters of lust” in their mission to “target the nation”.... The same person is convinced that “Star Academy” is “part of a huge plot planned many years ago to strip away all virtue from the Arab youth”.

Satan Academy, by Mohammed Saleh al Munjid

Two more interesting tidbits from the Nancy-Haifa Wars, Saudi Division popped up today:  one about Oprah Winfrey, the other about Saudi pop singer Waad. 

First, Oprah.   Lubna Hussein, writing in Arab News, reports on the sharp debates sparked by a recent episode of Oprah's show which dealt with Saudi Arabia:

“Did you see Oprah?” she asked.

“What was it all about?” I piped up eager to establish what it was that had galvanized so many into action.

“Well,” she continued conspiratorially, “she did profiles on all the wonderful women of the world and every country was represented by someone successful, beautiful and famous. Like Aishwarya Rai from India. You know, that kind of thing.”

“Who did they pick from here?” I stupidly inquired.

“Rania Al-Baz,” she declared defeatedly.

“Rania Al Baz? Isn’t she that announcer who had been beaten up by her husband?” I commented with great astonishment. “But why would they pick her?”

“This is my point,” she added shaking her head. “And do you know what? After they showed pictures of her bruised and distorted face, Oprah said, ‘Thank God we live in America!’”

I looked at my American friend who shrugged her shoulders and then a Saudi writer who was sitting across the table joined in the discussion. “I thought it was really good,” he volunteered excitedly. “At least Oprah told it as it is.”

Even though I was not properly qualified to speak I was rather outraged by his response and encouragement of such a spurious message being delivered to a nation of people who would probably never have the experience of meeting a Saudi woman firsthand and who would be allowed to nurture this image of our status as victims and second class citizens.

“Hang on a minute,” I interjected. “Do you honestly think that Rania Al-Baz is representative of women here?”

“Well,” he ventured unperturbed by the tone of the question, “I think that the program showed how Saudis treat women. Oprah did say at the beginning that Saudi women were the only ones in the world who aren’t allowed to drive and they are forced to wear the veil. Besides, just because you may have a sentimental perspective it doesn’t mean that you can deny the facts.”

Hussain, like lots of other Saudis, was infuriated by Oprah's presumption to define Saudi society by this one case, and to ignore other Saudi women - and particularly disgusted by the fact that it had been her own newspaper (she writes) which broke the Rania al-Baz case - an act of courageous journalism which, she feels, is now being used against them.   She concludes with this: 

I don’t believe that it is the image of Rania Al-Baz, the battered announcer or Capt. Hanadi Hindy, the first Saudi female pilot, that defines the Saudi woman. But rather the growing contingent of educated emancipated and sophisticated women like those who supported the petition against such convenient typecasting.

Okay.  If not Rania al-Baz or Hanadi Hindy, what about Waad?   Charles Freund reports on the first real Saudi female video clip star, Waad:

The most popular music video in the Arab world, according to the Beirut-based countdown show Top Ten, is currently "Aala Meen" ("Whose Fault?"), performed by an elegantly beautiful woman named Waad. That brings the Arab music-video revolution to Saudi Arabia: Waad is a Saudi, and until now her country has yielded very few women pop singers, and certainly nobody like her. Even the Arab world's music fans are interested in her phenomenon, in part because Waad's career is a spectacle that includes the potential of danger. Indeed, there have already been an alleged kidnapping and an attempt on her life by an outraged brother.

By the often-racy standards of music videos by singers from Lebanon (and to a lesser degree from Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco), Waad's video is pretty tame. By Saudi pop standards, however, it's a breakthrough. Like other Gulf women singers, Waad remains covered below the neck. (She does wear a pantsuit, however, which is frowned on by some moral conservatives; one Egyptian cleric recently issued a fatwa against ironing women's pants because it would be abetting a woman in wrongdoing.) But while other Gulf women singers generally remain immobile while performing so as not to appear provocative, Waad moves around freely, swaying to her music. By contrast, a Waad video last year was notably austere: Sitting on a stool in an otherwise empty set, her only physical movement was to accompany her lyrics by "signing" them for the deaf.

Swaying and pants may not seem like much, but then one of her brothers has allegedly tried to kill her simply because she sings in public, a story that is an important aspect of Waad's public persona. For example, here is a page where Arab music fans discuss Waad's music, her Saudi-ness, her appearances on Arab reality TV shows, her dark complexion, and, inevitably, the attempt on her life. According to the version on the forum, Waad's brother, Muhammad Bakar Yunus Al-Fallatta, tried to kill her during a concert.

So what does this all amount to?  Beats me.   I find the combination of intense satellite television penetration and a highly repressive internal society an odd and combustible one.   It's the culture wars, even more than politics, which the regime seems to find threatening:  the Open Net Initiative's study of internet filtering in Saudi Arabia found that

"the Kingdom's filtering focuses on a few types of content: pornography (98% of these sites tested blocked in our research), drugs (86%), gambling (93%), religious conversion, and sites with tools to circumvent filters (41%). In contrast, Saudi Arabia shows less interest in sites on gay and lesbian issues (11%), politics (3%), Israel (2%), religion (less than 1%), and alcohol (only 1 site)."

And with that, I open this far too long post to comments. 

Comments

[monkey knife fight]

OT, but pop culture related: did you get my email about those people selling the 'Lolita Nation' CDs? I actually sent it from my work email, not the gmail address.

[the aardvark]

Oh, was that you? Yeah.. that's always the problem. It's easy to get if you're willing to spend $50+... but I'm not.

[collounsbury]

Well that was very interesting indeed, Father of Aardvarks. Waad. Did not know about her, I shall have to delve deeper.

I might suggest an item of interest is the internet porn scandal in Morocco. Tangentially connected in reality, but in local talk, hotting up in re the whole TV and Internet morality issue.

[Nur al-Cubicle]

Le Monde has mentioned a Sex Tourism scandal in Morocco.

[monkey knife fight]

Don't like the the open market, hey? Now that I think about it, I'm sure some of my friends will have this on CD. I'll ask around. Man, I'm now starting to get a new jones for that neo-psych sound again. Have you ever heard of Dead Meadow? They're more like neo-neo-psych. Fortunately, this shit will never completely die out. Now to dig up some old Hoodoo Gurus.

[hayat]

Oh this is really cheap. IS LIFE ONLY ABOUT HOW WOMEN DRESS AND THEIR "FREEDOM" TO SING, MIX ..... BLA BLA... ? PLEASE GUYS CUT THE CRAP HERE AND ADDRESS THE REAL ISSUS. Wearing Hijab is not such a misery. And believe it or not their are tons of ppl wearing it with their own interest with out being told to do it.

What exactly do you say bout those None-Arab Muslim girls who choose to wear Hijab without any ones intervention? Hey Look Waco’s don be just a parrot of the western media.

Hayat, Africa, Ethiopia

[David W]

AA, your music-video-as-liberation thesis grows stronger every day!

The forcing of women into subservient roles by the Saudis and others gives fuel to anti-Muslim movements, who use this as evidence that the 'truth' of Islam involves brutality and dominance over women.

It is interesting to consider the fact that wearing the hijab did not come from Muhammed--where did it come from? what kind of Islam is being promoted by those who would force women to wear the hijab?

Wearing the hijab should be a personal choice--my wife does not choose to wear the hijab, and I'm not going to pull some patriarchal b.s. to force her to...

I'm not much of a girlpop music lover, but i'm down with Saad, and the Video Revolution--you go, girl!

-David

ps. it's also funny how so many Saudis can't wait to go on vacation to Beirut, so they can do all the things they can't in SA;>

[Patrick]

In fairness, Hayat, the post wasn't just about conceptualizing women's issues in terms of clothing and music. It addressed women's issues in terms of getting the crap beaten out of them, kidnapped, and killed. Are those serious enough for you?

[SP]

I agree that we shouldn't read too much into women prancing around on music videos as a sign of liberation, though it has its good points. But Hayat, someone getting beaten up for singing is a serious matter and we shouldn't make excuses for it and get defensive just because it's an issue the "Western media" has picked up on. "This is our culture" is the favourite line of patriarchal oppressors the world over.

On the hijab issue, of course, "new veiling" has changed our stereotypes about oppressed vs liberated women. I see loads of sassy, strong, career women muhaggabat in Cairo,who are in many ways "practising" feminists, as well as lots of princessy glamour-dolls with loose hair and revealing clothes, who just want to marry a rich man. While I'm still uncomfortable with the idea that it's the woman and not the man who has to prove she is virtuous and a good Muslim when she goes out to work, new veiling does challenge my ideas as a feminist.

And then you have Saudi women who can't do so many things without a male escort.

[Nur al-Cubicle]

Here's a story of the politics of song from the West Bank (via L'Orient-Le Jour):

Armed Fatah members hindered a concert by a popular Palestinian singer on July 5th in Nablus in the northern West Bank. Ammar Hassan, who became famous in the Palestinian territories after winning a televised song contest watched throughout the Arab world, was to give a 4-hour concert on the campus of al-Najah University in Nablus. But some hours before the concert, three Fatah gunmen visited his hotel in Nablus and ordered him not to perform. The young man refused to cave into their demands. The concert began with a slight delay before 1500 fans but twenty armed men shooting into the air and dozens of protesters hurling insults gathered outside. Fearing a riot, the organizers ended the performance after an hour. The singer was escorted to a safe place by campus police. The auditorium doors were then opened to let out the crowd giving the armed men a chance to enter. They then began firing shots and knocking over chairs. Musical performances are very rare in the Palestinian territories where this kind of entertainment is discouraged by radical Islamist groups supported by the population. Born in Salfit, a village on the northern West Bank, Ammar Hassan became an idol in 2004 among young Palestinians when he became a finalist on "Superstar", a song competition broadcast by the Lebanese network Future TV.