There was no mistaking of the fury with which she fired off the letter. It was after much deliberation that we ran a sanitized version of the letter. What is more, her maids were being abused not in Saudi Arabia but in "a Gulf state."

Last week we published a letter from a reader in the Eastern Province (April 12). His first experience of Saudi Arabia was none too happy. He landed in Dammam 10 years ago and found how Westerners and poor Asians were greeted differently by the immigration staff. Non-Westerners were "treated like animals", he wrote. The difference in the content and the language of these two letters may give an indication of the changes in the editorial policy of Arab News over the years. Sure, there have been changes from the very beginning, as no society can remain indifferent to the developments in the wider world outside. And in every country the freedom of the press is largely a matter of continuously pushing forward the boundaries of what is permissible. This is what has slowly but steadily brought a qualitative change to the pages of Arab News. And nowhere is this change reflected more vividly and forcefully than in the Kingdom and Opinion pages.

If the topics discussed and the increasingly strident tone in some of the submissions to the letters column are any indication, our readers have welcomed this openness and are making the best use of it. This has enabled us to present a wide range of views - sometimes reflective, at times ranting and raving but always stimulating and interesting.

Usually a reader writes to a newspaper when something in the newspaper stirs his emotion. In the case of Arab News, there is another factor that lends its letters package a unique flavor. We have a multinational readership. This means something happening back home too stirs the emotions of our readers - especially those from the subcontinent. Then there are the problems all our readers face as expatriates. So you will find in Arab News a letter from an expatriate complaining how local boys threw rotten tomatoes at him and many others criticizing the family visa policy of the government.

Then there are complaints about civic facilities (the absence of a post office here or the breakdown of water supply there) and the delay and harassment people face when dealing with government officials. A recurring theme is chaos on the roads due to the reckless driving, mostly by locals. Or it may be STC's/Mobily's tardy response to a complaint from a subscriber or the sudden disappearance of recharge cards during holiday seasons.

Whatever the topic, we have tried to ensure that our letters page presents a highly credible display of the sentiments of our readers, expats as well as Saudis. Some of our correspondents hardly know how to write but we have always tried to accommodate their letters because they have an important point to make or a grievance to voice and they write us or have someone write for them because they know it is the only means of getting their views across.

At first, the column occupied very limited space. There were two articles below the cartoon and a third on the right side of the page. So the submissions ran into the cold reality of available space. But whatever the space available, there was no shortage of writers. The most prolific and the most controversial of them has been Francis A. Andrew. The climate of hostility created by Andrew's views (extremely conservative and chauvinistic, according to some) is such that a fellow-European has stopped contributing to the letters page. And this man happens to be a writer with an elegance of style and force of argument very few can match.

We also miss some others. For example, Alwee H. Attas who always brings a Saudi perspective to the topics discussed, Abdul Hannan, Rashmi Wajid, Steve Deleede (from Canada), Noel Frank, Paul Surtees, Ruma Naleem, Fatima and Manish Pandey and K.J. Haroon Basha.

We must also mention people like S.H. Moulana, Ozma Siddiqui, Munawarunnisa Nazneen, Masood Khan, Samaoen Osman, Seif Somalya, Mir Gazanfar Ali Zaki, Zafar Raja, Khawaja Umer Farooq and Rajendra K. Aneja (Dubai), Ghulam Muhammed (Mumbai) who write regularly or at frequent intervals to enliven our pages with letters that are "short and coming from the heart", to quote Kenneth Gregory who edited the collection of letters to the London Times.

And who can forget the lively debate on purdah between George Meiring and Nusratunnisa or Ruma Naleem's reflections on kindergartens in the Kingdom?

One letter that attracted many comments, all favorable, came from a German, now working in Qatar. The 64-year-old Heinz-Juergen Wenge wanted to share with our readers the happy memories of his Saudi days. Then there was Steve Deleede dwelling on multiculturalism in Canada or about immigration.

One letter that invited many comments for and against came from Nilamel Kammaruddin Moulavi. "If you visit the International Indian School Jeddah‚" he wrote, "You will definitely feel that you have been transposed to India to spend some time among Indians." He was not speaking of the academic atmosphere in the school, but of the bureaucratic ways of the staff creating so much inconvenience to the parents. Also worth remembering is the war of words between Manish Pandey (New Delhi) and Zafar Raja (London).

The Opinion page now carries two articles (the cartoon has been shifted to the Op-Ed page) expanding the space for letters. With the launching of the online edition we receive letters from all over the world. This has given an added dimension to the global coloring of our letters page. Some of the strongly worded letters expressing sympathy for the Indonesian maid Nour Miyati and calling for severest punishment for her tormentors came from abroad. And the battle for and against the ruling of an Indian judge on beard accompanied by remarks about the "Talebanizaion" of Indian Muslims were fought more fiercely on the pages of Arab News than in the Indian media.

The pride of place in the letters published in the last few months should, however, go to Mariyam Alavi. The letter was about her meeting, along with some Saudi girls, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Dar Al-Hekma College in Jeddah when she visited the Kingdom recently. Mariam wrote about her challenging Clinton making too much hue and cry over Iran's nuclear program when the US kept mum about Israel's vast nuclear arsenal. The Agence France Presse next day released a news item based on this letter. Some American newspapers picked up the item. It was a pleasant surprise to us. I am sure Mariam too was surprised.