I was impressed with how Dr. Aziza Al-Manie, the well-known Saudi woman writer and academic, described Arabic women’s magazines. She said they tend to sidestep substantive issues concerning women focusing instead on the traditional role of women in a manner that only augments their secondary role in society. The overwhelming majority of these magazines, says Dr. Aziza, overflow with topics ranging from makeup and fashion to cuisine and interior decoration. The ways in which these magazine marginalize women’s intellectual abilities, she said, support those who seek to exclude women from responsible positions and deny them any contributing role in the basic matters which are of greatest concern to society. While reading Dr. Aziza’s opinions and judgements of women magazines, two young Saudi men handed me a copy of An-Nisaiyah which describes itself as the first comprehensive weekly paper for Arab women. They told me that the paper is registered in Bahrain, printed in Cyprus and enjoys its largest circulation in the Kingdom. It is one of the many foreign-based self-exiled Saudi papers which, like Saudi money in exile and probably for the same reasons. It seems to defend women from a male perspective. I am really puzzled by this complex situation that we continue to experience, in both our social and political lives. It reminds me of the man who, when asked to touch his left ear, did so by crossing his right hand over his head and touching his ear. Was he unaware of an easier and more direct way?
The least that can be done to address these unchanging situations in a world that is rapidly changing is to gradually correct the errors. If this does not work, then we have to resort to surgery. This might be allowing the foreign-based publications to return home to spread through and enrich local intellectual life. The way to do this is not by using meaningless flowery language but by showing themselves to be a part of the country’s flesh and blood. The publications should be printed in the country to keep the many privately-owned printing presses rolling; far too many of them find themselves tied up. Entire families, as well as individuals, invested millions of riyals of their boom years savings in a business they know how to run.
These people have made valuable contributions to the national economy by generating income and improving standards of living. The benefit from these magazines and newspapers would undoubtedly have been greater if their readership were expanded and they were allowed to use their homeland as their actual place of publication. The homeland should not be used as a mere address by publications imported into the country like soap, apples, caviar or cigars. This foreign-based Saudi media has become just another foreign import entering the Kingdom through Jeddah airport - which is in no better position than the city’s other port. This foreign-based Saudi media is viewed by the home-published variety as being insensitive to local values and above the law. It has a greater ability to disregard local regulations, can break taboos and has the additional advantage of publishing at a lower cost. In short, the foreign-based media has it all. It has all the elements that enable it to descend on the local media and compete with it in a lucrative cake. What a calamity! Many people are rightly unhappy about Saudi intellectual talents leaving the country to produce works which are then sent back home.
Although they would prefer such efforts not to come from abroad, they naturally disagree with attempts to restrict the media monopoly to no more than six or seven groups. They see greater benefits if the field were made accessible to all citizens, men and women — and made as easy as it is for a merchant to open a shop. There are many considerations that justify this approach including one cited by Mr. Turki Al-Sudairi, the editor of the Arabic daily, Ar-Riyadh. He said that advertising made up more than 75 percent of the printed space in the local press is pure advertising and this is due to the power of six or seven media groups. These groups perhaps would be opposed to the return of the exiled Saudi media. This puts additional burdens on readers who refer to this kind of publication as advertising media. (Translated from Arabic)
