Saudi Women Finally Have The Right To Sell Lingerie
by Lorelei Loveridge on January 19, 2012
The right to drive in Saudi if you’re a woman is coming. I just know it. Now that women can sell panties, braziers and silk nighties in the souqs and marvellous shopping malls of Saudi Arabia, and men cannot, well, the right to drive must be coming!
It’s a jubilance for me that comes from the memory of the indignity of having to slide my underpants, and special lingerie treats to …
Read the rest
Leave a comment
Saudi Arabia Opens Its First Ever Interfaith Centre…In Vienna
by Lorelei Loveridge on January 17, 2012
Though the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has opened its first ever interfaith dialogue centre in Vienna, there will always be naysayers who scream that Saudi Arabia is corrupt at its Wahhabist core. Women still do not enjoy the basic right to drive or travel without consent of the senior male member of their family, and Islam is the only religion granted any public freedom of expression. Let’s make that Sunni …
Read the rest
One comment
The Artist Taxi Driver’s View On Giving The Queen Of England A Yacht For Her Diamond Jubilee
by Lorelei Loveridge on January 16, 2012
You gotta love working class England. People say what’s on their minds. And on Britain’s Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year, The Artist Taxi Driver says it best:
Now, I come from a father who still works on oil rig projects today in boom province Alberta, Canada, and a mother who was a secretary for the city I lived in, Edmonton. It was working class. But we …
Read the rest
Leave a comment
Taliban In My Neighbourhood?
by Lorelei Loveridge on January 16, 2012
Before I get into it…
I owe my readers and colleagues an apology. The speed of life in Qatar if you’re an expat is frenetic. I’ve been told by my peers I’m not the only one who struggles to find the balance. We get paid big bucks to work here, but we work work and work like worker bees to build up this nation on its fast and furious mission to …
Read the rest
5 comments
Saudi Is Going Forward And Back Simultaneously
by Lorelei Loveridge on October 1, 2011
Just as the King of Saudi Arabia announced that women will have the right, at last, to vote in the next municipal elections (six years from now) that few take seriously…but, hey, a vote is a vote…a judge sentenced a Saudi woman driverdefying the ban in recent months to ten lashes.
Of course, the King overturned it, upon the outcry of the people. No one would allow a Saudi …
Read the rest
Leave a comment
Bahrain Medical Association Protests On Behalf Of Bogusly Sentenced Bahraini Doctors
by Lorelei Loveridge on September 30, 2011
The president of the Bahrain Medical Association is going to bat for several doctors sentenced ‘without evidence’ by the Bahrain government for supposedly assisting with public protests earlier this year. Read the letter to the Government of Bahrain.
Here’s the Twitter hashtag on this subject, for the latest buzz on the ground.…
Read the rest
One comment
Two Female Bahraini Doctors Speak To CNN After Being Sentenced To Prison
by Lorelei Loveridge on September 30, 2011
Further to this article on the Paltry Sapien, here is today’s testimony by two female Bahraini doctors awaiting arrest by the Bahrain authorities, after being sentenced to five and 15 years in prison…for doing their jobs. The women were interviewed by CNN.…
Read the rest
Leave a comment
This Is For The Doctors In Bahrain…Sentenced Up To 15 Years
by Lorelei Loveridge on September 30, 2011
I have no words.
I live in Qatar, just a short distance from the island of Bahrain which is one of the countries in this region experiencing the ‘Arab spring’ in its own unique way. My eleven years in Saudi Arabia have taught me when to open my mouth, and when to keep it shut. The media is never to be trusted. There is a reason that few in the region …
Read the rest
2 comments
Dr. Sami Angawi And Others Speak Out Against The Rapid Commercialization Of Mecca
by Lorelei Loveridge on September 24, 2011
I met this man, a wise and articulate philosopher, bringer-together-of-people and architect of amazing traditional and modern Islamic architecture. He lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s ‘jewel’ coastal city – an hour away from the holy Islamic city of Mecca.
Dr. Angawi brings together in a ‘majlis’ or sitting session, weekly, a group of young men and old to talk about various issues of the time. I imagine that this is …
Read the rest
Leave a comment
Re-Volt Radio and Hass Dennaoui
by Lorelei Loveridge on September 14, 2011
It is an oversight on my part to not have earlier highlighted the efforts of Saudi blogger Hass Dennaoui of Re-Volt Radio (online) to foster diversity on the Arab music scene, which is often saturated by mainstream love songs, hardly fare for those who’ve got other things on their minds at present – uh, namely, uh, the ‘Arab spring’ and, uh, life and death issues?
I met the man last …
Read the rest
Leave a comment
Things Are ‘Hotting’ Up Again, Now That The Palestinians Are Pushing For Presence In The United Nations Security Council – And Recognition Of Their Status Or Future Status As A Nation
by Lorelei Loveridge on September 13, 2011
The Palestinians are tired of waiting around. Showing some ingenuity, the West Bank Palestinian Authority’s move to apply for membership to the United Nations, which must be approved by the UN Security Council, has caught Gaza’s Fatah-led government off guard. But Fatah isn’t complaining.
This request to join is expected to be vetoed by the US.…
Read the rest
Leave a comment
Serious Pay Raises In Qatar
by Lorelei Loveridge on September 7, 2011
While I don’t think for one minute that there is any real question that Qatar is under threat of the ‘Arab Spring’, for there isn’t much malaise here with the government, certainly the leadership here understands that there’s ample money to go around. Look at the raises just announced, retrospective to September 1st:
Gross salaries of EVERY QATARI NATIONAL WORKING FOR THE GOVERNMENT TODAY up 60%. Military personal paid …
Read the rest
Leave a comment
