Saudi Women Take Their Shots
Thursday, 14 December 2006

The Saudi Gazette
Jeddah
AN estimated half of Saudi blogs are written by females; as a result, more women’s issues are being addressed by bloggers. Blogs are quickly becoming a place of refuge for Saudi women – a place from which they can call for social and cultural change in their country. While the first few of Saudi bloggers were males, female bloggers began to establish themselves soon after. “The female bloggers usually write in English and are on the more liberal side,” said Ahmad Omran, one of the first Saudi bloggers.
“These girls usually were girls who had just come back from living in the West and were bored and had a lot to vent.”
This description matches the profile of the first female Saudi bloggers called Jo, a 24-year-old college student who described herself as a liberal from a very conservative family.
Jo started blogging after moving back to the kingdom from London – where she had spent most of her life.
“I was bored and I wanted to vent,” said Jo. “Initially, I started blogging because I wanted to publish my articles.”
Jo’s blog, called A Thought in the Kingdom Of Lunacy, gradually turned into a journal. Her struggle to adjust to the culture shock is evident in her blog.
“It is nice when I get responses from people who understand what I am going through or agree with me, it helps me realize that other people agree with what I am talking about, going through or thinking of,” said Jo.
Due to her conservative family and the lack of Internet access at home, it is difficult for Jo to get online and update her blog.
However, Jo overcomes these restrictions by updating her blog while visiting friends or at Internet café shops.
While most Saudi female bloggers write journals, there are also some serious writers who have a cause they believe in. Saudi-yat.blogspot. is a blog run by two of the most well-known female bloggers on the Internet, Khoulah and Farah.
Although they have individual blogs, the two joined up together to form a blog to call for Saudi women’s Islamic rights.
Khoulah and Farah are hoping to change their society for the better, by educating the public and Saudi women about their Islamic rights.
Their blog also seeks to celebrate and encourage successful Saudi women. The two bloggers are setting their own example, and other bloggers are following in their footsteps.
Masoolah is another popular blogger trying to form a support group for Saudi female bloggers, called the Saudi Female Blog group.
Hadeel, a blogger who uses her site for activism, hopes to start a movement by launching the campaign called “Ween Al-Bagi” meaning, “where is the change?” Hadeel wants change consumer behavior in the kingdom – by getting consumers to insist that they be given back small change at retail stores, instead of being forced to buy small items such as gum.
For other bloggers, the Internet is simply a place to post their own writing. After frequent frustrations of her journalism work not being published, censored or chopped up in newspapers, Maram Makwai, a Saudi journalist, established her own blog to publish her articles. Across the Kingdom and the Internet, Saudi female bloggers are intent on being heard.
Saudi Female Bloggers Are:Mostly young, energetic, and have a lot to say. They range in age from 18-30, and most are university students writing personal thoughts.
They prefer to be anonymous, and use nicknames. “Our society is very critical and I don’t feel I can say what I want to say without censoring my words if I use my real name,” said a blogger called Uber girl.
Many post poems, short stories and essays. One can even find art galleries and digital photo collections in many of their blogs.
Since many are still students, they tend to be more active during the school vacations – but they usually stop blogging after getting married.