Saudi Students and the Shattering of Illusions
Semi
naked activists from the Ukrainian female rights group Femen protest in
front of the Saudi Arabian embassy against a ban on driving cars for
women in Kiev, Ukraine, Thursday, 16 June 2011. (Photo: AP - Sergei
Chuzavkov)
The recent protests by Saudi women students at King Khalid University
in the southern city of Abha – and subsequent demonstrations by
students of both sexes demanding the sacking of the university’s
president, Abdallah al-Rashed – were not the first of their kind in
Saudi Arabia.
They were the latest in a series of similar actions that have occurred at a number of Saudi universities over the past year. They appear likely to trigger more. Women students later held a sit-in at al-Qassim University in solidarity with their colleagues in Abha to protest against poor conditions at their own institution.
These moves are significant not only because Saudi students have long been quiescent, but also because they were initiated mainly by women – although male students have also joined in. This reflects a clear change of mood and thinking among young Saudis, especially college students, and of their chosen means of expressing themselves.
Young people constitute a large majority in Saudi society. Decision-makers and officials fail to comprehend that they have needs and grievances which can no longer be suppressed by the tried and tested old means. These have now come to the surface in an unexpected manner, with young men and women openly demonstrating to call for the sacking of the top official in charge of their institution.
They put forward demands, rather than meekly begging for favors or charity, as the Saudi mind is supposed to have been trained to do. They reject the status quo with its endemic corruption and administrative and developmental failures.
The oppression to which Saudi women specifically are subject is an important factor too. By taking up the challenge to lead the protests, women students were showing their desire to express and assert themselves and make their broader demands heard. Their initiative cannot be seen in isolation from women’s increasing refusal to accept their systematic marginalization in Saudi life. They were protesting against the entire system that stifles them – and which results in prison-like conditions at their universities. Their protests thus complement the campaign launched by Nawal al-Sharif to demand that women be given the right to drive a car, which she triggered by taking her own car out onto the streets of al-Khobar.
The latest student actions contradict the image the Saudi authorities try to project of the country through the media, and shatter a number of illusions they have long sought to promote.
No exception
Perhaps the key illusion shattered is one on which the official media are particularly keen: that comprehensive progress is being achieved in developing the country, so citizens feel no need to demand any democratic change.
The authorities have been constantly boasting in recent years about the establishment of new universities in different parts of the kingdom, and celebrating this is as a great achievement. But the protests at King Khalid University reveal that these are merely enlarged secondary schools. They bear no semblance to real universities in terms of their buildings and facilities, their teaching methods, or the behavior of their administrators.
Nothing in these universities has been left untouched by administrative and financial corruption – not even cleaning or garbage-collection arrangements. It was this that the students at King Khalid University first complained of, but it could be a metaphor for the entire country, one steeped in the filth of corruption that cannot forever be whitewashed by the media.
Another illusion shattered by the students is that of Saudi exceptionalism. This is the official media’s explanation for why Saudi society has supposedly been unaffected by the Arab Spring. Some imagined that economic prosperity would act as a barrier. Yet the superficial nature of that prosperity, and its lack of solid foundations, proved to be the main crack through which the influence of the Arab Spring could seep in.
Corruption in the universities and in institutions of all kinds, and growing poverty and unemployment that have pushed some young people to suicide, have become issues that can no longer be ignored. Government actions such as prohibiting discussion of poverty in the media only add to the frustration.
The influence of the Arab Spring is clear in the way the university students mobilized and rallied to voice their legitimate demands. It would be wrong to exaggerate or overstate its extent. But it is important to note the change underway in the way people choose to deal with their problems. The student protests were preceded by a growing number of strikes in various private and public sector establishments. They also shatter the illusion that students in Saudi universities have been fully domesticated and are completely removed from the climate that prevails among students in other Arab countries. One demand students raised in the latest protests was for the establishment of elected student bodies in which they could engage and which would represent them, uphold their rights and interests, and be respected by university administrations.
The illusion of Saudi material prosperity is meanwhile being shattered by the growing numbers of poor and unemployed, and by the middle class feeling increasingly squeezed. The pervading culture and practice of corruption is the key reason that successful development schemes, or satisfactory public services and infrastructure, are a rarity.
In short, a new Saudi generation is emerging and is taking a different approach to its reality. Amid numerous major changes both at home and abroad, this generation’s problems have been exacerbated by corruption and neglect, as has its frustration. Ultimately, there will be no alternative to trying to understand their discourse and their demands, and for once respond in a different way.
The author is a Saudi writer.
The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect Al-Akhbar's editorial policy.
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.
They were the latest in a series of similar actions that have occurred at a number of Saudi universities over the past year. They appear likely to trigger more. Women students later held a sit-in at al-Qassim University in solidarity with their colleagues in Abha to protest against poor conditions at their own institution.
These moves are significant not only because Saudi students have long been quiescent, but also because they were initiated mainly by women – although male students have also joined in. This reflects a clear change of mood and thinking among young Saudis, especially college students, and of their chosen means of expressing themselves.
Young people constitute a large majority in Saudi society. Decision-makers and officials fail to comprehend that they have needs and grievances which can no longer be suppressed by the tried and tested old means. These have now come to the surface in an unexpected manner, with young men and women openly demonstrating to call for the sacking of the top official in charge of their institution.
They put forward demands, rather than meekly begging for favors or charity, as the Saudi mind is supposed to have been trained to do. They reject the status quo with its endemic corruption and administrative and developmental failures.
The oppression to which Saudi women specifically are subject is an important factor too. By taking up the challenge to lead the protests, women students were showing their desire to express and assert themselves and make their broader demands heard. Their initiative cannot be seen in isolation from women’s increasing refusal to accept their systematic marginalization in Saudi life. They were protesting against the entire system that stifles them – and which results in prison-like conditions at their universities. Their protests thus complement the campaign launched by Nawal al-Sharif to demand that women be given the right to drive a car, which she triggered by taking her own car out onto the streets of al-Khobar.
The latest student actions contradict the image the Saudi authorities try to project of the country through the media, and shatter a number of illusions they have long sought to promote.
No exception
Perhaps the key illusion shattered is one on which the official media are particularly keen: that comprehensive progress is being achieved in developing the country, so citizens feel no need to demand any democratic change.
The authorities have been constantly boasting in recent years about the establishment of new universities in different parts of the kingdom, and celebrating this is as a great achievement. But the protests at King Khalid University reveal that these are merely enlarged secondary schools. They bear no semblance to real universities in terms of their buildings and facilities, their teaching methods, or the behavior of their administrators.
Nothing in these universities has been left untouched by administrative and financial corruption – not even cleaning or garbage-collection arrangements. It was this that the students at King Khalid University first complained of, but it could be a metaphor for the entire country, one steeped in the filth of corruption that cannot forever be whitewashed by the media.
Another illusion shattered by the students is that of Saudi exceptionalism. This is the official media’s explanation for why Saudi society has supposedly been unaffected by the Arab Spring. Some imagined that economic prosperity would act as a barrier. Yet the superficial nature of that prosperity, and its lack of solid foundations, proved to be the main crack through which the influence of the Arab Spring could seep in.
Corruption in the universities and in institutions of all kinds, and growing poverty and unemployment that have pushed some young people to suicide, have become issues that can no longer be ignored. Government actions such as prohibiting discussion of poverty in the media only add to the frustration.
The influence of the Arab Spring is clear in the way the university students mobilized and rallied to voice their legitimate demands. It would be wrong to exaggerate or overstate its extent. But it is important to note the change underway in the way people choose to deal with their problems. The student protests were preceded by a growing number of strikes in various private and public sector establishments. They also shatter the illusion that students in Saudi universities have been fully domesticated and are completely removed from the climate that prevails among students in other Arab countries. One demand students raised in the latest protests was for the establishment of elected student bodies in which they could engage and which would represent them, uphold their rights and interests, and be respected by university administrations.
The illusion of Saudi material prosperity is meanwhile being shattered by the growing numbers of poor and unemployed, and by the middle class feeling increasingly squeezed. The pervading culture and practice of corruption is the key reason that successful development schemes, or satisfactory public services and infrastructure, are a rarity.
In short, a new Saudi generation is emerging and is taking a different approach to its reality. Amid numerous major changes both at home and abroad, this generation’s problems have been exacerbated by corruption and neglect, as has its frustration. Ultimately, there will be no alternative to trying to understand their discourse and their demands, and for once respond in a different way.
The author is a Saudi writer.
The views expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect Al-Akhbar's editorial policy.
This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.
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