Professor Madawi Al Rasheed

ECONOMIES OF DESIRE, FICTIVE SEXUAL UPRISINGS
Saudi women and the chick lit revolution
Source:
http://mondediplo.com/2011/05/05saudisexnovels
ECONOMIES OF DESIRE, FICTIVE SEXUAL UPRISINGS
Le Monde Diplomatique-English edition May 2011.
Saudi women and the chick lit revolution
A new generation of Saudi women novelists is taking the topic of sex into the very public sphere of chick lit, causing shock waves in Saudi Arabia and beyond. By defying sexual constraints imposed by state and religion, they have exploded the myth of a society sailing on a sea of piety
By Madawi Al-Rasheed
Saudis are reluctant to respond to the revolutionary effervescence that is sweeping neighbouring Arab countries. With the exception of the Shia in the Eastern province, most Saudis have been co-opted into accepting limited political, human and civil rights in return for royal largesse. Even so, a revolution of a different kind is definitely taking place.
Young women novelists are stretching the boundaries in unprecedented ways. They are doing this through producing Saudi versions of the “chick lit” of the 1960s. A new generation of novelists is writing about women as sexual agents rather than submissive victims of patriarchal society.
Among many others are Raja al-Sani (Girls of Riyadh), Samar al-Muqrin (Women of Vice) and two pen names, Warda Abd al-Malik (The Return), and Saba al-Hirz (The Others). Their novels are published in the obvious place, Beirut, with the publisher al-Saqi taking the lead in promoting this new daring literature (1).

Listen to Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed (King's College) and professor Bernard Haykal (Princeton University) discuss on Blogginheads.tv
http://bloggingheads.tv/diavlogs/36025

Source:
http://www.opendemocracy.net/madawi-al-rasheed/saudi-complex-power-vs-rights

Saudi Arabia's rulers are deploying a mix of force and largesse to contain the threat of democratic protest. But an emerging civic movement is determined to persist, says Madawi Al-Rasheed.

In the era of oil, voluntary servitude may become the only option for a people deprived of basic human and civil rights. But behind the scenes and prison-bars there is hope in Saudi Arabia: most of all in an emerging civil-rights movement that is attracting Saudis of different ideological, regional and sectarian backgrounds. The Saudi regime is responding with attempts to suffocate this young movement via two classic strategies - sectarian politics and heavy policing. There are growing questions over the effectiveness of each.

The government in Riyadh continues to devote huge resources to sustaining a vast religious bureaucracy, promoting its upkeep of the holy sites, and sponsoring transnational Islamic institutions. In fact, however, the Saudi regime has lost most of its religious legitimacy. Its intimate alliance with the United States, and failure to defend Islamic symbols when they are or appear to be under assault - from Jerusalem to the incident of the Danish cartoons and Pope Benedict XVI’s retrieval of disparaging medieval sources - leave the royal elite looking incapable of living up to its religious narrative.