Day Opening - December 17

Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

No other religions than Islam allowed....

Messages of Mercy

An advertising agency in Saudi Arabia plans to air public service commercials to promote kinder treatment of domestic helpers in a country where reports of abuse of foreign workers are rife. The ads will air on Arab satellite television stations after the holy month of Ramadan said Kaswara al-Khatib, founder and chief creative director of Full Stop Advertising. Continue reading here.

The three ads cost around $100,000 (dhs367,000) and were financed by a non-profit subsidiary of construction giant Saudi Bin Ladin Group, the family-run business which was set up by the father of Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. "We deal with helpers as if they are not humans and have no feelings", said the 37-year-old former electrical engineer.

Everybody in the region knows how badly Saudi people are treating their maid/domestic helpers. Hope this awareness campaign creates not only attention for them during the holy month of Ramadan, but for a long time. There were couple of cases here as well, one Middle Eastern couple struggled their Filipino maid at their home, and locked her up in the house. Some kind of revenge like what American soldiers are doing in Iraq. The maid found a way to run away and went to the police station with bruised body and blood marks on her. Sad really:(((

Fatwas

The last 20 years I was wondering who can issue a fatwa, and who are authorized to do so? So many ridiculous of these kinds of 'verdicts' are issued in the last years.
Here is a list of fatwas, I don't know if we have to take them seriously. And here is a fatwa against naked sex...
But Saudi Arabia came with a solution: a web site with authorized fatwas. A pity that the site is in Arabic only...
Although the Saudi authorities announced to modernize their judiciary, they started this week with giving two gay men each 7.000 lashes. Do you survive that?

A Saudi way to say 'I am sorry'...you married the wrong guy...

According to the Saudi Arabian newspaper, Al Shams, of last Saturday a man divorced from his wife since she was watching TV programs which are presented by men only. That was for him 'inappropriate behavior' - especially when she was with the television 'alone'.
I don't know if there are female TV talents, looks like a bit difficult since they have to cover themselves completely. Since men don't need to go to a court to get divorced in Saudi Arabia, it's simple: you dump her near the trash...
Women are also (still) not allowed to drive there, so they have to hire a male(!) driver, which costs them half of their salary.
The picture above shows two Saudi journalists during a press conference of UN Commission on Human Rights in Riyadh. What a country...