Over here it would be just another political/personal rant on a blog, but coming from a woman in Saudi Arabia it's a remarkable example of free speech, and courage.
The young Saudi female blogger "Ruba," wrote in a May 9 post on women and voting, "What's so haram [forbidden by religion]? Even more haram then women voting is making religious excuses! You can't just forbid something that's OK in Islam then start making excuses! Don't ruin the image of Islam!"
OK, that's opinion, not "journalism," but in a society with no free press such a public, unfettered, and findable expression can fill an important journalistic (or in this case, citizen-journalistic) role. It exposes people to a perspective they probably wouldn't encounter through media, or in open conversation. More importantly, it give voice to a woman -- a young woman -- from a society where female voices are hushed or actively suppressed. You wouldn't find Ruba quoted in Saudi mainstream media, but you can still hear what she has to say.
On June 19, the Christian Science Monitor published a thought-provoking story, Saudi women unveil opinions online, by Rasheed Abou-Alsamh.
This story offers a telling example of Saudi blog censorship. "Saudi Eve," who writes a frank, thoughtful blog that includes some discussion of her love life, found that her blog was blocked by the Saudi government earlier this year after she posted an item which mentioned her love life and a name of God in the same post, in Arabic.
She told the Monitor: "In my opinion, my blog was singled out and blocked because I -- a Saudi female -- wrote about romantic escapades in Arabic, plus I committed the 'ultimate sin' by mentioning the name of God in those posts. To a Saudi male, romance is only allowed if written in English or by a male. It definitely isn't tolerated if it's written by a Saudi female, let alone in Arabic."
This brings up a good point: I often read blogs from all over the world via Global Voices Online. I find it very useful context to mainstream international news. Being a typial American, I'm regrettably limited to English. Saudi Eve's blog is in both English and Arabic, but not all articles are presented in both languages. The one that got her blocked was, I believe, available only in Arabic. So I would have entirely missed the furor over her being censored had not other bloggers from around the world highlighted her cause. I'd heard of Saudi Eve's plight before the Monitor article, and I was pleased to see it show up there.
It's another way weblogs and other kinds of conversational media -- which rely on individuals to traverse borders, cultures, and languages -- have become an informal but precious news medium. It's not necessarily "packaged" news, and you have to be skeptical, but it's still a good way to follow news that might fall below the radar of English-language mainstream media. And, as this case indicates, discussion in the realm of weblogs can eventually spur mainstream news outlets to coverage.
