Saudi Films

Washington Post reports today on Saudi filmmakers and their plight. The religious goons in the country have suceeded in having movies banned since the 1980s because they are "evil." I love the subject of the film that leads the story.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Aspiring Saudi filmmaker Mohammed al-Khalif is having a hard time finding a leading woman for his short film, "Garbage Bag." Partly, it is because Saudi Arabia does not allow unrelated men and women to mingle and has no movie theaters or film schools, and no culture of actors or acting.
And partly, it's the subject matter.
"Garbage Bag" is about a woman stuck in a public restroom because her abaya, the black cloak women in Saudi Arabia must wear in public, has been stolen. After an agonizing night in the restroom, she fashions an abaya out of a black garbage bag and walks out.

"It's almost impossible to find a woman to act in a movie and even harder to find someone willing to wear a garbage bag as an abaya," said Khalif, a 23-year-old graduate student who sports a goatee and white-rimmed glasses. "My intent is not to insult the abaya, but to use film to ask why it has become such a shackle for Saudi women."

More on Rawan

Some details from the Arabic article linked below about the Saudi girl, Rawan, age 21. Evidently the story was originally reported by the Saudi paper, "al-Watan." I find it strange that Saudi actually sometimes has a much freer press than Oman or some of the other Gulf countries, despite its breathtaking backwardness in other ways.

She fell down the stairs in her home where she lives with her widowed mother and six younger sisters, suffering a double fracture to her pelvis, as well as breaking her leg and her ankle (? كعب قدم). This happened on the seventh day of Ramadhan.

She was taken by ambulance to the nearest emergency room (which, very unfortunately was a private hospital, Arfan Private Hospital in Jeddah), where the doctor demanded 4000 riyal before performing her examination. The family was able to gather the money, but several days later, a representative of the hospital's accounting department informed Rawan's mother that 10,000 riyals was needed to perform the operations required. The mother gathered 9000 riyal and rushed back to the hospital to pay so her daughter could get the operation, but hospital staff refused to perform it until the last 1000 riyal was paid. The mother said that the doctor's excuse was that the girl had her period, so the operation was halted. Sounds Saudi logical to me.

Ten days into the affair, a good Samaritan (well, not literally) paid the outstanding amount and Rawan finally got her surgery. Rawan told reporters that her mother and sisters have been afraid to visit her over the last three weeks because they might be arrested at the hospital due to the outstanding bills. Rawan also says that the hospital has threatened to release a medical report saying that the fall was actually a suicide attempt. The hospital in Jeddah has refused her food, clean clothes, and cut off phone calls for the past forty days, leaving her to feel like a prisoner. She was still being held in the hospital at the beginning of this week. I'll update if I find out any new information.

Private hospitals and their unscrupulous practices are a growing problem in Saudi. The influential comedy "Tash Ma Tash" did a hilarious and damning episode about them a few seasons ago. It looks like their portrait of greed and incompetence was true.

Another Heartwarming Story from Wonderful Saudi Arabia

From the country where people patrol the streets to protect Islamic virtue with clubs, a 21-year old woman is being held, essentially as a prisoner in a hospital in Jeddah because her widowed mother is incapable of paying the bill. You can find more details here in English and the original article in Arabic here at arabianbusiness.com. I haven't read the whole article in Arabic, as I've got some other stuff to do, but I've read enough to see that the English blog version seems to be accurate. Arabian Business is a professional news outlet and is trustworthy as far as I know, so this isn't just some blog-perpetuated rumor.

Of the details I read in the Arabic article, this whole story started in the holy month of Ramadhan, when Muslims are supposed to be at the height of their generosity. I guess someone forgot that. The girl slipped and fell in her home, requiring surgery, which the doctor refused to perform because (a) the family was 1000 riyals short on the payment or (b) she had her period, which was his stated excuse. Either way, he deserves to be thrown down a flight of stairs and left to bleed in pain himself. I'll try to post some more details later translated from the original story in Arabic. Suffice it to say that this is a symptom of a country where leaders focus the populace's attention on things like perceived slights to Islam and absurd concepts of Islamic virtue, while people in positions of power piss all over the true principles of the religion on a daily basis. When will the mobs in the streets start blaming themselves and their leaders for the state they're in instead of getting foamy-mouth mad about cartoons and teddy bears? Maybe when they realize that the people in power are deflecting the anger away from their own shortcomings and toward outsiders.

Thanks to Muscati for the point on his "Shared Items."