By ROBERTA FEDELE, LIFE.STYLE@ARABNEWS.COM Saudi Arabia is generally associated with the idea of a closed society, eager to preserve its own traditions from external cultural influences. For different reasons, Western countries too are starting to suffer from fear of cultural contamination. However, even in such peculiar context, it is possible to find […]
By BADEA ABU AL-NAJA | ARAB NEWS MAKKAH: The Al-Zamazima Office, which serves Zamzam water, has started the implementation of this year’s Haj plan. The plan aims to provide the blessed water to pilgrims from the moment of their arrival in Saudi Arabia until their departure, the office’s head Sulaiman […]
By WALAA HAWARI | ARAB NEWS RIYADH: A group of Saudi businesswomen is campaigning for all government departments to scrap the requirement for a male legal representative when processing paperwork and other related business. The Commerce Ministry has already agreed to change its rules after the campaigners started their initiative […]
By P.K. ABDUL GHAFOUR | ARAB NEW JEDDAH: The Labor Ministry intends to launch 30 new initiatives as part of its ongoing efforts to create jobs for the increasing number of Saudi university graduates, Labor Minister Adel Fakeih announced Saturday. Addressing prominent businessmen and executives in the city, he said […]
ANTHONY SHADID and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK CAIRO — By force of this year’s Arab revolts and revolutions, activists marching under the banner of Islam are on the verge of a reckoning decades in the making: the prospect of achieving decisive power across the region has unleashed an unprecedented debate over […]
Source: Qantara The women of Saudi Arabia will be allowed to vote for the first time in 2015. Why not already today in the current local elections? Abdelmoula Boukhraiss discussed this topic with the well-known Saudi Arabian civil rights activist and journalist Abdul Aziz Al-Khamis in London Why aren’t […]
A Saudi woman sentenced to be lashed 10 times for defying the country’s ban on female drivers has had her punishment overturned by the king. The woman, named as Shaima Jastaina and believed to be in her 30s, was found guilty of driving without permission in Jeddah in July. Her […]
By BADEA ABU AL-NAJA | ARAB NEWS MAKKAH: The first group of pilgrims for the upcoming Haj arrived at King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) in Jeddah early Wednesday. The group consisted of 184 South Africans. Supervisor of the reception committee of the Tawafa Establishment for Non-Arab African Pilgrims Hani bin […]
By MARIAM NIHAL | ARAB NEWS JEDDAH: The lashing punishment handed to Shayma Jastaniah for flouting the driving ban has caused outrage among Saudis and expatriates living in the Kingdom. Shayma, in her 30s, was found guilty of driving without permission and sentenced to 10 lashes on Tuesday, a day […]
By P. K. ABDUL GHAFOUR | ARAB NEWS Published: Sep 28, 2011 02:23 Updated: Sep 28, 2011 02:23 JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has urged the United Nations to accept the Palestinians’ request for full membership in the international body and recognize it as an independent state. It also called for restricting the […]
Cairo: Saudi activists say a court has sentenced a Saudi woman with 10 lashes for defying the kingdom’s ban on women driving. read more
This young Arabian leopard, without the intervention of the Kingdom’s little known but long established wildlife conservation program, would simply not exist. In 2003 one of the Middle East’s rarest predators, the Arabian leopard (Panthera pardus nimr), was almost extinct. The smallest member of the leopard family at only about […]
By ARAB NEWS ‘Diyyah’ represented long-term investment for the benefit of victims’ heirs during the time of the Prophet RIYADH: A Saudi economist has welcomed the recent government decision to raise diyyah (blood money) to SR400,000 for murder and SR300,000 for accidental killings, but warned this alone would not be […]
By MD HUMAIDAN | ARAB NEWS JEDDAH: Jeddah’s downtown historical center Balad will be a World Heritage Site within two years, according to President of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) Prince Sultan bin Salman. The prince, who is also deputy chairman of the committee for the development […]
RIYADH — Saudi King Abdullah announced on Sunday he was giving women the right to vote and run in municipal elections, the only public polls in the ultra-conservative Gulf kingdom. He also announced that women would have the right to join the all-appointed Shura (consultative) Council, in an address opening […]
By ARAB NEWS RIYADH: Women will join Shoura Council in the next session, and they will also be allowed to contest and vote in the next municipal elections, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah said while addressing Shoura Council on Sunday. King Abdullah announced that women would be […]
By AGENCIES ARABNEWS SANAA: The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) urged Ali Abdullah Saleh to sign a power transfer plan “immediately” as forces loyal to the Yemeni president attacked pro-opposition troops with mortar shells and heavy gunfire Saturday and rooftop snipers picked off unarmed protesters fleeing in panic. The streets of […]
Mecca for the Rich: Islam’s holiest site ‘turning into Vegas’ Historic and culturally important landmarks are being destroyed to make way for luxury hotels and malls “Both [Mecca and Medina] are historically almost finished. You do not find anything except skyscrapers.” – Dr Irfan al-Alawi, executive director, Islamic Heritage Research […]
By ARAB NEWS Published: Sep 24, 2011 00:03 Updated: Sep 24, 2011 00:09 JEDDAH: The International Islamic Relief Organization-Saudi Arabia (IIROSA) has distributed more than 8 million kg of food in addition to clothes and medicine in famine-ravaged Somalia. The tragic situation caused by the famine is being further aggravated […]