The Change Mariner

Satellite Television Brings Outside World to Saudi Arabia

WashingtonBureau:
Satellite television has brought the outside world to Saudi Arabia, and its impact can't be exaggerated, sociologists say. The obtrusive, ugly dish is transforming Saudi society in a way that the country's small groups of dissidents and reformists never could.

"People are being exposed to more ways of life," said Abdullah Alotaibi, an analyst at the King Saud University in Riyadh. "It changes the way they think, how they should dress, how they should act, how they behave."

The influence is noticeable in the younger generation, particularly among teenage boys, who often prefer baseball caps and baggy jeans to the traditional long gowns and draping headgear of their elders. Tattoos and nose rings are even making their way into Saudi culture.

In a broader sense, cultural scholars say, the constant exposure to the secular ways of the West and less restrictive Arab states may be accelerating efforts to liberalize society and increase women's rights.

"The kind of censorship many of them grew up with … has been removed," said Maha Azzam, an analyst with the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London who was born in Cairo, Egypt.

The boys-night-out sessions in the roadhouses along King Fahd Highway constitute just a tiny sliver of Saudis' enchantment with the tube. In cities such as Riyadh, few homes are without one, and many have two or three. Middle-class youngsters watch the Disney Channel while Mom and Dad flip through contemporary American movies, many of them R-rated with Arabic subtitles.

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