Javid Hassan, Arab News Staff
RIYADH, 28 March 2003 — The war in Iraq, now in its ninth day, has
galvanized men and women at all levels in Saudi Arabia. There are new
calls for a boycott of American goods, anti-war poetry reading sessions,
and peace prayers all over the Internet. Women and children have
particularly risen to the occasion, while websites based in Riyadh have
recorded a dramatic surge in hits from the Kingdom and abroad.
Describing US President George W. Bush as the “self-appointed
policeman of the world”, Saudi female journalist and investor Nada Al-Fayez
asks: “Who gave America the right to police in this area and handle
this situation in a bloody way? How come, as a world policeman, Bush
wants to punish one criminal, Saddam Hussein, and leave another
criminal, Ariel Sharon, alone? Is that fair?”
She said the war had stirred powerful emotions among Saudi women,
some of whom were donning military fatigues at private parties and
boycotting fashion wear from the West to demonstrate their solidarity
with the Iraqi people.
“I’m against Saddam Hussein, but I am with Iraqi children, women
and the old people. These poor, helpless people have nothing to do with
this war. Yet they are suffering through no fault of theirs.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by Indian housewives Sabiha Ahsan
and Tahera Shariff, who said the war has angered the women of their
community.
“It is the topic of discussion here. I feel that the American
products should be boycotted, especially those who have links with
Israel.”
There’s a growing anxiety among expatriates who wish to return
home. Their queries mainly relate to the employment or business
opportunities available in their respective countries.
There has been a sharp increase in the number of hits recorded at
Yahind.com, a Riyad-based website which has links to job opportunities
back home. Before the war, said Syed Zia-ur-Rehman, CEO of the Internet
portal, his website used to receive some 5,000 hits a day. Now the
number has shot up to 44,000 hits.
Of those, 34 percent are from the US, followed by Britain and the
Netherlands (21 percent), Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Slovakia
and Poland (15 percent), UAE, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia,
Pakistan, Malaysia, the Philippines (20 percent), and India (ten
percent).
It also provides links to more than 160 Arabic newspapers, including
Arab News and other English dailies from the Middle East.
Meanwhile, peace prayers were held in some parts of Riyadh to call on
God to protect the people of Iraq, Chechnya and Afghanistan against the
enemy aggressors. In one case, the imam conducting the prayers broke
down during the supplication, while the worshipers chanted “Amen,
Amen” in a chorus.
Calls for supplication in support of Iraq have also gone out on the
Internet, citing the prayers that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon
him) used to recite on a daily basis.
In a related development, Sam Hamil, a peace activist, has called on
the people to organize anti-war poetry reading sessions in all languages
in the Middle East as part of a global pressure tactic to halt the war.
The poems can be sent to info@poetsagainstthewar.org.
