Mr Cohen says ( Saudi moderation that put 15 Saudis on the 9/11 planes ). Mr Cohen, Saudi Arabia didn't put any body on any plane and you know that. What put those terrorists on the 9/11 planes was purely weak, feeble, languid, deficient and ineffective security at US airports and inside US planes. John Adams said it. Facts are stubborn.
1
Long ago, I lived and worked in KSA for over a decade. I saw how the Saudi Royal Family brought widespread advanced health care, education to the university level for both boys AND girls, relatively cheap electricity and water (delivered at great cost), enhanced municipal services and the development of a huge middle class in what was once a very poor country with only one natural resource. Compared to other long gone oil state leaders, such as the Shah of Iran or Gaddafi, the Saudis did things differently, and have survived in a very tough region. Certainly it's easy to criticize their pace to modern standards of equality and their lack of democracy, but we need to better understand how the Saudis have continued to evolve and stay in power.
I would like to read more nuanced perspectives about the KSA and the pace of change. It's not a democracy, but do Saudis continue to hold traditional Bedouin style Majlis open meetings where any Saudi can meet with Ministers, Governors, or even the King, to petition for redress, resolve disputes, or otherwise speak directly to their leaders? Do they still have an open-door policy at almost all levels of local, regional and national authority? We often see quotes from young western educated Saudis about the need for changes. We also need to hear from older, more traditional Saudis who would might fear changes in societal mores. Do Tribal Leaders, Grandparents and older Aunts and Uncles support the Crown Prince's efforts at modernization?
1
History has shown that dictatorships do not end well.I don't expect Saudi Kingdom to be an outlier. Except for a flowering ca. 1000 years ago and a short period of relative moderation under the Ottoman empire in more recent times, Islam has been subjugated by despots, religious fanatics and the delusions of Western imperialism. A materialistic Trumpian state in the desert, where some people are much more equal than others, will eventually collapse along with an oil based economy. If I had to place a bet on a recrudescence of a modern, more "progressive" Islam in the 21st century my money would be on Iran, an Islamic country with a much richer history,a relatively vibrant culture,and more educated population.
1
"MBS" and el-Sisi richly deserve their places in Donald Trump's "G-7" of Putin, Xi, MLS, el-Sisi, Erdogan, Kim Jung Un and Duterte. These are the despot G-7 whom Trump admires much more than any of the democratic leaders in the post-WWII western alliance. This rotten 7 steal billions from their oppressed countries, forming a world-wide criminal syndicate that owns Trump and does business with many of the major corporations in the US and world. Trump emulates them, wishing he could lead this gruesome pack. He loves the pomp and flattery that MBS and the others shower on him.
Make no mistake: They represent the greatest threat to the US and the free world since the Soviet Union, maybe greater. Thinking of wahhabist terrorism as the worst that America faces from Saudi Arabia is yesterday's thinking. Can the free world and western democracies survive this? It's hard to imagine when Trump owns a 90% approval rating in the Republican party. "MBS" is no friend to America.
Roger Cohen disappoints. He buries mention of the Saudi war in Yemen in the middle of his piece, ending with the hope that reforms for elite Saudi women promises change. Well change is inevitable; the question is what and how much change one supports. A theocratic royal absolutist, should not be allowed to patronize ignoring further evisceration of our terribly weakened constitutional war powers, via US supported war and famine against Yemeni women and children.
With an authoritarian in the White House, how could anyone responsibly "hope" for "change" while omitting mention of H.Con.Res. 81, a measure with 53 co-sponsors that utilizes a provision of the War Powers Resolution to end the unauthorized US participation in the Saudi-led war against Yemen’s Houthis?
Saudi Arabia is the biggest state sponsor of terror in the world.
They are responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent men, women and children. Their meddling is causing untold grief for tens of millions of people in Sudan, Yemen, Syria and dozens of other countries.
2
"Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has given one over the other and what they spend [for maintenance] from their wealth. So righteous women are devoutly obedient, guarding in [the husband's] absence what Allah would have them guard. But those [wives] from whom you fear arrogance - [first] advise them; [then if they persist], forsake them in bed; and [finally], strike them. But if they obey you [once more], seek no means against them. Indeed, Allah is ever Exalted and Grand." -Quran 4:34
I hope Saudi women are emancipated, but optimism seems unwarranted. I think religion in general and Islam in particular are huge impediments to achieving the emancipation of women.
1
“...a young man who hates Iran, hates political Islam and loves money.”
How wonderful that the United States is still so openly incestuous with the same nation that provided us with the September 11 attacks that we are still at war over.
3
Thank you for this analysis, Roger. Unlike your colleague Thomas Friedman's typical leader crush overly optimistic column of a few months ago, it is nicely balanced. I am never optimistic about a leader whose motivating factor seems to be pure greed. Such men are dangerous. We should not be comfortable with a personality cult built around a leader like the prince.
To understand Saudi Arabia's ambitions, you need only look to the United Arab Emirates. I have no doubt that MBS is looking at the UAE's bustling global financial reach combined with its numerous theme parks, shopping malls, museums and even an NYU campus. Can Riyadh become a new Dubai or Abu Dhabi? MBS must also be looking at how the UAE royal family balances maintaining total control with giving people a sense of democratic participation. Study the UAE and you will understand MBS' vision.
Christians are rightly called out and lambasted for their sexism. Yet when it comes to ultra orthodox jews or Muslims we are always suppose to tiptoe around calling them out. Their treatment of women is contemptible and they shouldn't get any pats on the back for remediating some of their barbarism.
3
The less said the better as far as Saudi is concerned. They are our second closest allies in the Middle East. We sell them billions of $/£`s worth of arms. When Saudi holy terrorists destroyed the Twin Towers we invaded - not Saudi Arabia - but Iraq! So let us continue to be very nice to their very rich princes.
2
A backward country permits women to drive.
Is this satire? Are we supposed to cheer?
How low is the bar going to be?
3
Please let me know when they have free and democratic elections in Saudi Arabia.
Until then, it’s just another tyrannical despot who imprisons and kills his opposition, persecutes and eliminates reporters who don’t fawn sufficiently, all the while supporting terrorist organizations including those who committed the 9-11 atrocity.
But he’s a hero because he allows women to drive the family car - unless of course their husbands decide they can’t.
3
Perma-dhimmi Roger Cohen has spent time galavanting with his betters. Perhaps his visit could have included a stop at the Khyber, a once thriving Jewish oasis, or mentioned the fact that what is now Medina was once a largely Jewish city. Then he could have noted that there are zero Jews in Saudi Arabia today and discussed why some Arab terrorists scream "remember the Khyber!" at Jews. Then he could have noted the complex detente between SA and Israel even as all Israelis are barred from Saudi Arabia. Finally, he could have noted the remarkable ability of Arabs to make peace with Israel, even stop/go style like SA. This might have led him to state what a breakthrough SA recognizing ISR would be, as it woud demonstrate the power to make peace to all Arab nations, including the nascent "Palestine". Alas, by then Roger Cohen would have to conclude that peace isn't something that Israel on its own, and he would have to no longer be a perma-dhimmi. Instead, it appears that Roger never once said the word Jew to his hosts, despite being one himslef.
Mr Cohen Saudi Arabia was not in charge of security in the airports where the 9/11 terrorists boarded the planes, the US FAA was. Why would Saudi Arabia want to hurt a long time ally and partner in peace and war.? Since when a government is responsible for crimes committed by individuals holding its passports whether they are one or ten or a hundred? NYT pride itself as a professional journalism yet you call MBS a disrupter and if this is your personal opinion then NYT should mark it with a disclaimer
Great article, thanks.
Get back to us when women in SA can wear whatever they want and expose their hair, ears or ankles. How progressive.
1
Glad for all the change but it strikes me that no one - woman or man - would be able to write a similar article for a Saudi publication.
4
Congrats to our Saudi sisters! Another article by Coker this morning tells of men seeing a woman driving and smiling, congratulating her.
People everywhere are inspirational and also capable of incredible bad things. And sometimes do those. So let's celebrate when something good happens, as is happening in Saudi Arabia for women, today, thanks to the Crown Prince enabling it.
4
As an American woman living in Qatar for the past 5 years, I'm sick of all the Hijab and Abaya bashing coming from the west, especially from men who don't understand the issue.
When I first moved to the Middle East, before I trained my eye to see all the amazing variants of the form of such garments, I too was shocked at what I perceived as something that was meant to restrict and essentially neuter women. Over the years I've grown to learn that this is not a simple issue and when I hear phrases like "formless black shapes" I wonder if the writer would prefer women in the Middle East dressed like Kim Kardashian - an American stereotype that is equally repressive for women.
I firmly hold the belief that women should be able to wear whatever they want - whether that's an Hijab or a Bikini (a right that women in Qatar have had for a long time now), but using women's bodies as a political weapon isn't helpful and the lack of understanding of the complexity of this issue makes me wonder about other complexities expressed in this article that the journalist may be oversimplifying.
4
More power to the Prince, and prayers that he can build and keep and humane nation. Glad to know all this.
1
Your description of the complexities, the hopeful prospects of progress, and the serious obstacles to such progress in the Middle East underscores how Trump's willing ignorance and simplistic mindset is so dangerous to the lives and well-being of so many.
1
Nothing is really changing in Saudi Arabia. What's often ignored is that Saudi Arabia's population is mostly foreign workers. It's essentially a slave society. When we speak about Saudi women we ignore their Philippino live-in maid; can she drive?
Saudi Arabia is also the world's biggest promoter of terrorism, essentially funding it. Somehow Trump considers them our best ally. The tilt towards Saudi interests in the Middle East is our biggest foreign policy blunder and seems suspiciously motivated by Trump's business interests.
We really should not be taken in by Saudi PR stunts.
8
Roger, excellent article! I lived on an RSAF compound outside Taif, Saudi Arabia, 1991, Desert Storm, and worked at King Fahd Air Force Base. To get from Jeddah to Taif we had to drive around Mecca. Non-Muslims cannot enter Mecca. The road around Mecca is called "the Christian Bypass" which we 'affectionately' dubbed "Infidel Highway!" That pretty much sums up Western civilization's complaint with KSA!
2
I have a couple of suggestions. The first is for writers to consider the innocent victims of a ruler, government or other organization. If it victimizes innocents, e.g. Mohammed bin Salman's regime exterminating Yemeni children, then it is ethically illegitimate. By considering "Ahmed's test," reporters and columnists could start with a balanced viewpoint.
Second, since women were denied driving rights for so long, they should now be allowed to drive at twice the speed limit.
4
Being 'allowed' to drive is the smallest of things for Saudi women. Male patriarchy and control extend to every vestige of their lives. To live in such a soul destroying culture, with none of the freedoms that we consider a given in the lives of women in the Western world is appalling in this day and age.
There is so much more there that needs urgent change
2
When it comes to lording it over people, religion is a favorite Go-To. Seems to work all the time. Builds prisons, Beheads folks, Wins elections, Runs towns, Even runs whole countries.
A standard, made use of by demagogues to make themselves Holier than thou, the gullible fall in line, ever eager for a con artist profit who boasts of saving their soul or country.
2
This change in Saudi Arabia is minuscule compared to the endemic human rights violations within the country and the Saudi-sponsored humanitarian disaster which is Yemen. The fact that women can now drive is only a very small step into the modern world. What about the guardianship laws preventing women from leaving the house, the public executions, the homophobia, the 'religion police', etc. SA still holds the 'prize' for being one of the most repressive regimes in the world.
7
The new ruling prince of Saudi is doomed to fail in his plan to modernize his country.He alone wants to control the process of reform this resembles what the Shah of Iran tried,remember his end.Royalty is an outdated concept,Europe already has already removed royal political power and Egypt,Iraq have already done the same,guess the house of Saudi will soon disappear too.
"The Prince Who Would Remake the World" until the next prince takes over the country.
1
This article completely omits the incredible meddling of Trump and his family prior to the election to enlist the Saudi's help in getting him elected and post-election in the payback Trump lavished upon the Saudi's in repayment for this clandestine help. The article also completely misses the provable meddling of Jared Kushner and his family in the interplay of relations with the Qatari's. The facts in that case are that when the Kushner's were rebuffed by the Qatari's for financing on their white elephant 666 Fifth Avenue building, the Trump administration sided with the Saudi's in calling them terrorists and when the Qatari's capitulated and did agree to finance this project for the Kushner's, Qatar was again in the good graces of the United States. The article also fails to mention the General whose neck was purposely broken while in the custody of MBS at the Ritz Carlton and the provable Israel-Saudi Arabia-Russia-Flynn-Trump nexxus in influencing domestic politics in the United States.
MBS is a complete farce. Instead of 15 Saudi's flying commercial jets into our American buildings and causing one of the most heinous slaughters in history, the younger guy intends to accomplish his goals of manipulating America by more sophisticated means. The dude is a radical terrorist in sheep's clothing. Read first hand accounts of the genocide he is inflicting on Yemen and you will genuinely understand this guy's true nature.
12
It may be a knee-jerk reaction, but if Trump endorses someone, s/he must be toxic to the world.
9
Great long form profile! The Times needs more of this
1
It is the very same things that both The NY Times and MrCohen share that stands between a genuine an ultimate reciprocated understanding of the instinctive rejection that the Arabs -Moslem in general reject both and tend to question their sincerity plus the mega issue of Palestine Israel .
Re the former : their inability to perceive what are truly modes and means of progress that do not repeat what has been , hitherto, the Western model ie the Judo Christian model.
Both cannot conceive that Shura can be as much, if not a better system, of public representation and ruler oversight and
accountability, than what they advocate as Democracy!
Nor can they perceive of a mode of male female inter life which actually does present a state of female equality , as in the system which has both are siting to gatherin the same Mosquee , but apart, and discussing the Same issues as female equality in public life .
To qualify , as genuine female equality to be acceptable to both it has to be according to what is practiced in the West.
Both examples demo stat e the limited, intentional, insistence that
the only replicas of Western culture are acceptable to the West which makes them rejected automatically by us !
Our values will never be replicas of Western values neither by content nor presentation which is what the West/the Judo - Christian alliance is a going after as a form of cultural domination!
And pigs will fly!
Genocidal wars are not tiny glitches.
9
Al Jubeir loved being calld "Al" by Tillerson, the general who back in 2015 predicted Yemen's defeat within two weeks copied the Pentagon's lingo on his daily briefings, and the bogus "princes" of Riyadh have learned from Washington to call those who disagree with them "terrorisrs".
Roger Cohen is in danger of being seen to have been co-opted as Tom Friedman was.
10
You too, huh Roger?
7
In Saudi Arabia I'd be beheaded. I'm not a Muslim. I think God is an opiate for idiots and I'm very vocal about that. I am transgender, polyamorist, and queer. I smoke marijuana and my job is marijuana consulting.
Saudi Arabia to me is backward place filled with people who would like to see me dead. Women driving means nothing. Women driving should be a non-issue, yet it's used as a PR stunt by a country that still puts atheists in prison.
People think America is horrible and evil
and I tell them why dont you move to Saudi Arabia? I wont stop using that comparison until I see pot smoking queers dancing on a pentagram in Mecca. So never.
9
Not quite ready for "me too."
smoke and mirrors....patriarchy has never, ever given up its control or colonisation of women willingly or through negotiation without resistance (usually culminating in literal violence to women). This regime is trying to purge its most absurd excesses in an attempt to masquerade as some sort of "progressive" nation hoping to secure some respect in the modern contemporary west.
1
Saudi Arabia is running out of oil. The Aramco IPO is a boondoggle that we’ll be writing about in a decade. Yes, women will be change agents, especially when more are in government.
1
"Enlightened despotism" comes to mind, but I remain wary of analogies to Western history. We throw around terms like "reformation" and democractization, but I wonder if they only obfuscate a true understanding of what's underway (or not). I am hopeful it can evolve. But Islam will go its own way and will continue to be surprised and perplexed at the outcomes.
Just a few points for balance:
Iran's women have far more freedoms and are far better educated than those in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia has now been bombing and killing Yemeni citizens for more than 3 years with full US support and weapons.
Iran has open elections, which the Saudis will never have.
Thomas Friedman says that MBS is just like his other Davos-set
friends and acquaintances, which makes me very, very nervous.
Trump loves MBS, which makes me very, very fearful.
15
"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a step on the accelerator pedal. "
Of course, you need to be in Drive, not Neutral or Reverse.
1
Well, it’s worthy of noting, disappointedly, that the “Victoria Secret” at the Red Sea Mall still doesn’t come within several galaxies of being as stimulating as its American, French or British analogues. And what one must assume are the women considering its wares still seem to be covered head-to-foot in black. But I suppose we must crawl before we walk (or drive).
I suppose one purpose of the pundit is to seize upon some hint of liberalization and pummel the tentativeness as a society seeks to move forward, hoping that the pummeling will excite further progressive moves. But Roger should be unhesitatingly celebrating what’s happening in Saudi Arabia, not cluck-clucking its possible transience, not least based on the transparent implication of a Sadat-ending to modernization.
Good for Saudi Arabia. If they can move to a far more secular model of governance of normal life, Iran’s mullahs and imams will suffer immensely by comparison among the world’s Muslims; and that kind of isolation couldn’t possibly be bad.
1
Here we go again! The perpetual made-in-Washington Middle East fantasy: some guy like MBS will turn up and modernize the Islamic world, make it just like (or almost just like) America! Remember the Shah? Remember Ahmad Chalabi?
Mr. Cohen, MBS is playing a shell game with us, just like his despotic predecessors.
12
Donald, this is not about us.
2
Why MBS need to play game with you? US gives no financial assistance to Saudi Arabia. On the contrary, Saudi Arabia pay in cash for every product or service bought from the US and if you compare Saudi Arabia's per capita investment in the US to US per capita investment in Saudi Arabi you will find the former is a very large multiple of the latter
The last sentence says it all, "it is women who will make it happen ".
In four generations, Saudi Arabian has become a regional power, economically successful with the help of the U.S. and Europe, and is now trying to find their way in a rapidly changing world. Think of the U.S in about 1900 but of course blessed with all the technology money can buy.
So here we are. Saudi women can drive legally in the cities (they always did in rural areas and the desert), MBS is trying to jump start his culture and economy with a few stumbles, and everyone has great expectations and criticisms.
Saudis (IMO) for the most part want the same things most people of the world want. Security from external threats (Iran!!!), prosperity, good health and a better life for their children. Those that are devoutly religious (about 20% of the population, same as in the U.S.) keep looking rearward while the rest of the country wants to hurry things along. It will be interesting to see how things unfold with the U.S. reversing course and the Saudis moving forward albeit in a very uncertain manner.
I wish both countries well.
1
A wholly inadequate discussion of Yemen, including perpetuating the lie that the indigenous Houthi are a "surrogate of Hezbollah." The Houthi are, and were, the least morally compromised force in the country, attempting to end the chaos created by the feckless and corrupt Saudi puppet regime. So tired of the lazy and credulous analysis by the New York Times and other media who should know better. And millions are starving as a result.
14
Again a carefully written article by a progressive nytimes reporter on a vital, strategical ally of the USA.
So in view of portraying at best Saudi Arabia, he ought to put aside the cultural and realist reasoning. He must be very hopeful and underlines even the minimal points of change and progress while mentioning a bit of reserves and doubts on the nature of the local power and the presumed future developments.
The crux is that if you apply this approach to any country, not ally or friend of the USA, like, as for a candid example, Russia, the logical conclusion of the article political line should be that the latter country is a fantastically performing democracy and not the undemocratic country that other nytimes reports duly and legitimately describe.
Final point: what is the readers' benefit in reading an article biased by the newspaper logic of applying two kinds of weighs and measures for reporting on the same human rights issues when the American foreign policy interest varies?
4
There once existed modernity in many parts of the Islamic geography, which the Saudis for the past four decades helped to radicalize by pumping in billions. It is 2018 and the world is upside down. Now the writers of the NYT are putting their hopes in the same Saudis for modernity.
10
This guy knows how to distract the West with shiny objects. Let women drive, and the West will disregard not only the mayhem committed by the Saudis in Yemen, but also the ease with which they have purchased the US administration.
18
If they have "purchased" the Admnistration....it is far from the first such purchase. The Saudis were very tight with the Bush family -- 41 and 43 -- to point of handholding!
Saudi Arabia is a primitive place getting a makeover with the help of the US media, foreign labor, and such. It has little understanding of the future after the oil runs out.
7
Trump is visibly pandering to theocratic Christian fundamentalists, just like the al Sauds have been doing to the Wahhabi ulema and Netanyahu to the Settler Movement, and yes, Iran's Guardian Council exerts religious control over legislation and candidates.
Trump and his fundamentalist supporters are actively engaged in making the US into a theocracy.
Either you're a true believer or collateral damage fodder.
4
I doubt this prince can change a country that is steeped in fundamentalist Islamic ideology; a country that promotes same ideology all around the world. If he is serious, then he needs to open democracy in the political arena, hold elections, allow women to run for office, give up his princely status and life. After all the money the royal family has is not really theirs, it was taken from the state. Plus this royal family became royal only in the last century with help from the British. So unless some of these things are in place, Saudi Arabia will not change. They continue to be a menace to world peace!
6
"After all the money the royal family has is not really theirs, it was taken from the state."
When the country's name is your family name, the implication is that the country, as well as whatever it contains, is your personal property. Hard to swallow, but that is a fact! The following quote is from Wikipedia (Please see: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabia#Monarchy_and_royal_family)
"In a country that is said to "belong" to the royal family and is named for them, the lines between state assets and the personal wealth of senior princes are blurred."
Woman driving does not change a country but it is a step in right direction. Human rights, citizens rights and sharing wealth with all the citizens are the most important. Palace politics has to change to citizens politics. Oil reserve will not be there forever. What is the plan for the future when there will be no petrodollar ? To change a country, the ruler should not be puppet of the only super power. Wasting country's money and wealth or spending lavishly for personal and family luxurious lives is crime. Having Victoria Secret stores and displaying advertisement of bra and bikini will not change the economic and political structure of the country. Most important thing MBS can do is to stop exporting Wahabism and Salafism without delay.
2
We should never forget that the pendulum swings in two directions. What is happening now in Saudi Arabia does not represent permanent change but temporary change. Inevitably the pendulum will swing back and though women may drive it will be a long, long time before the Saudi monarchy, if ever, provides women (and men) the right of free assembly, freedom of religion; and any form of freedom at all.
5
End terrorism, end political Islam, and end Iran too! What a guy!
That he is a murderous fiend doesn't matter. Killing millions in Yemen doesn't matter. The extreme repression of neighbors like Qatar and the Shiites in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain doesn't matter.
They're all just Arabs, and we too kill that sort freely, in Palestine, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Afghanistan, and our own killing in Yemen, plus any others along the way.
MBS really has the number of the NYT columnists, Friedman, now Cohen.
For his next act, he'll go to Jerusalem and hug Netanyahu. Raptures!
15
Uh Mark--the sarcasm isn't necessary. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salem is the first Saudi royal to openly criticize the Palestinians. All over the Middle East there is a new generation of Arab leaders who are no longer embracing the Palestinian cause. Why fight a losing battle that goes on and on with no resolution in sight.
3
This reply demonstrates just why the sarcasm is appropriate. Never mind justice, who's winning? MBS! (for now)
1
Oh before I forget I have no problem with a summit style meeting between Netanyahu and Mohammed Bin Salem. That's how peace is made!! (Hugging is optional).
1
"...underwritten some of the hijackers" ???
Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudi Arabian. We in NYC do not forget.
11
Sometimes I find myself wondering if the Times has an editorial policy dictating that all references to Iran must be negative, a stark contrast from many of the articles on MBS and Saudi Arabia.
18
Given that all references to Trump must be negative, the same applied to Iran should not be surprising.
1
Such a 'schizophrenic' culture that has rich women spending thousands on a shopping trip buying expensive clothing, jewelry, make up, and other personal luxury adornments that no one outside of immediate family even sees. They adorn their eyes with dramatic make up that immediately draws the eye to the little slice of face they do show and puts a man's imagination about the rest of it into overdrive which is really hypocritical.
2
Saudi Arabia isn't a country; it's a criminal enterprise run by the Saud family. MBS is the John Gotti of this crime family - the "Dapper Crown Prince." Those who see him as anything else are delusional.
17
Saudi Arabia is the font of extremism, hatred of non-Muslims and the nurturer of Islamic Terrorism. If it was not for the Saudis the world would not have seen Al Qaeda, Taliban and the ISIS. They all took their guidence from the Wahabis and followed the worst traits and tenets of Islam. I will NOT hold my breath to see it change because I am NOT sure it will to a meaningful extent. But, again, it is NOT impossible. If MBS sincerely believes the damage this hateful version of Islam has done to the Saudis and the Muslims all over the world and he wants them to come in to the modern world; may be there is hope. We just have to wait and see.
2
It’s funny every few months the kingdom of Saudi Arabia invites a NYT COLUMNIST ( Mr. Friedman I believe was last ) for a nice all paid all access trip. Interestingly , they come back to write a “ very calm level headed “ assessment of Saudi policies , past and present with some sprinkled criticism and some sprinkled skepticism, but the main driver of the column is pretty “ fair and balanced “.
I wonder , the food there must be really good.
16
Thank you for this informative and insightful report!
Just as it seems the NYTimes Opinion page has been transformed into the Gender Victimology Gazette, with near-daily columns by "assistant professors of art history" and "PhD candidates in Gender Studies" and "associate professors of law," aggrieved young academic women all, it turns out a white male has something to say!
Glory be! Don't get old and die, Roger, then you'll just be another dead white male (you know, like Shakespeare) to be excoriated on a daily basis by the new maoism of academic Theory.
8
Spot on Sir.
My friends and I have a bet with the restaurant owner at our Sunday morning breakfasts - whoever can guess the number of “victimization” stories in that days paper eats for free.
The tie breaker is how many stories explain how ignorant misogynist white men have/are/will be replaced by smarter, stronger, more sensitive women.
MBS says, "Cancel the Iran nuclear deal, betray your Atlantic allies, promote war with Iran, help us commit war crimes in Yemen, and I'll give you some good PR about a few women driving cars."
Trump says, "Deal!"
Who's the great negotiator? For a despot, MBS confounds the world by getting (buying) great American PR. The rollout started with changing Americanizing his name to "MBS" and the rest is history. Someone should get an Emmy for this load of absurdity.
9
Western media continues with its adoration for MBS. Just weeks after his American charm offensive, his government arrested feminist activists. His military has helped to create a humanitarian crisis in Yemen. It is shocking that these types of action do not receive more prominent placement in the analysis here.
It is clear that any Middle Eastern regime that opposes Iran will receive overwhelming Western media support.
11
All organized religions are designed to perpetuate their existence. That is their purpose so that their leadership prospers. Undermining organized religion is a positive.
2
Saudi Arabia is a dictatorship on a similar level to North Korea. I can see why Trump loves their regime, I don’t see how anyone who believes that people have a right to govern themselves do. Further, look at the Saudi Arabia’s war on its neighbor Yemen, and one sees the true nature of wanton destruction that this “Prince” yields.
7
Saudi Arabia beheads people, sometimes on the street. It funded 9/11 and provided terrorists.
Not our friend, even if Trump wants hotels there.
15
Nowhere in any of this did I see that democracy and capitalism is not necessarily a good thing. Sure: women will be in the forefront of changing the society. But religious conservatives - just like here in the USofA - will shout loud and long about how everything is "fake" news. Be smart! Buy now! Prices will ALWAYS go lower! 10 years from now all of this will rust. Just like here.
Again, the dictator of Saudi Arabia, a place that makes Putin's Russia look like a civil rights utopia, gets a sweet write up in the NYT. Meanwhile, of course, the dictator is conducting a genocidal war in Yemen, enforcing a blockade that is starving, by UN count, a million people. If Saudi Arabia had no oil or oil wealth, this would be incomprehensible. But as it does, and hundreds of billions invested in the U.S. - with a heavy investment in the media - it is always depicted as an amazingly great system that just needs a little touch-up - for instance, flogging bloggers and beheading sorcerers might be a bit much. A little Yucky. But the well publicized letting women drive (wow, catching up to what Iran did 25 years ago) just sends NYT op ed columnists into a spin.
I would love an article like this to begin with pictures of the political prisoners in Ulaysha prison. But why do that when the Saudi PR people can provide such wonderful photo ops that are so much happier! than, for instance, photos of beheadings.
18
Cohen gets too much wrong here. Uninformed or enamored with his own views of and for the Middle East?
Examples:
"Look no further than Egypt’s assassinated Anwar el-Sadat or the toppled shah of Iran to see the fate of tradition-trampling Westernizing leaders of Muslim Middle Eastern states." WRONG. Sadat was assassinated for making peace with Israel. He was, in fact, the self-described "Pious President" and this way contrasted starkly with Nasser, his predecessor. The Shah fell because of his extreme corruption and conspicuously self-defeating allegiance with the United States/West.
As to the Saudi FM's comment, this should not have gone unchecked. Did Cohen not know enough to do that?
“When people look at Saudi Arabia, see Mecca and Medina, they want to emulate it . . . When they see openness and moderation and tolerance and innovation, that’s what they want to be.” No other country, he argued, has “that soft power.” WRONG AGAIN. If the "people" here are Muslims, the Saudi FM is wrong. Saudi has the hard power of money. Many Muslims (and I am Muslim) do not view Saudi Arabia as an example of Islam-- in fact, many perceive the Saudi royal family as the lodestar of religious hypocrisy and doctrinal corruption. Did it ever occur to Cohen to consider why Saudi Arabia is, in fact, the outlier of Muslim nations-- driving ban, etc.?
NYT: Please do better than pieces that are more informative of authors' self-regard/agendas than the subjects they purport to cover.
16
Indeed "It is women who will make it happen". Perhaps only they can save our species from wrecking the planet. Men have failed.
1
Mr. Cohen, don't be so easily fooled by shining objects. The damage Saudi Arabia has done for decades by spreading Wahabism in the world will not be undone by decree. You are dealing here with a deeply corrupt younger generation of royals ousting the older deeply corrupt one. Nothing more!
15
The Women's Suffrage movement in the US took 72 years (1848 to 1920) to realize its goal. At the start of the movement, slavery was still the law of the land (1865). Only white property owners could vote (1870). Senators were still appointed, not elected (1913).
You've got to start somewhere. My hat is off to MBS for starting the process.
6
Reading these comments, I wonder, what do we expect of leaders? Contrary to what people seem to think, when they are the heads of governments, they are NOT completely free to do whatever they want. They have to not get too far out in front of their supporters. They are restrained by possibilities of defection. In fact they do need to calculate and figure out how change can happen, if that is what they want to do.
Putting women behind the wheel is much more significant than what people think...access to transportation moves one toward freedom and the exercise of will and desire.
This leader cannot change what Saudi Arabia has been, he can only move things ahead, or not. He seems to be moving things ahead. He is not going to be able to give up repressive actions wholesale...this is the way power works in the ME right now. But he can reduce it; he can inch things ahead and still signal to his supporters that he will not go too far.
That is what I think when I look at leadership in the ME. I wouldn't want to be one.
3
Given all the false starts towards democracy we have seen throughout the Middle East It’s easy to be cynical about the changes taking place in Saudi Arabia. But consider the alternative: things stay the same. Why not give M.B.S. the benefit of the doubt and applaud his actions?
4
He launched the Yemen war and the Qatar blockade. In those and much more, he is the problem, not the solution.
11
Great article. I lived in S.A. during the 70's and early 80's, and know that things do change overnight, but that it will probably take someone stronger than the Crown Prince to fully change Arabia. (He picks the wrong friends, for one thing.) Look at Turkey, on its way back into the dark ages, Ataturk forgotten.
Right now the C.P. is looking only a bit better than a sharp stick in the side, it would help if he would stop throwing people into jail who might instead, help him.
7
Contemporary Iran is many years ahead of Saudi Arabia, if both are on a trajectory to a modern liberal state and society--which is debatable. American interests would be far better served by reestablishing and improving our relationship with Iran, I think, than by allying our country exclusively with an autocratic kingdom in Saudi Arabia. We can work with both countries, but Iran has 80 million educated people and abundant natural resources. Moreover, the reason why Trump and his gang favor the Saudis and despise the Iranians seems to be that Israel fears competition with a modernizing Iran.
67
Iran is larger, but then, has always been more hostile to the US and most of us have not forgotten they KIDNAPPED our EMBASSY and held them hostage for a YEAR.
1
The article primarily illustrates the changes of this regime to the lives of a well-to-do and educated class of women, as well the power brokers who want to highlight and promote the country as one filled with the young and aspirational. But the fact that driving school for women costs six times more than men demonstrates that there may be a ceiling for women of other backgrounds --whether this is organic to the market or policy-driven is uncertain. As this article does mention the regime of the former Shah of Iran, the government of the kingdom ought to be cautious of the fact that rapid globalization, liberalization and promotional of the middle-class without addressing the class-resentment of the poor is a recipe for trouble. This is certainly not addressed in this article and perpetuates the myth that many Westerners have that the majority of Saudis (and other gulf state citizens) are Western-educated, jetset, and idle-rich who are hiding secretly liberal and hedonistic lives under their thawbs and abayas.
25
A major source of Saudi Arabian conservatism is the Saudi Arabian public. One source of reform has been the al-Saud family, though each major reform led to public outrage. When King Abdul Aziz al-Saud introduced radio in the 1930's, and television in the 1950s, there were riots, and the King had to read to Quran over these mediums to quiet the crowd. The same thing happened when King Faisal introduced women's (segregate) education, and when Saudi Arabia joined the WTO (rumors held that the WTO would require Saudi Arabia to import pork and pornography). Thus in historical context, MBS's reforms are pretty radical. But they are also limited, and the decision to allow women to drive was largely pushed by men, who constantly complained about the time it took to drive their wives and daughters around. The big changes that many outsiders want are very unlikely.
7
Maybe we can see M.B.S.'s true colors when he abolishes public beheading. Yes, Saudi Arabia is the only country left on this planet in which executions are carried out with a sword.
11
I hope there is a change for the better for citizens of Saudi Arabia (SA), but I will not be popping champagne any time soon! The west is always fascinated by what they see as improvement, yet SA still has one of the most corrupted and tyrannical regimes in the world and all under the disguise of Islam/Allah. What I see, based on my experience, is nothing but an elaborate and well planned palace coup with the young MBS in charge. This is no different than when King Faisal over threw his older brother Saud. Faisal's claims at the time are similar to those of MBS, he want to modernize SA by bringing in TV and provide education to women. Faisal became the most oppressive tyrant the country saw to that date. Faisal helped cement and grow Whabbism beyond the border of Saudi Arabia and was instrumental in providing financial support to all those who were willing to support and spread Whabbism. This gave us Bin Laden, Al Queda, Al Shabab, 9/11, etc. Do not be fooled by the call of moderation and forward looking agenda, it meant to passive the allies of the Saudi Arabia in the west, but will do nothing for the citizens and to democracy/freedom in SA, & will not moderate the tyranny that MBS is leading (he is already showing his hand). And until alcohol is consumed legally in SA, all religions have places of worship open and public, all citizens have basic human rights & free speech... I would keep the champagne on ice! MBS is not going to be nice!
13
One question Mr. Cohen, how much have the Saudi's paid you? Not only are the Saudi's responsible for a genocide (our government is complicit and guilty as well) in Yemen and crimes against humanity, but they have exported their hate all around the world. Whole swaths of Muslim countries now have women walking around in full niqab because of Wahhabism. Do you not care about the slaughter of Yemens and their role in 9/11? I am generally perplexed by your love affair . . . or should we all follow the money?
35
"The crown prince is genuine."
Yes. He is a genuine war criminal and mass murderer, clearly guilty of crimes against humanity, including the indiscriminate bombing of schools, hospitals and relief convoys in Yemen, with the fawningly eager help of Donald Trump. The 'change' he promotes is strictly cosmetic, for the consumption of gullible westerners. The kidnapping for ransom of hundreds of his friends, relatives and associates was merely a falling out among thieves. The intolerant madrassas he sponsors worldwide continue to teach hatred of Christians, Jews and the west.
It is probably too much to hope that he will stand in the dock at The Hague, but I will continue to hope that he ends up there.
Dan Kravitz
51
Perhaps George W Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld (and a few others) and trump will also end up "in the dock" at the Hague. I continue to hope they all do.
10
This guy is filthy rich AND has great PR. Otherwise, same old
“ stuff “. Don’t fall for his spin. Seriously.
9
Big deal. It is still illegal for a woman to be in a car with a man to whom she is not married.
10
With everything that's been going on around the world over the past decade, I think most of us keep our optimism stored away the attic these days. This is especially true when it comes to anything Middle Eastern.
I would consider it a massive victory for all mankind if we could just end up with a Saudi Arabia that stops stimulating and funding a hateful and violent version of Islam all around the world.
As for genuine democracy in those parts... I've checked my pockets but it appears I'm fresh out of hope.
3
"Permit Victoria’s Secret, but desexualize the mannequins and make sure the lingerie is in muted shades of pastel."
I would call it a start. Just to have women's faces appear is a huge step.
1
A country finally allows women to drive in 2018 - while jailing (some still in jail) the feminists who pushed for this simple right for last 20 years - and that’s considered progress?
How low do we want the bar to be for Saudi oil, for Saudi Arabia buying billions of dollars per year of our weapons - with which they are creating a humanitarian crisis and war crimes in Yemen, for Saudi alliance with Israel to take on Iran?
Saudi Arabia practices gender Apartheid. They still will when women are finally allowed to drive in 2018.
24
Good to see the word "Yemen," mentioned 10 times in this piece on Saudi Arabia. Disappointingly, the word "genocide" is absent.
41
“The Crown Prince himself...” isn’t that a problem for any democracy? Let him end Monarchy and end theocracy before we treat him and Saudi Arabia as “normal”. Saudi Arabia is a despotic theocracy that murders apostates, anyone who does not practice Wahhabi Islam, with the blessing of the Saudi regime and it’s fanatical cult. Why are we talking with them? Oil, banking, and defense contracts entangle America in the number one sponsors of terror in the world. Al Qaeda and ISIS are Wahhabi Salafis organs. ISIS is Saudi Arabia’s ally in Yemen. Strangely, Americans do not know this because the propaganda machine prevents it. Instead we are told by our Security services that Iran is the primary source of terror in the world because....propagandists have confused Iran with ISIS and Al Qaeda! Meanwhile, Iran is fighting ISIS in Syria.
Yes Saudi Arabia and Iran are both tyrannical states, but probably less so than N. Korea?
Good essay, but Americans really need to know more about terrorism and Saudi Arabia’s role and the impediments that doing business with them makes our country complicit in their barbarism.
7
"isn’t that a problem for any democracy?"
He never promised any democracy. That isn't on the table.
2
For now, the aptly-shortened MBS is pulling Kim-esque charisma stunts with a side of xi-esque "anti-corruption" muscle flexes. (Of course he's friends with The Forrest Gump Of Human Misery. Just...of course.) I won't give him credit until he also apologizes for the arrests of the women and lets any such political prisoner free.
Until then, and until he uses his power as a monarch to pull Arabia into the 21st century, I regard him as a whole lot of, well...MBS.
One can only hope that wealthy Saudi citizens will stop building or supporting the Madrassas that preach the most hateful version of religion on the planet. Maybe they’ll think of ways to start undoing the damage that they’ve done.
3
I have loved Roger's thinking for decades. But not all of it and certainly not about this Saudi "prince." This piece feels like a scatter-shot appeal to find something, anything, positive that can be said about the prospects for Saudi Arabia. The place isn't a "country" or a "people". It is a loose collection of barely literate tribes who are united by either islam or Islam. It is a satrapy ruled by tyranny, violence, ostentatious splendor and the cheap, brainless baloney of wahhabism.
We can't fit into a rational sentence the words, "oil, billions, and women's driving licenses.' Driving licenses? What nonsense. What an insult that the Saudis have managed to position driving licenses as major achievements in the human rights scheme of things.
If the daily murders and starvings in Yemen are seen as only rooted in the Sunni (Saudi) versus Shiite (Iranian) hate pool, then Mohammed is off the hook. But, the killing of Yemen the country and Yemen the people is as much about Saudi money, oil and royal power over the whole Saudi peninsula. Mohammed is a mass killer, plain and simple. Mohammed is the equivalent of an entitled school shooter who kills some kids and prides himself on his handling of loaded weapons.
Mr. Cohen attempts admirably to put Saudi Arabia and its iron-fisted, sieve-brained ruling prince into a broad context. The premise fails because Saudi Arabia and its leaders are a sewer of sand.
18
My, it is galling to see the Saudis basking in the praise of the New York Times for allowing women to drive, or allowing them to escape a lashing for not wearing a burqa. Even by the so-called modern standards of the crown prince, this is a regime that is utterly hostile to women, sexual minorities, non-Muslims, and political dissidents. Worse yet, it has used its largesse to sow the poisonous seeds of Wahhabism throughout the world for the past 30 years — a legacy that will vastly outlast whatever cosmetic adjustments the regime makes back home.
14
The world should be deeply worried about the Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Muhammad bin Salam alliance and threat to liberal democracies.
19
The Saudi war against Yemen, which was initiated by the Crown Prince, is justified by Cohen with these sentences: “Most Saudis view it as a war of necessity; Prince Mohammed could not accept a surrogate of Hezbollah, itself an Iran surrogate, on his southern border. That’s a legitimate strategic objective.” Setting aside the question of how Cohen would know what “most Saudis” think in a country with total repression of the media, he is saying the war is a “legitimate strategic objective”. Iran had miniscule influence with the Ansar Allah-Saleh coalition until MBS started devastating Yemen out of imperial pique. MBS war is the international crime of aggression.
Cohen minimizes the lack of freedom in KSA. Last September Amnesty International told how Salman with wiping out the last vestiges of freedom in KSA. “The majority of Saudi Arabian human rights defenders are now either in prison serving their sentence or facing grossly unfair trials.”
He also never mentions the systematic destruction of Muslim religious heritage by the Saudi regime. Why should the Saudi family be allowed to force its version of religion upon the whole Arabian Peninsula? There are Shia, Sufi who deserve freedom not to speak of Christians, Jews and people without supernatural faith.
For these reasons thousands led by the Baqee Organization will be demonstrating at the Saudi embassy in DC late tomorrow afternoon. Cohen should come by and speak to the protesters. He’d learn a lot.
24
Yeah. I thought that was pretty funny too. I'm just waiting for NYT to publish an article about how Putin's interference in Ukraine is a "legitimate" foreign policy, considering Ukraine was part of Russia for 300 years. But I guess legitimacy depends upon whether the dictatorship is willing to buy megabillions of U.S. weapons. It is a whole new human rights standard!
1
“When people look at Saudi Arabia, see Mecca and Medina, they want to emulate it,” the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir..."
No, they don't. Traveling in Asia and the Middle East as frequently (as I do) reveals that the honey-tongued snake oil salesman Jubeir is using the religious magnetism of Mecca to Muslims to hide Saudi Arabia's abhorrent treatment of non-Muslim workers, women (even to this day), lack of religious freedom (are there any churches or synagogues in the country?...btw, Jews were in Arabia much before Islam appeared), and its incessant practice of opening hate-filled medrasas in Pakistan to Indonesia...and much more.
The Saudis claim they've lost 30 years when fundamentalism "hijacked" Islam...which is another lie. Islam was hijacked in 1744 when the Al- Saud dynasty began in central Arabia. In that year, Muhammad ibn Saud, joined forces with the religious leader Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab, the founder of the Wahhabi movement...and a progressively intolerant Islam was born from this repulsive alliance.
A corrupt "prince" fighting corruption? You can't make this up.
All this is a massive PR exercise designed to fool us gullible Americans that change is coming....perhaps cosmetically it will...but the core is still rotten.
44
"These are heady days in the Saudi Arabia."
Heady days or not, I'll just settle for the Crown Prince opening a Saudi Arabian embassy in Israel - and broadcasting this on his nation's official websites.
Doesn't have to be Jerusalem; Tel Aviv will do just fine as a starter.
5
Saudi Arabia’s is our enemy, 9/11 proved that fact.
16
Russia is our enemy, too. As is China (communists).
The cold war(s) proved that. Someone should remind the president.
Germany and Japan were our enemies, too. WWI and II proved that. But they have reformed. Times changes. New leadership. The future is coming. You should look up, or be further left behind.
1
Both of you are wrong; a country can be imperfect and still be an ally. And claiming so many nations as "enemies" is a dangerous form of isolationist thinking.
You can be friends, trading partners and allies -- but still behave cautiously and with your own nation's best interests at heart.
Funny how MBS and his ministers all look like crooks. This is a nation of pure consumers, they know no better, name me one Saudi invention of value to benefit the rest of the world? Waste of ink if you ask me.
1
Writing this with knowledge that it will be censored but needs to be said: never trust a person who sells out his won brothers and sisters.
6
The West is attempting to portray a kleptomaniacal warmonger as a reformer, based simply on a few anecdotal, cosmetic changes.
This same person who shook down princes he didn't like, in the name of an anti-corruption drive, while buying $ 1.3 TRILLION dollars worth of personal trinkets in a space of 90 days, has conducted a genocidal war in Yemen as confirmed by the United Nations.
Salman has also been at the forefront of support for ISIS, Israel's war against the Palestinians and the Neocon-Zionist conspiracy to destroy Iran.
Some hero. Some hope.
15
Iran's buddies in Yemen are involved as well -- it takes two to tango.
1
The Crown Prince will lift the ban on driving for women on June 24. But he also arrested 17 women right activists. They were accused of communicating with organizations opposed to the Saudi Kingdom. Other women right activists were forbidden to travel outside the country
Could the real Crown Prince stand up? please?
1
Expect a counterrevolution. A male-dominated culture will not simply roll over. We've seen plenty examples of that recently.
3
Mr. Cohen doesn't mention (and perhaps is totally unaware) that Indonesia -- the world's largest Muslim nation by population -- has long allowed women to drive.
And vote. And hold political office (about 18 percent of its parliament's members are women). And receive higher education. And own businesses.
Only in the semi-autonomous and fundamentalist Aceh province are Indonesian women's rights greatly restricted.
These new developments in Saudi Arabia, the most powerful and influential of the Muslim nations, are welcomed and hopeful. But although Islam itself began there and its holiest sites stand there, Saudi Arabia is in no way the entire Muslim world. The example of Indonesia, a working democracy greatly friendly to the West, should not be ignored.
For your next extended reporting trip abroad, Mr. Cohen, I strongly recommend Indonesia.
16
Part of me wants to cheer the apparent progress. But it is difficult reading about women driving in Saudi Arabia as a major breakthrough. Or a woman in Iran disguised as a man so as not be identified while attending a soccer game while out of the country, something forbidden at home. This morning I have little patience for the daily lessons in the intricacies of modern day Islam. There is nothing modern about it. Sunni vs. Shiite vs. whatever today's interpretation of an infidel is. Women should remain covered so as not to arouse a man otherwise she is guilty and punishable - not the man if he walks up and abuses her. I'll agree with the Crown Prince on one thing. Islam has been hijacked. By many and in many different ways. If not for forced conversions over the centuries I wonder how many would adopt this way of life.
3
Saudi Arabia ---- by European standards this could be a country from the other side of the moon. It already sounds fantastic that women are now allowed to get behind the wheel ---- but not with another (nonfamiliar) man in the car. There will no be other changes. Maybe on paper.
The bad thing is that Germans were too interested to make business with the Saudis, i.e. construction of buildings and roads and selling them everything in need, especially luxury cars. To whom they sold it didn't matter, the main interest was money flowing back. They had zero imagination to bring some societal change to Saudi Arabia. You could call this cowardice, and you are right.
1
At this dizzying pace of change, in a thousand years it might be possible to express religious skepticism or open a Christian church.
5
Remake the world?
It isn't possible to be a theocracy and a democracy, and, for that matter, it isn't possible to survive on the blood of capitalism, oil, without being totally corrupt.
Optimism is nice, but they are just another oil rich country with money to burn. The Sunni-Shia war is something we should have run away from, it is even worse than getting involved in a land war in Asia.
But the Trump family, like the Bush family, has interlocked our futures with theirs...
Hugh Massengill, Eugene Oregon
10
This is a fairly balanced account. Quite a departure from the hagiographies of MBS and the whitewash of his repressive backward society that one too frequently encounters in these pages.
I am particularly impressed by the open acknowledgement of Saudi culpability for the rise and spread of Al-Qaeda and IS. To listen to Trump and his circle one would derive the absurd impression that Iran is behind them both.
The promise of reform seems forlorn in a country that is the epicenter of murderously-intolerant Wahhabi ideology. One cannot read about these pre-modern people and their baneful influence around the world without wishing that modern civilization were not as dependent on their hydrocarbon deposits as it currently is.
1
You fail to mention Netanyahu, Trump, and MBS' hunger for regime change in mineral rich Iran and Qatar. This is a war brewing. One can only hope they'll stop at devastating Yemen.
Philosophically speaking, there is much to be said for modest dress and time set aside for prayer, but the disrupters are thinking financially only. The dependence on oil and gas won't last forever. I don't know why people in hot countries don't insist on solar and wind energy. Of course there's the oligarchs.
14
Very well written infomercial! What is happening in Saudia Arabia has everything to do with power grabing struggles between factions of the same family and nothing to do with modernization. You do not modernize a society by decree by an absolute ruler, first step in modernization is liberty. If anything, we are witnessing a huge setback from the past where the family came together and issues were discussed behing closed doors to absolute rule by one person that jails even those who fail to support his ambitions. Not to mention the disater in Yemen and the blokade of Qatar.
21
The changes are all centred around one person, MBS. He is developing Saudi society like a real estate developer planning a resort. It is all his ideas. If he is going to succeed, he needs to harness the power of the people. he can't just feed them all you can eat buffets and pretty sunsets to keep them quiet while he takes control.
Sticking with Donald Trump may be his biggest mistake.
1
Well, at least this attempts to be more balanced than the infamous puff-piece about MBS by Tom Friedman last year. But the insistence on "balance" means understating the horrendous brutality of the Yemen war, a humanitarian disaster that rivals Syria as the worst in the world. MBS is committing a crime against humanity in Yemen, and no number of women drivers can mitigate that.
45
Cohen’s fluff piece about Saudi Arabia is another well-financed and well-coordinated publicity campaign to champion a nation that has a history of radical religious sponsorship, a desire to dominate the Arab world based upon its oil production (and nothing more), and an entangling alliance that has and will embroil us in wars.
Wahhabism is at the very center of the Saudi regime. 100 years ago Britain had opted to support the Hashemites over the Saudis, but Saud’s victory soon had England letting bygones be bygones as oil wealth was in the balance. Sponsorship of religious schools and leaders has produced zealotry resulting in 9/11.
The fall of Iran’s shah found us searching for an Arab partner to replace Tehran’s role. Riyadh had wealth, and we supplied the armaments and military guarantees to create Saudi power.
As for wars, Saudi Arabia has dragged us into the Syrian war and Yemen war. They, alongside Israel, are pushing for war with Iran.
Since the end of World War 2, our relations in the Middle East has been marked by joining reactionaries such as the Gulf sheiks and rejecting the more secular states Egypt, Syria, Iraq, etc. Christoper Davidson’s Shadow Wars details this development.
Money may not buy you love, but it sure can make a silk bag out of a sow’s ear.
40
It is absurd to expect one guy to change a culture. Just look at our own experience with Barack Obama. Change is slow, very slow. It takes a generation or more. Saudi Arabia is no different. Remember when we thought that a few symbolic changes meant that Afghanistan had changed?
The real question is: what does the Saudi population actually think, and what factors aided MBS's rise to power? Who benefits from sharpening the Sunni Shia divide, and continuing to fan the flames of internecine war in the Mideast?
The British ruled India by implementing a "divide and rule" policy. India at that time consisted of dozens of independent states, and they cleverly sparked conflict to weaken both sides. We are seeing this age-old strategy play out again in the Middle East.
16
I visited Saudi Arabia last month for the first time in several years. I saw a few things I never saw back then.
The officials at Immigration were civilians, not soldiers.
One of the inspectors running an X-ray machine at Customs was a woman.
When I got through Customs, I looked for a place to change money. A woman was running the bureau de change.
When I was waiting in the lobby at my client, I saw a couple of women badge into the building.
At the coffee shop in my hotel, I saw a man and a woman sitting at a table strewn with paper conducting what looked like a business meeting.
These are small signs, but real.
As for democracy, I would not hold my breath. I think they are headed toward something resembling the Chinese model of governance, not the Western model.
33
You either accept the existence of the Other—for Saudi Arabia that’s Iran, Qatar, Muslim Brotherhood, dissidents, etc.—and engage, or find their existence intolerable and seek to eliminate them, resulting in a campaign of endless, destructive, and ultimately self-defeating hostility and aggression.
M.B.S. seems to be unlike Trump, though, in that part of him appreciates progress.
I applaud the changes to the living conditions of women, and hope more reforms will follow.
I watched Saudi Arabia's team with interest at the World Cup. They have real talent, zeal and devotion; their teamwork and discipline were self-evident. I expect to continue to see them improve in international competitions. They played a clean, elegant game against Uruguay, holding the team of Suarez to an improbable 1-0 score.
I am particularly pleased to see Saudi Arabia bring cinemas to their affluent society. Films can have a bad influence, but more often than not they have a positive influence, and are a wonderful source of education, inspiration and camaraderie for the young -- and the young at heart. It will be interesting to see films being made by Saudi citizens.
The acquisition of Leonardo's Salvator Mundi painting was a brilliant moment; its display in the Louvre Abu Dhabi will give me the perfect reason to visit the region. As a person who holds all the arts in the highest imaginable esteem, I am particularly fond of Old Masters, that were created with such care & ingenuity in epochs predating electricity, industrialization, modern supply chains & logistical efficiency. There was genius in making that statement acquisition for the Arab world.
Changes may come slowly, but changes are welcome and they do come.
4
Thank you, Mr. Cohen, for this analysis. I have a friend, Amr Al Dabbagh, who was doing great things for the country as the head of his company, the Dabbagh Group and as a former minister. The prince put him in the Ritzy jail, took all his assets, tortured him and as far as I know he is still in detention with no trace of due process. I suspect the prince was jealous of my friend's success and close ties to many important people in the West. This prince is, as far as I'm concerned, nefarious. It's no wonder Trump loves the guy.
94
Well, after reading this, I thought - same as it ever was. Absolute monarchies are like dictatorships, and peoples "liberties" are always at the whim of the one in charge. This is what Saudi Arabia has always been like. As a recent Times story said, women are now allowed to drive, but the activists were all recently arrested - reminding everyone that no one can be agents of change except the king. Let's not forget the recent house arrest and monetary shake down of many of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest citizens. Saudi Arabia has always been a game player and a meddler - it's just that now - they are doing it more in the open - Yemen is perhaps the most glaring example. The Prince who would remake the world? Oh, yes, but however his whims dictate. I am not sure the new Saudi Arabia is that different from the old.
60
MBS like the Donald are the same, they will only give window dressing without substance but the bottom line remains consistent, they will enrich themselves.
73
I find it ridiculous seeing women in abayas taking "selfies". When you wear one, everyone (wearing them) looks the same.
2
It's not hard to see what fascinates Trump and family with the young brash very rich sword-wielding prince: he, like the Russians, is a potential source of funding for Trump projects that no one else will finance. The autocratic style, repression, wealth flaunting doesn't hurt either: How much was that chateau? 500 million? France is a lovely place to run a reactionary theocratic country where it frequently gets to 140 degrees in the summer.
Considering the strategic importance of the Saudis in the middle east, it's unnerving if not unexpected that our president reduces foreign policy to the lowest common denominator: what's in it for Trump.
M.B.S, Duterte, Kim, Erdogan, Putin, el Sisi...it's a nice circle of friends.
125
Has he taken anyone's child away from them and locked them up for existing?
2
While Mr. Cohen lauds changes in Saudi Arabian society initiated by the Crown Prince, we should not be so effusive yet over a regime that still exercises absolute power and restricts basic freedoms. Jailing dissenters, use of torture, public executions and maiming of limbs, are still disturbing. So one may be positive about women driving and the limited role of religious police, we should still be cautious in our compliments until more substantive change occurs.
94
Agreed, it’s good, but it could be better. But, we also need to be realistic about wishing for instantaneous Change in long held social mores. The insistence by liberals and progressives on getting everything they want, and not accepting any compromises is the primary reason for the backlash that has occurred here in the US.
5
Not to mention a regime that sells out its own brothers and sisters - who is naïve enough to think that regime won't sell others out.
1
Sorry, I am a bit skeptical about this guy, and Saudi Arabia in general. Remember, this country still cuts off hands and feet, gouges out eyes, and even beheads people for non-corporal crimes. Also, weren't most of the guys who attacked us on 9/11, changing our whole way of life from Saudi Arabia? Oh, NOW, I remember...they have OIL, and most of the most wealthy in OUR country are tied into fossil fuel money.
89
The Red Sea Mall in Jeddah has a Victoria Secret Store, can you believe that? That shows that Saudi Arabia is changing a lot, that is a proof of their newfound openness, moderation, and tolerance. of course the women standing in front of that store are still covered from head to toe. “We are changing at the rate of a high-speed train". This is a very conservative country, they hate Western values and modernity, so I wonder whether these social changes are good or bad for that country. Saudi men do not seem to appreciate these changes, they do not want to work side by side with women, the morality police is still there. Heads and hands are still chopped off as punishment for crimes. this is a country of contradictions. But as long as the Wahhabis stop exporting their terrorism to other countries we should all be happy.
20
Padman - clearly the quoted Saudi has never seen a high speed train.
I am not holding my breath. So Saudi women are now allowed to drive -- woo hoo! Will they be allowed to pursue higher education or a career or independent lives without having to ask for permission from a male authority first? Will they still be stoned for having an affair or accused of adultery when in fact they were raped? How about the rights of the horribly abused and exploited foreign service workers (predominantly South East Asians) without whose labor the last 20 years of building boom would not have happened? What about the journalists, students and dissenters who dare to criticize the ruling House of Saud? If MBS wants to remake how the world sees Saudi Arabia, may be he should start by remaking the House of Saud first. But we all know democracy and absolute monarchy do not go hand in hand, don't we?
91
Saudi Arabia remains a macho society where religion (a faith, based in belief, not in knowing, still controlled by a misogynous police acting royally independent) trumps science and common sense; some modernizing, indeed, but timid at best, and arising out of necessity. The slowness of progress, of showing some humanity for half the population, women, may have to do with the West's hypocrisy in looking the other way...as long as the oil flows, uninterrupted. M.B.S. is not credible as long as his words do not match suitable actions to remove the glaring inequities where women remain second class citizens. And further, as long as he lives in a disgusting luxuriant paradise of his own making, divorced from his fellowmen (and it's almost all men). What a dictatorship Saudi Islam remains, to the detriment of it's own people, and a lousy example to those still hoping for justice. And Trump. a homegrown despot, shall remain dazzled as long as adulation remains plentiful. If this is change, then I have a bridge to sell you.
33
Let's not forget that this guy is a despot. Whether he is a 'nice' or not nice despot is important, but only in the context of a baseline of despotism.
And there are not so nice aspects to princely despotism here. Internally: horrid working conditions for many foreign workers, massive unemployment among Saudis, a very large proportion for Saudis who are poor and powerless, and oppressed Shia population. Externally: a genocidal war in Yemen, vicious hatred of everything Shia, an irrational blockade of Qatar, support for every other Sunni despot in the region.
112
Mohammed bin Salman's sales pitch is unconvincing.
If he wants a serious change he must start from the human rights, not the driver licenses.
50
How do societies change? This Saudi instance is the most fascinating case of our time. Was allowing women to drive the right way to unlock the old order? Which is the wisest next step? WIll the economic diversification program work?
In history, change is 'historical', slow and gradual but also suffering good or bad shocks, i.e. natural disasters or finding treasure, or determined by other key factors like war, changes in populations, migration, trade, scientific discovery.
But for one thirty-year-old prince with a pack of Western experts to try to change a country overnight, I don't think it has ever been tried. So yes, fascinating.
The one thing standing outside all this, and it is what Prince Mohamed must understand if he is to garner real support and sympathy worldwide (which will prove to be pivotal), and equally if he is ever to stand tall in history (something thirty-year-olds have difficulty thinking about), is the war in Yemen.
It is indeed Saudi Arabia's Vietnam, another totally disgraceful business, and the sooner it is over the less damage it will do to the kingdom.
And if ending that war requires a beginning of reconciliation between the divergent heirs of the Prophet, that too will be good, for nothing will better safeguard the prestige of Islam than mature steps toward unification and peace. The God of Monotheism must be sick of the harm done in His name. By everybody.
So beyond women driving, there is unparalleled historical opportunity for Mohamed.
35
Having spent most of my adult life in Saudi Arabia (and now I'm an elderly man), it's very hard to read the comments here without contradicting everyone's opinions. It's very hard for anyone who hasn't lived among the Saudi Arabian culture and interacted with the people there daily for decades to understand how radical and rapid the changes in their culture are occurring.
Saudi Arabia until quite recently was a medieval culture with great poverty and almost no power beyond the borders of the country. Think of Europe before the Enlightenment when most of the women were covered and ruled by theocratic societies circa 1500. That was Saudi Arabia 80 years ago. (cont.)
30
China has shown that repressive political regimes can liberalize economically without threatening their grips on power.
Unchaining half the workforce only makes sense.
This is a rare confluence of the interests of human rights and base economic self-interest. Take it.
One thing at a time.
15
The large new public university campus where I work in Jeddah is mostly deserted by 4pm every day, apart from the pigeons. It is haram (forbidden) to kill a pigeon in the Jeddah/Mecca region - or apparently even to use bird-spikes to protect window-sills and ledges. I have a recurring vision of the quite beautiful campus being abandoned by humans and completely overrun with pigeons, Ozymandias-like, in about 100 years time.
I think Mr. Cohen has captured the current flavor of Saudi Arabia pretty well. It is a jarring mix of 7th century dogmatic religion and cultural values, 17th century absolute monarchy, and 21st century technology (without any corresponding 21st century western values). To my mind, it all seems so anachronistic, and with so many internal incompatibilities, that it couldn't possibly be stable or sustainable. Probably the only thing holding it together is oil money. My 0.02c worth is that while the oil money lasts, change (such as it is) will be relatively peaceful and evolutionary. Once the money runs out though, change is more likely to be violent and revolutionary.
But nothing is inevitable. Humans have an enormous capacity to accept logical and moral contradictions. Many Saudis are well aware of western values and have simply decided that they don't like them or want them. However, their rejection of the (western) value of tolerance fails the "symmetry" test, and that can only lead to conflict.
37
Congratulations on shedding some light on what goes on in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. At some point negotiations have to occur in Yemen, and these will have to be between Iran and Saudi Arabia. If Trump can meet with Kim Jong Un, Prince Salman ought to be able to meet with his Qatari counterpart.
4
"...theme park and create 50,000 Saudi jobs..." Nice number, but in order to do that MBS has to end the elitism among Saudi native males who believe they are too good for menial jobs. Foreign workers compose the majority of hard-laborer and what we'd call menial jobs. Basically anything that involves getting ones hands dirty, and/or breaking a heavy labor induced sweat. That stuff is anathema to most native Saudi males, be they on the fringes of the Royal family or not. (unless its on a polo field) Huge obstacle to get males who think they are above it all to get down and take tickets, serve food, or service machinery. So in this the women have yet another opportunity to break out and thru. Lets hope so. As its the bloated male Ego in these places that continues to undermine their males.
I also wonder whats gonna happen when the first female driver causes a male fatality in an accident? Will they pull her from the car and beat her? Lets see if that's on the news outlets.
If the cost to learn is so much higher for females, what about the insurance? Can a women even buy a car on her own? Can Saudi women even enter into such contracts?
I applaud the efforts of MBS and that of his core supporters. But unless he/they can truly mobilize the youth, truly make them a part of the Govt, both inside and in important civilian support roles - especially out of the "cosmopolitan" urban centers, their task will be daunting to say the least.
We sure do live in interesting times...
13
Agree with the thoughts of your post. Found this particularly interesting:
"Foreign workers compose the majority of hard-laborer and what we'd call menial jobs. Basically anything that involves getting ones hands dirty, and/or breaking a heavy labor induced sweat. That stuff is anathema to most native Saudi males."
Replace the words Saudi Males with American males. Of course that could be easily remedied by increasing the workers pay. Something the Saudi economy will soon be faced with.
Hope the authorities now atleast improve the living conditions of workers mainly from southeast Asia who lead a dismal life out there.