MER Article Women and the Stability of Saudi Arabia On November 6, 1990, some 50 women met in a supermarket parking lot in Riyadh. The women dismissed their drivers and drove their cars in tandem through the streets of Riyadh, defying publicly an unofficial but strictly observed ban on women’s driving. In Saudi Arabia, where women may not travel with Eleanor Abdella Doumato • 10 min read
MER Article Human Rights Briefing Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait has highlighted both the brutality of the regime in Baghdad and the double standards of the US and its allies. Western countries that armed and equipped Baghdad as the Baath terrorized Iraq’s population through murder, torture and mass killings of civilians now profess shock Ömer Karasapan • 4 min read
MER Article Saudi Arabia and the Reagan Doctrine President Reagan came to office with a bold commitment to roll back Soviet gains in the Third World without risking the trauma or cost of another Vietnam-style intervention. The “Reagan Doctrine,” as his policy came to be known, ironically took its cue from Soviet support in the 1970s for leftist in Jonathan Marshall • 18 min read
MER Article The Rabita Affair The Rabita affair underlines the extent to which the post-1980 regime in Turkey has turned to Islam as a bulwark against the left. “Rabita” -- the Saudi-based Rabit’at al-Alam al-Islami (World Islamic League) -- advocates the establishment of a pan-Islamic federation based on the shari‘a. One would Ömer Karasapan, Erkan Akin • 2 min read
MER Article Peterson, Defending Arabia J. E. Peterson, Defending Arabia (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1986). Fred H. Lawson • 1 min read
MER Article Books on Saudi Arabian Economics Michael Field, The Merchants (London: John Murray, 1984). John R. Presley, A Guide to the Saudi Arabian Economy (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984). Christian Huxley • 3 min read
MER Article "We Are Rebuilding Our Organization" “Ahmad” is a representative of the Socialist Labor Party in the Arabian Peninsula. MERIP interviewed him in February 1984. What were the origins of your party? (Author not identified) • 6 min read
MER Article Letter from Bangkok In 1975, around 1,000 Thai workers left for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia; by 1982, 108,520 workers, over one third of all Thailand’s expatriate work force, had left for 11 different countries in the Middle East region. Their remittances, totaling over $450 million, amounted to the equivalent of half the A Special Correspondent • 4 min read
MER Article Recession Hits Saudi Oil Sector A visitor to the kingdom might be startled to hear Saudis speak of a “recession” here. Non-oil growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) is proceeding at a 6 percent clip. Unemployment is nil and construction sites still appear to be eating up the desert around every major city. It hardly looks lik A Special Correspondent • 5 min read
MER Article Saudi Arabia and the War in Lebanon People here responded to the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in a typically quiet fashion. In my day-to-day business contacts with Saudis, the subject of the war rarely came up unless I raised it. One Saudi friend commented, “We don’t yell and shout, but when we’re among ourselves we talk about it and w A Special Correspondent • 3 min read
