Blogging on the Rise in Saudi Arabia

Posted on November 12, 2006

The Washington Post reports (on MSNBC) that blogging is increasingly popular in the Arab world. The number of bloggers in Saudi Arabia has already tripled just this year. There are now 2,000 bloggers in Saudi Arabia according to the Post and half of them are young women.

Though only about 10 percent of people in the Arab world have Internet access, the rate continues to rise dramatically, having multiplied fivefold since 2000, according to Internet World Stats, a Web site that tracks Internet usage and related information.
The number of bloggers in Saudi Arabia has tripled since the beginning of the year, reaching an estimated 2,000.
Young women make up half the bloggers in the kingdom, one of the most traditional countries in the world, where women are forced to dress modestly and are not allowed to drive cars or travel without permission from a male guardian. Lured by the possible anonymity of the medium, Saudi women have produced a string of blogs filled with feminist poetry, steamy romantic episodes and rants against their restricted lives and patriarchal society.

There are occasional blogs that are blocked and an official from Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Culture and Information has called digital media "dangerous" according to the Post's article. Many of the bloggers are blogging to discuss and promote cultural or political change. Some of the Saudi Arabia bloggers use their real names but many also blog anonymously.