SAUDI ACTRESS STIRS MIXED GENDER AUDIENCE IN JEDDAH

C O N F I D E N T I A L JEDDAH 000087

SIPDIS

FOR NEA/ARP,NEA/PPD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/03/2014
TAGS: KDEM KPAO PGOV SA SCUL
SUBJECT: SAUDI ACTRESS STIRS MIXED GENDER AUDIENCE IN JEDDAH

REF: JEDDAH 0079

Classified By: CG Martin R. Quinn for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: A one-act play, &Head over Heels,8 was
performed before a small but warmly approving mixed gender
audience at Effat University, a private, all-women,s
university in Jeddah on February 12. The play, written by
and starring Maisah Sobaihi, King Abdul Aziz University
Assistant Professor of Linguistics, used comedy to highlight
the social, cultural and marital challenges facing Saudi
women. According to the playwright, she changed &absolutely
nothing8 about the script for the mixed audience. END
SUMMARY.

2.(SBU) Maisah Sobaihi,s performance included a skit in
which a Saudi couple remain married but separate after the
husband secretly takes a second wife without wife number
one,s knowledge or approval. Sobaihi raises the issue of
&Misrah8 marriages, discreet "marriages of convenience" in
which the man bears no financial obligation to the woman. A
once-divorced woman enters such a marriage only to be quickly
divorced as a result of the husband,s fear that his first
wife would discover the secret marriage. "Head over Heels"
also raises the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia, and
human rights aspect aside, speaks to the financial burden
placed on Saudi men to provide drivers for females in the
family.

JEDDAH AUDIENCE APPROVAL BUT AUTHOR NOT READY FOR RIYADH
PRIME TIME

3.(C) The comedy was followed by an hour-long discussion.
Both male and female audience members posed engaging
questions and voiced general approval as well as suggestions
for future performances. One dual national Saudi woman said
of Sobaihi: &She takes a serious issue and presents it in a
light-hearted, generally entertaining manner.8 One Saudi
man who obviously enjoyed the show confirmed he only attended
the performance because his sister asked him to, but
expressed hope that Sobaihi would continue her work. A Saudi
husband, who came at the urging of his wife, stated: &I,m
surprised at how much I learned about Saudi women tonight.
This is a good play for all Saudi men to see.8 Asked about
performing in the more conservative Nejd heartland,
author/actress Sobaihi replied: &I have been approached by
Riyadh, but I,m chicken."

4.(SBU) The audience, approximately 85 women and 40 men,
included diplomats, expatriates and more Saudi women than
men. This was the second time Sobaihi performed the play at
Effat University, an all-women,s institution, but the first
before an audience which included males. The mixed gender
audience was segregated by a partition.

5.(C) COMMENT: The fact that a female playwright was able to
perform a play with frank dialogue seeking to highlight the
challenges and injustices Saudi women face is no mean feat in
Saudi Arabia. And perhaps as important, Ms. Sobaihi was able
to stage a work, in which she freely drops references to sex
and women's lingerie, before a mixed gender audience.
Sobaihi,s admission that she is too "chicken" to perform in
Riyadh underscores the relative cultural freedom enjoyed by
Jeddawis compared to the rest of the Kingdom. What passes in
strict Saudi society as daringly avant-garde cultural events
seem to be occurring with greater frequency lately (Jeddah
0079, comedian Ahmed Ahmed's February 21 show),but it
remains to be seen whether the fell hand of the Mutawwa vice
and virtue patrol will be stayed indefinitely. END COMMENT.
QUINN