Marginalized Saudi youth launch virtual protests
Some Saudi youth have taken to social media to express their grievances with Saudi government policies.
Saudi Arabia today faces something more challenging than a revolution — a sporadic and frustrated youth protest thus far expressed only in the virtual world. More than half a dozen men and women in recent weeks began to post videos on YouTube in a desperate move to attract attention to their economic and political marginalization and to warn against its consequences.
The protesters have identified their tribal origins by showing their identity cards, which revealed that they belong to a variety of groups, among them the Dosaris, Harbis, Jahnis, Malikis and Shammaris. Their language projects a deeply rooted feeling of having not been incorporated as citizens with rights and responsibilities. Rather, they appeared as excluded tribal men and women on the margins of wealth and prosperity. They do not invoke a sense of belonging to the nation-state as Saudis.
These individuals are a product of rural-urban migration in search of the education and employment promised by the gleaming cities of Saudi Arabia, but also the result of disappointment and frustration among a youthful generation with high expectations. They all have one message in common: a sense of entitlement against a backdrop of injustice, impoverishment and marginalization. They cloak their demands in religious language, citing Quranic verses and reminding their audiences of the government’s responsibility to distribute wealth rather than steal it.
Their anger and frustration are directed at the country's Al Saud rulers, whom they accuse of "confiscating" wealth and land, and thereby depriving them of the benefits of living a comfortable life in one of the world's richest oil-producing countries. Their message was initially addressed to King Abdullah in a conciliatory tone of offering advice, but later clips became more threatening, after the first three young men to post clips were immediately arrested. In Saudi Arabia, making grievances public is considered incitement against the country's rulers and a call to dissent and chaos. There was an inevitable snowball effect, with each subsequent video upping the tone and level of confrontation, threatening to move the protest to the streets.
