THIRD PARTY SCREENING: An Arab Spring in Saudi?

A year after the Arab Spring Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen are still coming to terms with the realities that the fall of their respective dictators created. Some other countries are still struggling and revolts are ongoing in Syria and Bahrain. But what about countries in the Middle East that have born witness to the Arab Spring but haven’t been noticeably been touched by it?

Saudi Arabia is one of the biggest most strategic countries in the region. The Al-Saud Rule has been long, deeply rooted and hardly ever challenged in the oil rich country. You can discuss women’s right to drive all you want but you do not discuss politics and you certainly don’t question the Al-Sauds in public.

However there is an air of change in Saudi Arabia as Shaimaa Khalil and the BBC Newsnight team found when they traveled to the country last March. There were calls for a ‘Day of Rage’ on March 11th 2011 on the streets of Riyadh, for people to go out and demand change, but it did not amount to much.

In this documentary Shaimaa Khalil speaks to young Saudis, opposition leaders and tribe elders and asks whether the Arab Spring could ever find it’s way to The Kingdom.