Oprah Is A Hit In Saudi Arabia and more

[Around The World]
Saudi women can't get enough Oprah, twelve cartoonists are fearing for their lives, and things are looking up for Bush. David Scherrey writes.
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Oprah A Hit in Saudi

More than a year after the pan-Arab satellite station MBC started broadcasting The Oprah Winfrey Show on its channel 4, it made a discovery: The show's ratings were higher than those of any other English-language show. The interest was coming from an untapped audience in the largest country in their coverage area – young Saudi Arabian women. And what these young women wanted was even more Oprah as well as other programs like it.

”We found 'Oprah' to be the biggest hit with our viewers,” says Andrew Maskall, marketing manager for MBC2 and 4, which are based in nearby Dubai. “It helped us identify a commercial gap in the market.” Almost a third of Saudi Arabia's population of twenty-six million people is women under the age of 25. MBC4's target audience is 18- to 25-year-olds.

When it discovered the popularity of Oprah, MBC also learned that a group of women commonly perceived as sheltered and conservative was actually identifying with the same issues as women around the world. So along with putting Oprah at the heart of its new programming for MBC4 – the show now airs twice a day, five days a week – MBC decided to rebrand MBC4 to specifically target young Saudi women. “We realized that they're our core audience,” says Mr. Maskall.

In Saudi Arabia, satellite television is officially banned, but the law is widely ignored and more than nine out of 10 households receive satellite TV. Still, Maha Akeel, a Saudi journalist, says the critique against Western programs, especially Oprah, is constant. “Weekly there are critics who say they are a cultural invasion and inappropriate to society, but the shows reach Saudi homes via satellite, so there's really nothing they nor the government can do.”

In any case, Ms. Akeel says, the criticism has done nothing to diminish Oprah's appeal to young Saudi women. “So often conversations among young women start with 'Did you see "Oprah" last night?' She addresses the issues that Saudi media don't, the issues that are on these women's minds.”

MBC4's efforts to win over young Saudi women are part of a growing trend in the region. A recent report by the TNS Female Research Center in Saudi Arabia encouraged marketers to target Saudi women, reporting that their stereotype of being timid and oppressed is outdated.

“Women are increasingly seeking ways to express themselves and their individuality,” says Hana Balaa, the director of the center. She says a major driver of this new adventurousness is the availability of satellite TV channels. Saudi women are also looking at their neighbors, like Dubai, or Kuwait, where women recently got the right to vote.”

Cartoonists Gone into Hiding

Twelve Danish cartoonists whose pictures sparked a massive outcry have gone into hiding under round-the-clock protection, fearing for their lives, according to Times Online.

Last September, Danish author Kåre Bluitgen was set to publish a book on the Muslim prophet Muhammad, but couldn’t find an illustrator. Artistic representations of the human form are forbidden in Islam – so three artists turned down Bluitgen’s offer to illustrate the book, fearing they would pay with their lives for doing so. The largest newspaper in Denmark, Jyllands-Posten, in turn asked for depictions of Muhammad and received 12 cartoons of the Prophet – several playing on the violence committed by Muslims in the name of Islam today.

A spokesman for the cartoonists said: “They are in hiding around Denmark. Some of them are really, really scared.”

Mogens Blicher Bjerregaard, president of the Danish Union of Journalists, told The Times: “They are keeping a very low profile. They are very concerned about their safety. They feel a big responsibility on their shoulders. It’s blown up so big. It is tough for them.”

The cartoonists come from a variety of different political backgrounds, which is reflected in their work. While some of the pictures satirize Muhammad, others attack populist right-wing politicians and even Jyllands-Posten itself, which is rightwing.

Having failed to stop the cartoons being reprinted across Europe, the cartoonists have now decided to use all the money raised from the sales of the pictures to set up a foundation which will award an annual international prize for press freedom.

I believe the Dutch summed it up after the recent brutal murder of Vincent Van Gogh’s relative in Holland by one of these misled fanatical nuts. “We are tired of being tolerant to intolerant people.”
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