Saudi ‘Mystique’ alive and still writing

The Saudi woman blogger ‘Mystique’ left a comment on JWN yesterday pointing out that the reason her earlier blog was down for a while was

    because I sort of lost my anonymity to only one person. & this alone made me stop blogging, here in Saudi it is very difficult to write freely so imagine if I no longer have the privilege to remain anonymous..

But she’s put her blog back up with a new URL, and if you go there you can see some of her very interesting commentary on her life and on the society in which she lives. This new blog seems to contain the archives of her old blog (which originally had a different URL) back to March 2006– perhaps complete, perhaps not.
But the new blog also, sadly, contains this “farewell” from Mystique as a blogger, posted November 20.
I think that what likely caused all this turmoil in M’s life as a blogger was this November 12 article on Saudi bloggers, in which the WaPo’s Saudi reporter Faiza Saleh Ambah described her encounter with Mystique in these terms:

    When the woman who blogs anonymously under the name Mystique finally shows up for an appointment at Starbucks on trendy Tahlia Street, she seems used to causing a stir. Heads turn when the 23-year-old walks into the coffee shop minus the mandatory head scarf worn by most Saudi women, her caramel-colored hair cascading past her shoulders. She is wearing a black cloak with a shiny copper-colored print on the sleeve, a black Prada purse slung over her shoulder.

And thus, I suspect, the woman who has successfully kept her anonymity as a blogger for several months now, was rudely “outed” by a journalist eager for a “good”, i.e. salacious, story. [Addendum, Dec. 14: Please note that below, ‘Mystique’ herself comments that, “I broke Mystique’s anonymity once I told one ex colleague of mine about my blog, and since that day I can’t write like before, I feel I am watched and being monitored by her.” Therefore my supposition that it was Faiza Ambah who had “outed” M through her description now clearly seems misplaced. Apologies to Ms. Ambah. ~HC]
In the WaPo story, Ambah makes it seem as though the first thing Mystique wants to talk about, the very moment they meet, is sex. In this very pained post that Mystique put up on her blog the next day, she wrote:

    Back in mid-Ramadan, the famous Saudi journalist Faiza Ambah contacted me and told me she wanted to write an article about Saudi bloggers. I was very excited since she is one of the first Saudi female journalists, and I couldn’t wait to meet her.
    The first meeting was cancelled since I couldn’t get a driver for that evening (of course all of you know that we women can’t drive here).
    The second meeting was amazing. We’ve talked about many things: how I’ve discovered my talent, how I started blogging, what inspires me to write, and the reasons behind me writing of “Rantings of an Arabian Woman” and “Unleash the Buried Soul I & II” [i.e., two of her earlier blog posts.]
    We discussed sexual harassments that women at work face here, a topic still untouched here in Saudi Arabia, and of course women’s life in general…
    … When I read the article I wasn’t very pleased. The Mystique portrayed there is nowhere close to who I am and Faiza had met me in person and we had many conversations. The portrayal of me was all about sex! Actually, my blog has a combination of a lot of topics. Why was the main focus only about the relatively small sensual parts? …
    I did not sit down and immediately start talking about sex or when I got in touch with my sexuality. We talked about a lot of things and about how young women in Saudi learn about sex.

Anyway, I’ve now gone and read a few of the posts on Mystique’s reconstructed blog. Certainly, not all of them are about sensual relations (and the sensuality in those that are is expressed only in a very indirect way.)
I found this poem, that she posted on November 16, particularly touching. It’s about a flock of beggar children in her home-town, Jeddah. Yes, beggar children in Saudi Arabia. How many other people write about that??
So anyway, in her “farewell” post there she assures us, “I won’t stop writing, I promise.” (And she quotes a couple of beautiful lines from the great palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish.)
… Just a couple of quick final notes on the Mystique story. Firstly, Mystique, I’m delighted you came to JWN and left a comment here– especially since it included the link to your reconstructed blog.
Secondly, in response to the discovery that Mystique’s original blog had been taken down after the WaPo piece came out, our sometimes overheated commenter, Vadim, wrote here about Saudi Arabia, “Does it concern you in the least that one of their female bloggers may face imprisonment, torture or death merely for expressing her thoughts online?” I later described that as a “silly exaggeration” that seemed intended only to whip up additional Islamophobia in western society.
(I also wrote, “The rights infractions that do happen in Saudi Arabia are bad enough without you propagating completely baseless scare stories like this one.”)
So anyway, I’m glad that we have, to a certain extent, cleared that one up and established that Mystique has apparently been neither imprisoned, nor tortured, nor killed as a result of her blogging..
Finally: My very best wishes to Mystique in her new writing ventures. I hope we can all enjoy the results– online, or on paper– sometime soon!
Addendum, 8:30 p.m. 11/28: Soon after I published this on my blog, Mystique’s reconstructed site also came down off Blogger. So I did a “cache” search on Google for the distinctive term she used in her URL there and got successfully to the cached version of the main page of her blog. I copied the banner there and the first three or four entries into this file, so that JWN’s readers can read that small sampling of her work. (It includes the farewell post, the post about the WaPo, and the poem about child beggars.)
I am, of course, sorry that Mystique took down even the reconstruction of her blog, as that means I’m now unable to explore most of it any further. But it was very plucky and resourceful fo her to have put it back up again, even if for only a few days there. And at least it gave her the chance to say “farewell” to her readers. I for one return the hope that she fares well in her new ventures.

12 thoughts on “Saudi ‘Mystique’ alive and still writing”

  1. Unfortunately, Helena, all those links are dead. Though I certainly appreciate the effort to obtain information here. An infrequent visitor might get the impression you were uninterested in the very serious human rights abuses taking place daily in Saudi Arabia (2nd highest in executions, routine detention without counsel, coerced confessions, exploitation of migrant workers) as well as abridgements of women’s rights (such as the ghastly incident in Mecca costing the lives of 15 young girls.) It’s a pity you’d belittle legitimate (and appropriate) concerns as ‘hysterical.’ As you know, human rights observers -or even tourists- aren’t allowed into Saudi Arabia, so it’s tough to get any information in situations like this, where a bunch of blogs disappear en masse following a single newspaper article. Thanks for attempting to follow up.

  2. Vadim, the links worked shortly before I published the post. They do not, now. So I did a “cache” search on Google for the distinctive term she used in her URL there and got successfully to the cached version of the main page of her blog. I copied the banner there and the first three or four entries into this file, so that JWN’s readers can understand that small sampling of her work. (It includes the farewell post, the post about the WaPo, and the poem about child beggars.)
    I wonder, though, why you are changing the terms of your argument at this point? Your original argument when you commented about Mystique’s fate was to raise the possibility that she might face imprisonment, torture or death merely for expressing her thoughts online. I was pointing out to you that such fears were exaggerations. Now that I have demonstrated this to you, though, you shift the basis of your argument in classic propgandist style to the insinuation that I’m uninterested in the very serious human rights abuses taking place daily in Saudi Arabia. Of course I am not, as my text in the main post should indicate.
    Wouldn’t it be nice, though, if you could join the rest of us in addressing Mystique as a fellow human being, for whom you might express joy, relief, good wishes, or something human and compassionate, rather than treating her just as the subject of an argument in whom– now that she no longer makes your “case” for you– you now have no further interest.
    I am, of course, sorry that Mystique took down even the reconstruction of her blog, as that means I’m now unable to explore most of it any further. But it was very plucky and resourceful fo her to have put it back up again, even if for only a few days there. And at least it gave her the chance to say “farewell” to her readers. I for one return the hope that she fares well in her new ventures.

  3. Now that I have demonstrated this to you
    With all due respect Helena, you haven’t demonstrated anything. “Pluck” notwithstanding (could you be more patronizing?), mystique is clearly still in hiding to avoid punishment. My amnesty link describes SA’s wide range of capital offences…[its] secret and summary criminal judicial processes…[especially]disadvantageous to foreign workers and women. in great detail. And the BBC report detailing the Saudi authorities killing of 15 schoolchildren in order to preserve their feminine modesty sets another terrible precedent. As with dozens of similar reports from those bastions of Islamophobia, HRW and Amnesty International.
    The fact that Mystique’s blog is now available only in cached form (talk about a prop!) on your own blog is a sorry commentary on Saudi concepts of freedom of speech and women’s rights, and the unserious way they’re treated by Western observers. I feel no relief to see an innocent woman forced into hiding over what she’s written, nor should you or anyone else. As a Western woman who writes professionally for a Saudi-owned newspaper, you’re in a better position than most to comment seriously on the issues involved.
    you now have no further interest.
    I have plenty of interest in issues of free speech and women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, and in mystique’s case in particular. I’m looking forward to many more posts on this subject. It will nicely complement the many thousands addressing human rights in other parts of the middle east. My sincere thanks again for following up here, even in pursuit of a rather silly vendetta.

  4. “It will nicely complement the many thousands addressing human rights in other parts of the middle east.
    Although Saudis human records badly but if you interested in ME and Human rights what about your collection of human rights of Israelis in regards to the Palestinians women , children “kids” and prisoners…. Vadim?

  5. Poor Vadim! What a terrible disappointment it must be for him to discover that not only was Mystique not arrested, tortured, or killed, her blog was not even taken down against her will. She took her blog down herself by her own decision and with her own hand!
    What a crime that Mystique was betrayed by a journalist – and a fellow pioneer female writer at that! What a terrible shame that she had to feel compelled to deprive herself of the opportunity to communicate to the world through her blog, and to deprive readers of the insights she provided. Hopefully she WILL find a way to continue to communicate through her writing and, one day, other means. And hopefully before too much longer her country will rid itself of its backward and corrupt ruling family and obtain leaders that will bring it into the 21st century.

  6. PS I find myself wondering whether there is someone in the Saud family who is equivalent to Oman’s Sultan Qaboos and who will somehow manage to take over (preferably bloodlessly as Qaboos is reputed to have done) and provide wise leadership and vision for the country as Qaboos clearly has done and is doing.
    It is good to know that there is – as far as I can tell – one Arab country that actually has a good leader who is (justifiably) virtually universally loved by the people. I have so far found it impossible to discover a single significant negative thing about Sultan Qaboos’ leadership of his country – not that there cannot be such a thing, but that it its difficult to find seems very telling. It is also interesting to note that Oman is not a democracy but an absolute monarchy, and that this wise and good visionary leader is not the result of a democracy – or “democracy” forcefully imposed by an outside power.

  7. what about your collection of human rights of Israelis
    Helena seems to have that base covered. My remark addressed the relative lack of concern paid to human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia — seven posts in 3 1/2 years of blogging, exactly none of them addressing human rights (6 of them falsely predict an implosion of the post-Fahd government.)
    “Hopefully” (love that wistful agentless adverb) some benevolent agency “will somehow manage to take over.” Clap louder, and tinkerbell lives. Mystique can rest easy knowing the human rights community is caching her website and wishing her nice things.

  8. Helena,
    Thank you very much for dedicating an entire post for Mystique.
    There is a big problem with my links, apparently search engines are fighting to get hold of my URL, I changed my old URL earlier by mistake, and in the matter of seconds the search engine took it!
    I’ve contacted Blogger.com, and I got my old URL back, which is:
    http://mystiquesa.blogspot.com
    Although it is not working on my own computer, I hope it works on yours!
    Thankfully I did not face any problems with authorities or people trying to track me down, but the main reason that I quit blogging is that I broke Mystique’s anonymity once I told one ex colleague of mine about my blog, and since that day I can’t write like before, I feel I am watched and being monitored by her. (I did that in a VERY foolish moment of mine)
    Whenever I try to write something, I feel her staring at me, I see her face, I think about what she’ll say to other people we both know, and if she will start to spread my blog around to some malicious Saudi judgmental Women.
    When I realized that this was happening, I wanted Mystique to leave at the top & at her best. I’ve never wanted this to happen at all, but this incident really crippled my thoughts.
    I did not stop blogging, I’m simply blogging under a different Nom du Web, I write for pleasure, writing to me is a journey that I enjoy mentally, emotionally and spiritually, and I hope one day that people would read my writings of papers and not of the screen.
    To some people, I might have been a misrepresentation, an infamous Saudi Female Blogger, or maybe another Erotica Writer. I personally knew that this would be their opinion regarding what I write, To myself and to many readers I’ve made a statement that ” Not all Women are voiceless, I have been a voice among the voiceless” , and as I always say I represent myself I represent all women..
    I’ve wrote about how women in my country felt, how they have been treated, their fears, and their lives; straightforward with no fabrication of the bitter reality, I wrote about love, religion and my thoughts, I wrote fiction, non fiction, I’ve wrote as much as I could in a very short period of time.
    I really hope that my old URL works fine, because there you’ll find all my writings organized with the prequels and links..
    Best Regards

  9. Helena,
    Thank you very much for dedicating an entire post for Mystique.
    There is a big problem with my links, apparently search engines are fighting to get hold of my URL, I changed my old URL earlier by mistake, and in the matter of seconds the search engine took it!
    I’ve contacted Blogger.com, and I got my old URL back, which is:
    http://mystiquesa.blogspot.com
    Although it is not working on my own computer, I hope it works on yours!
    Thankfully I did not face any problems with authorities or people trying to track me down, but the main reason that I quit blogging is that I broke Mystique’s anonymity once I told one ex colleague of mine about my blog, and since that day I can’t write like before, I feel I am watched and being monitored by her. (I did that in a VERY foolish moment of mine)
    Whenever I try to write something, I feel her staring at me, I see her face, I think about what she’ll say to other people we both know, and if she will start to spread my blog around to some malicious Saudi judgmental Women.
    When I realized that this was happening, I wanted Mystique to leave at the top & at her best. I’ve never wanted this to happen at all, but this incident really crippled my thoughts.
    I did not stop blogging, I’m simply blogging under a different Nom du Web, I write for pleasure, writing to me is a journey that I enjoy mentally, emotionally and spiritually, and I hope one day that people would read my writings of papers and not of the screen.
    To some people, I might have been a misrepresentation, an infamous Saudi Female Blogger, or maybe another Erotica Writer. I personally knew that this would be their opinion regarding what I write, To myself and to many readers I’ve made a statement that ” Not all Women are voiceless, I have been a voice among the voiceless” , and as I always say I represent myself I represent all women..
    I’ve wrote about how women in my country felt, how they have been treated, their fears, and their lives; straightforward with no fabrication of the bitter reality, I wrote about love, religion and my thoughts, I wrote fiction, non fiction, I’ve wrote as much as I could in a very short period of time.
    I really hope that my old URL works fine, because there you’ll find all my writings organized with the prequels and links..
    Best Regards

  10. Great to hear that you’re fine and back to blogging Mystique. We all hope that someday you’ll be able to write under your own name without concern. I for one look forward to reading more of your work.

  11. vadim
    write under your own name without concern.
    vadim, I wonder you then you come and question her authenticity like what you did with Iraqi Riverband….

Comments are closed.