With the recent outrage in many Muslim countries over an obscure YouTube video that has prompted condemnation, it’s important to look at the incident in a wider perspective. What many people don't remember is that before the controversy over the video, before the uproar over Danish cartoons and before Ayatollah Khomeini's fatwa on Salman Rushdie, there was controversy over a docudrama that threatened to have serious ramifications between the West and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
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In 1980 the British Television channel ATV and the American television network PBS broadcast a controversial docudrama called 'Death of a Princess' which told the true story of a Saudi princess named Misha'al bint Fahd al Saud who had been executed for adultery along with her 20-year-old lover Khaled Mulhallal al Sha'er. She had allegedly committed adultery by becoming romantically involved him, a serious no-no in Saudi society for the simple fact that they were unmarried. She tried to escape from the country disguised as a man but was caught along with Khaled at the Jeddah Airport and promptly returned to her family.
Under Saudi law, to be disappointed you had to produce four male witnesses to the actual act of adultery or simply have one of the accused confess three times to having committed the offense. The princess’s family begged her not to confess and simply promise not to see the young man anymore. She refused and readily admitted to the charges, as a result she was condemned to death.
At least that was the official version from the Saudi government. In reality, it’s probable that there had been no trial and she had simply been executed, on charges of adultery, for simply bringing dishonor to the family, which after all was ruling the roost in the country. Her execution had taken place in 1977 and received international coverage but soon died out. It was only after the film was broadcast that its execution and the events surrounding it received wider audiences and shocked people about the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia.
It’s also important to remember that in 1980, the Islamic world was put under a big microscope by the outside world due to events that were unfolding within its geography. The Iranian Revolution in 1979 had just overthrown the Shah of Iran and American diplomats were being held hostage in Tehran. The Grand Mosque in Mecca had been seized by militants and the Soviet Union had invaded Afghanistan.
Here in Pakistan, General Zia-ul-Haq’s ‘Islamisation’ program was under full swing and Egypt had just signed a peace treaty with Israel. With all these seismic events taking place, many countries, particularly the Western nations were taking a greater interest in the politics and culture of the Islamic world. The so-called ‘Islamic revival’ made people in the West sit-up and take a closer look at the people, who in all essence, held the keys to the petrol pumps that were generating their economies.
No Middle Eastern country back then and now, held a greater economic value to the West than Saudi Arabia. It had the world’s largest oil reserves and as the birthplace of Islam was symbolically very important as an ally in the politics of the Cold War.
Due to this ground reality, the West has normally looked the other way when it comes to the Kingdom’s abysmal human rights record, particularly when it comes to women. Having said that it is also important to note that Saudi Arabia is a very conservative society and the people there, including women, don’t take too kindly to outsiders lecturing them about democracy and human rights. The late Edward Said wrote in his book ‘Covering Islam’ that Muslim countries have always resisted the critical eyes of the West. Saudi Arabia and the criticism of its closed society is a case in point.