Athneyneyat of the Saudi towns

It may not be so easy to understand the movement of Saudi society unless you have a marvelous network of relationships. On the other hand, you may not have a certain impression about the cultural, political or literary activities of this society unless you visit one of evenings known locally as “Athneyneyat,” or Monday evenings.At the same time one can assume or claim that such evenings are similar or identical, so you need to attend as many as you can of them to gather enough data before making a final judgment on the intellectual and cultural trends of this society. Due to the fact that Athneyneyat usually starts from the beginning of the week to the weekend, most of these evening or morning gatherings have become a phenomenon that should be analyzed and understood to answer some good questions raised about them, and the freedom available for participants. Such symposiums were in fact transferred from specialized literary and cultural dialogue to more open platforms for dealing with national, regional and global developments. Some of them focus on community and family affairs besides other important literary, cultural, Shariah, social and applicable sciences along with some political and economic topics.This dialogue and discussion deals mainly with the Saudi community reaction and interaction with various related events. Athneyneyat started in the early times before the age of the modern media and domination of new social communication networks like Twitter and Facebook that have broken privacy and ended the era of information censorship around the world.Comparing the Saudi experience with those of neighboring Arab Gulf states, some distinguished characteristics could be identified clearly. The Saudi Athnyneyat are usually organized and sponsored by some well-known and capable dignitaries at suitable locations and continue without interruption except for official holidays. Moreover, the Saudi evenings have started as cultural and literary symposiums and later on upgraded to cover other topics. Sponsors at first confine attendance to special guests, recording what has been done then publishing items in a book or periodicals then honoring the guests. Athnyneyat Abdulmaqsood Khoja in Jeddah and Khameesat (Thursday) were seen as the most magnificent events of their kind. These cultural and literature salons reached a peak during the 1980s, the era that witnessed a remarkable education revolution nationwide, a spread of higher education institutes, increasing number of scholarships, and the return of thousands of Saudi students from regional and overseas universities and higher education institutes. That era was also characterized with cultural and ideological conflicts and international political polarization trends. At first, the Saudi salons were known to confine exclusively to the Saudi way of living, reflecting their cultural and literary activities. As time passed on, some changes were introduced as the result of the surrounding developments to cover more Arab and Gulf topics. To reflect the new developments, many Arab, Islamic, Western and Asian intellectuals, scholars and ideologists were invited as well as some Saudi-based senior foreign diplomats. Despite the fact that such salons are literary, many participants have debated other issues like religious awareness, bureaucracy and administrative corruption along with the most dominating political and economic developments like the Iran-Iraq war, Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and Iranian interference in Gulf national security.Other items of discussion include education and university issues, women's freedom, municipal elections, the Yemeni national war, Iran’s support of the Hothtyeen sector in Yemen and what is known as the Arab Spring uprising. Such movement has come amid the existence of a number of conflicting ideological schools such as Salafeya, nationalist and liberal, and each one has its own platform for dealing with certain issues. Despite the sometimes sharp and aggressive discussions, no significant clashes were reported as the result of different opinions. Most often participants manage to find a common ground and a way out of unnecessary disputes and conflicting ideas. They draw a line that may never be crossed while the official circles carefully monitor what goes on. For all the above-mentioned facts, no foreign observer whatever his culture could come up with a real or detailed vision on the activity of Saudi society unless he attends one of the regular weekly evenings.Most times and during the day, you may see the Saudi individual a little bit serious, distracted, maybe indifferent on political or cultural matters.You may get the impression that the Saudi individual is only preoccupied with financial or personal issues like how to own a house and get a nice car, how to spend leisure time, vacation and other desires. All these matters may be true due to the ever-changing demands of life, but when the evening comes, all these hopes may be set aside and everyone gets ready for fruitful dialogue and debates. The style of life in cities always gives foreigners, specially diplomatic corps, the impression that residents are lacking in a spiritual life, and lack cultural and intellectual knowledge. Some external observers who conduct surveys about certain issues also get the same impression and believe that the capital city of Riyadh in particular is only a place of business and work. When the night comes, you might find a totally different city, more hospitable and more open for discussion and dialogue on a variety of topics.Throughout the Kingdom, there are so money similar symposiums in the evenings or day on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, ranging from Athneyneyat Abdulmaqsood Khoja in Jeddah, to Thlothyat BaMahsoon in Riyadh, Athneyenat Al-Hozaimi at Al-Rawdha, Robeyyat Al-Sedairi and Athneyneyat Al-Qasabi in Riyadh as well as other Saudi cities.