Civil Society, Language and the Authoritarian Context: The Case of Saudi Arabia

Description

The scholarly search on civil society in Saudi Arabia is extremely rare and there is a lack of basic information. This contribution tries to fill this gap and presents a complex image of Saudi civil society under the authoritarian rule of the Saudi state. It distinguishes three forms of Saudi civil society: non-political; semi-political; and political. Each form contains different kinds of organizations,
implementing a different range of activities, while having different relations with the state. One common element among all three is the language that they use – namely the language of human rights and respecting diversity. The development of this language has been seen in the frame work of this article as a means to challenge the aim at changing the status quo.