Shahid King Bolsen shared a link.

Posted on by Shahid Bolsen

“These concerts are the 1st time Saudi Arabia has allowed men and women to dance together”

Most of what Arab governments do is for domestic reasons. The West always imagines that their approval means everything to everyone else, that the West is the centre of the Universe. But the international impact of these kinds of moves is secondary

The last part of the clip is right about the crackdown on dissidents, but the clip implies a mistaken conclusion; that the government wants to distract the West from their human rights abuses by hosting events like this. That’s not the reason, or anyway, not the primary reason.

The Saudi government is afraid of the domestic population far more than of international opinion.

On one hand, concerts like this can placate liberal Saudis, and on the other hand, these types of events will help state security identify religiously motivated critics of the government, by monitoring social media chatter


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