Skip to main content

The epilogue of the Khashoggi case


Dear Saudi friends,

I haven’t slept properly for a week, I must have lost weight too.

This last week has been one of the most challenging week in my life. I had observed your Crown prince for 2 years and I just couldn’t accept what people said, that he was an assassin. I thought this man was nothing but pure light and here was everyone saying that he was the prince of darkness.

I personally wondered how I could ever recover from being so wrong about someone I had spent so much time observing. People say that power spoils those who have it. I couldn’t believe it. I don’t think I ever had to face such a strong moral dilemma.

Now the truth has come out.

I am hungry again.

In my personal case, what tipped the scales was this article a French journalist I had always respected published the day before yesterday. Apparently she just published a book about the Crown Prince after leading an investigation. And she said she thought the Crown Prince was behind Jamal Khashoggi's death.

See, she is a very respected journalist, not someone who would put her reputation on the line to sell a book. Her career spans over 40 years, she is the life partner of former French doctor, former foreign affairs minister Bernard Kouchner. Among the respected journalists of France, she is one of the most respected ones. You would really think that woman had access to accurate information. But she didn’t. 

There is a part she missed, the part where people are left with standing orders and trusted to carry them out using their common sense and their values as Muslims. The people who killed Jamal Khashoggi have betrayed not only the trust your leadership had placed in them, but the founding principles of Islam. That is perhaps what saddens me most.

And your Crown Prince is a misunderstood man.

We are guilty of not understanding him and of not understanding you. But let me tell you, you are not making it easy on us.

Saudi Arabia needs a spokesperson (and not only Ali Shihabi who is doing a fanstastic job in the US), the Crown Prince needs a biography. Just for starters.

You lost the battle of communication because you didn’t enter that battle. You never do, the Crown prince has apparently turned down everyone who wanted to write an official biography about him, I never understood that, always thought he should take the time.

And now, even though your Crown Prince is innocent, the harm is done and it will take some time to recover. Some people will remain with the idea that this is nothing but a cover up.

Oh Saudi Arabia, I feel for you.

Please, please, I am begging you, please let me help you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Arab growing in me

Sometimes people ask me why in the world I am so interested in Saudi Arabia. There are multiple factors but I know that one of them relates to my own childhood.   See, I am French, but I am not a Parisian. I grew up in a small village near the German border. Only later in my life, I moved to Paris. I dressed like a Parisian, acted like a Parisian, but deep down, I remained the girl from the small village. Now after a decade in Dubai, four days in Paris are really all I can take before the negativity and the judgmental idealism crawls under my skin.  Deep down, I am a girl from that small village and something in that quite conservative childhood clicks with Saudi Arabia.   Let me start by saying I didn’t like my childhood very much. Boredom was a huge part of it. As a child, I wasn’t interested in nature very much and it seems that’s pretty much all there was.   When I was a child, we would go to church a lot. There was a mass for children on wednesday...
1 comment
Read more

About the recent surge of Islamophobia in France

As a French living in a Muslim country, I have read a lot recently about France’s islamophobia. Friends have messaged me about it ever since Macron has announced his law on religious separatism. I read calls for boycott of French products.   What has fascinated me most these last few weeks is that the Muslim world does not seem to understand where the French islmaphobia is coming from and specifically what drives the recent surge. I read ridiculous theories according to which the UAE and Saudi Arabia were responsible. Well, aren’t they always responsible for everything, according to some? I realized that while things were quite obvious to me, maybe it was indeed difficult for people who are not French to read into the recent surge of Islamophobia.   So here is my attempt to explain. First, one has to respect the fact that France has gone through not one, but a whole series of deadly terrorist attacks in the last decade, and all of them were carried out by Muslim extremis...
Post a Comment
Read more

"We don't need help"

A few months ago, last time I was in Riyadh, I had this experience. It wasn’t meant to be an experience but sometimes findings are where you don’t expect them. I was in Riyadh and I saw on the map that the ministry of investment was not too far from my hotel. I thought I should take the chance to go and drop my resume.   I remember standing there looking at this big building, gathering my courage, telling myself I can do this. Once I was inside, I told a gentleman who was just walking by what I wanted and he told me where to go. I got lost a bit, but eventually found this young man at this desk. He was chatting with another young man, but they interrupted themselves to see what I wanted. I told them I was French, living in Dubai. I told them I wanted to drop my resume in case they needed someone. He said OK but he looked unconvinced. I got a copy of my generic resume out and I started highlighting a few parts here and there, the parts that were most interesting to them. ...
Post a Comment
Read more