Negotiating the Impossible

15YIELDING

Selling Modernity in Saudi Arabia

THE YEAR WAS 1965, and King Faisal of Saudi Arabia had a problem. Still new to the throne, he was already waist-deep in his efforts to institute much-needed financial and social reforms for the country. One element of these reforms involved making available “innocent means of recreation for all citizens.” As part of this agenda, King Faisal wanted to introduce television to Saudi Arabia. The only problem was that not everyone in the kingdom believed that the television was as innocent a technology as it pretended to be. Many religious conservatives considered the TV to be the work of the devil, which, depending on the kind of zealot with whom one was discussing the issue, could refer to either pitchforks ...