{"id":106296,"date":"2022-08-21T20:40:32","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T01:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/64392-2\/"},"modified":"2025-11-29T14:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T14:29:10","slug":"sociology-and-saudi-arabia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/sociology-and-saudi-arabia\/","title":{"rendered":"34 Years in Prison for Tweets?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-110134 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/riyadh-2197496_1920-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"An arial view of a Saudi Arabian city at nighttime.\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/riyadh-2197496_1920-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/riyadh-2197496_1920-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/riyadh-2197496_1920-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/riyadh-2197496_1920-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/riyadh-2197496_1920.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The power of sociology comes from the fact that it can be used or applied to any aspect of social life. Whether it is family or the media, the sociology toolkit offers options to enhance our understanding of why people act the way they do towards each other as members of <strong>dyads<\/strong>, <em>groups of two people<\/em>, <strong>triads,<\/strong> <em>groups of three members<\/em>, communities, or nation-states. Take, for instance, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/news\/world\/saudi-arabia-woman-34-years-prison-twitter-activity-rcna43472\">the case of Salma al-Sheha \u2014 a Saudi student and mother of two<\/a>. A resident of the United Kingdom, al-Sheha took a vacation to Saudi Arabia to visit family and friends. While there, she tweeted some of her views on human rights in Saudi Arabia and shared some retweets. The response of the Saudi government was to sentence her to 34 years in prison. Thirty-four years. On top of that, the Saudi government has banned her from traveling for an additional 34 years once she is released. This isn\u2019t the only incident of tweeting being punished in Saudi Arabia. In 2021, aid worker <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/saudi-appeals-court-upholds-lengthy-sentence-aid-worker-2021-10-06\/\">Abdulrahman al-Sadhan was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a 20-year travel ban<\/a> after his anonymous Twitter account was hacked. Let\u2019s consider these events from a sociological perspective.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-110133 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/pexels-lara-jameson-8828320-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"A section of a globe marked with a white flag that shows Saudi Arabia.\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/pexels-lara-jameson-8828320-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/pexels-lara-jameson-8828320-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/pexels-lara-jameson-8828320-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/pexels-lara-jameson-8828320-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/pexels-lara-jameson-8828320-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Sociology<\/strong> is <em>the scientific study of social relationships, social institutions, and societies<\/em>. All of these concepts are evident in the experience of al-Sheha, the Saudi reaction, and the global response. Broadly speaking, al-Sheha\u2019s experience is not just about the tweets. It is about her position in society as a woman, mother, and Saudi citizen living abroad. It is also about <em>the guidelines or expectations of behavior<\/em>, i.e., <strong>norms<\/strong>, that make up Saudi society. Only within the last decade has Saudi Arabia begun to relax its strict rules governing the lives of women by allowing them to do things like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2015\/12\/12\/world\/saudia-arabia-women-vote\">vote<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-middle-east-48661233\">drive<\/a>. Even with these changes, <strong>social inequality<\/strong>, <em>the unequal distribution of power, property, or prestige in a society<\/em>, still exists between the sexes, and criticizing the Saudi government \u2014 whether by a man or woman \u2014 is strictly prohibited.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-110135 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/pexels-mikechie-esparagoza-749296-1660613-210x300.jpg\" alt=\"A man sitting down examining a paper.\" width=\"210\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/pexels-mikechie-esparagoza-749296-1660613-210x300.jpg 210w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/pexels-mikechie-esparagoza-749296-1660613-716x1024.jpg 716w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/pexels-mikechie-esparagoza-749296-1660613-768x1099.jpg 768w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/pexels-mikechie-esparagoza-749296-1660613-1073x1536.jpg 1073w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/pexels-mikechie-esparagoza-749296-1660613-1431x2048.jpg 1431w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/pexels-mikechie-esparagoza-749296-1660613-scaled.jpg 1789w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 210px) 100vw, 210px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The question is, how do Saudi citizens view this event? Is it just a random incident in which an individual made a tweeting mistake? Or is it a pervasive problem associated with the Saudi government\u2019s response to people expressing their views on social media? The sociological imagination helps us understand how to approach these questions. The <strong>sociological imagination<\/strong> is defined as <em>the ability to see the details of our own lives in the context of larger social structures as opposed to merely personal choices or personal troubles. <\/em>Let\u2019s study each side of the coin. <strong>Personal troubles<\/strong> refer <em>to matters experienced at the individual level<\/em>. We can easily see that Salma al-Sheha\u2019s experience is personal. Her imprisonment impacts not only her life but also the personal lives of her husband and children. In contrast, <strong>public issues<\/strong> are <em>matters that impact society as a whole<\/em>. The Saudi government\u2019s response to al-Sheha, al-Sadhan, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.com\/2014-11-23\/ty-article\/saudi-arabia-cracks-down-on-governments-online-critics\/0000017f-eefc-d0f7-a9ff-eefd081f0000\">other social media critics<\/a> indicates a pattern of behavior on the societal level. Arguably, Saudi <strong>social institutions<\/strong>, <em>structures in society providing the framework for governing the behavior of individuals in a community or society<\/em>, work to informally and formally perpetuate the notion that criticizing the government is wrong.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-110136 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/agence-olloweb-d9ILr-dbEdg-unsplash-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"A magnifying glass held over a laptop keyboard.\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/agence-olloweb-d9ILr-dbEdg-unsplash-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/agence-olloweb-d9ILr-dbEdg-unsplash-1024x680.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/agence-olloweb-d9ILr-dbEdg-unsplash-768x510.jpg 768w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/agence-olloweb-d9ILr-dbEdg-unsplash-1536x1020.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/agence-olloweb-d9ILr-dbEdg-unsplash-2048x1360.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Even though the Saudi government may view criticism as punishable behavior, and the vast majority of citizens refrain from speaking out against the government, that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that the population agrees with the Saudi government. Nor does it mean that the members of the society see government criticism as a <strong>social problem<\/strong>, <em>the societal-caused conditions that harm segments of society<\/em>. In fact, given the extreme penalties for speaking out, many people may disagree with the government but be too afraid to voice their opinions. How could sociology address that aspect of the issue? By doing the research. By measuring the <strong>objective conditions<\/strong> or <em>the scope of the problem<\/em> and <strong>subjective concerns<\/strong>, <em>people\u2019s feelings about a problem, <\/em>sociology could be used to better understand and explain how individuals and groups interact within Saudi society.<\/p>\n<p>Sociology allows you to make sense of your experience in the world and that of those around you. As you learn and apply your sociological knowledge, you are encouraged to practice <strong>verstehen<\/strong>, an <em>empathetic approach to understanding human behavior<\/em>. In doing so, you will find that people\u2019s choices and decisions are not made in a vacuum but within the context of their lived social experience.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span class=\"s1\"><b><i>Thompson is a co-owner of\u00a0<\/i><\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/uitac.com\/\"><span class=\"s2\"><b><i>UITAC Publishing<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/a><b><i>. UITAC\u2019s mission is to provide high-quality, affordable, and socially responsible online course materials.<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"auto\">Images used in this blog:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/photos\/riyadh-saudi-arabia-city-night-2197496\/\">Riyadh, Saudi arabia, City image<\/a>&#8221; by <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/users\/apriltan18-4992516\/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=2197496\">apriltan18<\/a> is licensed on <a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/service\/license-summary\/\">Pixabay<\/a>. This image has not been altered.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/white-flag-marked-near-the-saudi-arabia-8828320\/\">White Flag Marked Near the Saudi Arabia<\/a>&#8221; by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/@lara-jameson\/\">Lara Jameson<\/a> is licensed on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/license\/\">Pexels<\/a>. This image has not been altered.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/photo\/photo-of-man-holding-paper-1660613\/\">Photo of Man Holding Paper<\/a>&#8221; by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/@mikechie-esparagoza-749296\/\">Mikechie Esparagoza<\/a> is licensed on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pexels.com\/license\/\">Pexels<\/a>. This image has not been altered.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/photos\/magnifying-glass-near-gray-laptop-computer-d9ILr-dbEdg?utm_content\/\">Photo<\/a> by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@olloweb?utm_content=creditCopyText&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=unsplash\">Agence Olloweb<\/a> is licensed on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/license\">Unsplash<\/a>. This image has not been altered.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The power of sociology comes from the fact that it can be used or applied to any aspect of social life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":110134,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[183,185,75,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environmental-sociology","category-population","category-race-and-ethnicity","category-sociological-perspective"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>34 Years in Prison for Tweets? - In The NEWS Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the sociological implications of Saudi Arabia&#039;s punishment of social media critics like Salma al-Sheha.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/sociology-and-saudi-arabia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"34 Years in Prison for Tweets? - In The NEWS Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover the sociological implications of Saudi Arabia&#039;s punishment of social media critics like Salma al-Sheha.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/sociology-and-saudi-arabia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"In The NEWS Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-08-22T01:40:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-29T14:29:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/uitac.com\/inthenewsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2022\/08\/riyadh-2197496_1920.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Angela Thompson, Ph.D\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uitacpublishing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uitacpublishing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Angela Thompson, Ph.D\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uitac.com\\\/inthenewsblog\\\/sociology-and-saudi-arabia\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uitac.com\\\/inthenewsblog\\\/sociology-and-saudi-arabia\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Angela Thompson, Ph.D\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uitac.com\\\/inthenewsblog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/57e6677d37133017c879133bcd14b7c7\"},\"headline\":\"34 Years in Prison for Tweets?\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-08-22T01:40:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-29T14:29:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uitac.com\\\/inthenewsblog\\\/sociology-and-saudi-arabia\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":842,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uitac.com\\\/inthenewsblog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uitac.com\\\/inthenewsblog\\\/sociology-and-saudi-arabia\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uitac.com\\\/inthenewsblog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/8\\\/2022\\\/08\\\/riyadh-2197496_1920.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Environmental Sociology\",\"Population\",\"Race and Ethnicity\",\"Sociological Perspective\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uitac.com\\\/inthenewsblog\\\/sociology-and-saudi-arabia\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uitac.com\\\/inthenewsblog\\\/sociology-and-saudi-arabia\\\/\",\"name\":\"34 Years in Prison for Tweets? 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