page_title: Riyadh International Book Fair
section_title: Political context
hierarchical_section_title: Riyadh International Book Fair / Political context
caption_attribution_description: هيئة الأمر بالمعروف والنهي عن المنكر السعودية Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice
context_page_description: The Riyadh International Book Fair is an annual book fair in Saudi Arabia. It lasts 11 days and regularly attracts over a half million visitors. The fair is used to showcase Saudi government policy, and it has been a locus of political power struggles with the government. Hundreds of publishers sell pre-approved books, and some black-market books. Writers take part in literary events. Invited speakers and the public discuss intellectual and social issues. Disagreements sometimes go beyond the bounds of debate, with speakers being shouted down and surrounded by protestors, and arrests of speakers and protestors; physical assaults are rare but not unknown.
  The fair is a focus for political conflict in Saudi Arabia, though some local media sources deny there is political debate. The fair is organized by the Ministry of Culture and Information, and has been regulated by the religious police; the two have clashed at the fair, and religious police have been limited to more advisory roles. Some Saudi clerics issued a fatwa criticizing the book fair during the 2012 fair. Journalist Jamal Khashoggi said of the intellectual climate: "It's like McCarthyism in the 1950s".
context_section_description: The Riyadh bookfair is a focus of political conflict: its events are easier to understand in their political context. Power in Saudi Arabia is held by the monarch (as of 2020, effectively the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman), but traditionally also by the royal family, religious clerics, and the overlapping security services and business community, who have traditionally been allied. These alliances are not holding as they once did, because the monarchy is centralizing power and weakening other power bases.
  The general public and the media (including newspapers and book publishers) hold little formal power, but their potential power has been a matter of official concern. Since the 1920s, the monarchy had repeatedly promised democratic reforms and constitutional monarchy; however, in the 2010s, it affirmed absolute monarchy.
caption: A member of the religious police (right) speaking with member of the public in 2006. Religious police at the fair have worn plainclothes, including the bisht and unbound ghotra shown here.[31] The bisht is associated with power and religious position.[32]
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