Literature
Some Saudi novelists have had their books published in Aden, Yemen, because of censorship in Saudi Arabia. Despite signs of increasing openness, Saudi novelists and artists in film, theatre, and the visual arts face greater restrictions on their freedom of expression than in the West. Contemporary Saudi novelists include:
- Abdul Rahman Munif
- Turki al-Hamad (subject of a fatwā and death threats)
- Raja'a Alem
- Rajaa Al Sanie, author of best-selling novel Girls of Riyadh
Sports
Football is the national sport in Saudi Arabia. In recent years, some Saudi players currently play in Europe. The Saudi Arabian national football team is governed by the Saudi Arabia Football Federation (SFF). The national team competed in the FIFA World Cup four times, and the AFC Asian Cup 12 times. Some sports are prohibited in Saudi Arabia. That includes sports that involve killing.
Basketball is also popular. The Saudi Arabian national basketball team won the bronze medal at the 1999 Asian Championship.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of Saudi Arabia
Famous quotes containing the word literature:
“In talking with scholars, I observe that they lost on ruder companions those years of boyhood which alone could give imaginative literature a religious and infinite quality in their esteem.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The Irishman in English literature may be said to have been born with an apology in his mouth.”
—James Connolly (1870–1916)
“Woe to that nation whose literature is cut short by the intrusion of force. This is not merely interference with freedom of the press but the sealing up of a nation’s heart, the excision of its memory.”
—Alexander Solzhenitsyn (b. 1918)