Turkey in the mirror of Saudi Arabia's reforms!

73 years… It took exactly 73 years for a ban to be lifted in Saudi Arabia. Today, alcohol sales are permitted across the country—at exactly 600 locations. Saudi Arabia is bringing back alcohol, which had been banned since 1952, by stating it is “limited to tourist areas.” 

In our country, we have become afraid to even put arugula next to our rakı. If you share a post with rakı on social media, you get lynched. 

In many cities, buying beer after 10:00 PM feels like a crime. 

While the Saudis are liberalizing alcohol sales, we are debating what time music should stop. Dancing is banned on university campuses, festivals are canceled, and music is silenced at midnight. 

They are organizing festivals, while we ask, “Is this dance too liberal?”

Jennifer Lopez gave a concert in Riyadh. Women danced in low-cut outfits with glowing wristbands in their hands.

In our country, every summer season is the same: A festival is banned, then a concert is canceled. The reason? “Social sensitivities.” Yet, no one is actually listening to the public; by silencing music, a censorship of freedom is being implemented.

Saudi Arabia is not a paradise of freedoms. These reforms are also a major “tourism and investment showcase.” Freedom of expression and political opposition are still under pressure. But the direction is clear: They are trying to open things up. 

Women are moving rapidly on the path to emancipation. They are no longer just behind the wheel; they are in the ranks of the army, at intelligence desks, and in stadium stands. 

There is a change in the middle of the desert. 

Saudi Arabia, which once said, “Women should not drive, it is a sin,” now even recognizes women’s freedom to get into traffic accidents.

In Riyadh, a woman goes to a football match with her sister. The scarf wrapped around her neck reads: “This is our game too.”

Saudi Arabia is not a democracy. However, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s “Vision 2030” is moving like a thin but determined light that is beginning to thaw a frozen regime. They have changed their direction. As Saudi Arabia opens up,

Turkey is looking in the opposite direction. Authoritarian reflexes are strengthening, and freedoms are narrowing. Bans are increasing. In places where Turkey was once held up as an example, stories are now circulating about “once upon a time.”

Saudi Arabia was a desert yesterday, and today it is a concert hall… Why has ours become barren? 

If a woman going to a stadium in the middle of the desert is freer than a woman who cannot walk safely in the middle of Istanbul, let us ask ourselves;

Where is Turkey heading?