Saudi Arabia Entertainment & Lifestyle | New Reforms Explained

The recent Riyadh Comedy Festival accomplished two things, news reports say. It highlighted societal changes in Saudi Arabia that allowed edgy American comedians to perform in a country long dismissed as irredeemably puritanical and regressive. And it drew attention to Saudi Arabia’s human-rights shortcomings.

One commenter decried the festival as part of Saudi Arabia’s efforts to spend “billions of dollars promoting cultural and sporting events in an effort to distract from its endless human rights abuses.” Another called the event “an insidious tool to project a misleading image of the country’s incremental efforts to liberalize.”