Unemployed Saudi teachers stage rare Riyadh protest

10 Jan, 2011

A group of 250 unemployed Saudi university graduates staged a rare protest in the capital Riyadh, and the group's spokesman vowed on Sunday to keep up the demonstrations till the Gulf Arab state creates jobs for them.
The US ally and OPEC's biggest oil exporter is an absolute monarchy and usually does not tolerate public displays of dissent. Newspapers tend to carry the official line.
Despite its massive oil wealth Saudi Arabia is grappling with unemployment that hit 10.5 percent in 2009, the latest published figure.
"We are a group of teachers who have not found any jobs. We have staged a peaceful protest in front of the ministry of education ... We would like to protest for longer but the police keep dispersing us," Nayef al-Tamimi told Reuters.
Al-Hayat daily showed a picture of graduates protesting in front of the Ministry of Education on Saturday.
The protestors, who staged a similar protest in August, met with ministry officials to demand the creation of more jobs in government schools.

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