Clarence Rodriguez

About Clarence Rodriguez

Clarence Rodriguez is a journalist-correspondent in Riyadh. She is the only French journalist with permanent accreditation in Saudi Arabia. She has worked as a journalist for TF1, France 2, and France 3 and currently works for Radio France, RFI, Le Parisien, France TV, and BFM TV among many others. She trained at the Bordeaux-Aquitaine Institute of Journalism.

Since 2005, Clarence Rodriguez has been monitoring and analyzing news: political, economic, and social in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries for BFM TV, the JDD, France Info, France Inter, France Culture, France TV, TV5Monde, Radio Canada, Radio Suisse Romande as well as the previously mentioned media outlets.

In recent years, Clarence Rodriguez has had to learn to manage the constraints and prohibitions imposed on her, as a Western journalist, as well as on all Saudi women. Her profession has allowed her to connect with women from all walks of life and become a privileged witness to their frustrations, desires, and struggles. She was arrested by the religious police at the end of September 2011 while interviewing a Saudi activist behind the wheel of a car for a TV report. A painful and indelible episode detailed in her book “Révolution sous le voile” Editions First. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women (both Saudi and Western) are not allowed to drive.

Indeed, Clarence Rodriguez has just published a new book titled: “Révolution sous le voile” released in February 2014 by Editions First. In this book, the journalist provides an exceptional and striking document on the courageous resistance and struggle of Saudi women who today seek not only to assert their existence (not yet recognized in the constitution) but also to obtain rights. The right to work, pursue education, receive medical care, drive a car: live freely without guardianship. In a closed country, isolated and with extreme religious rigor, the fight of these women is extraordinary. They testify under the veil but with uncovered words in this book by confiding in Clarence Rodriguez. These women who refuse the established order are making changes within their country. Seen from France, where preconceived ideas are prevalent, one might think that nothing changes in Saudi Arabia, a religious and conservative society par excellence. For the very first time, Saudi women testify about their struggles, demands, victories, and also their failures, to women in other countries around the world. From the blogger banned from blogging to the photographer banned from using a camera, their determination is matched only by their great courage. Princess Adela, the current king’s own daughter, a true voice for Saudi women to the sovereign, has agreed to speak.

Clarence Rodriguez is currently preparing a 52-minute TV documentary “the perspective of Saudi women on their society”