Report: Saudi women look up to Oprah

DAMMAM, Saudi Arabia, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A spokesman for MBC Group, the Dubai-based network that broadcasts "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in Saudi Arabia, says many Saudi women identify with Winfrey.

The U.S. talk show has been broadcast with Arabic subtitles on the satellite channel MBC4 in the ultra-conservative country since 2004 and within months of its first airing was the highest-rated English-language program among women 25 and younger, The New York Times said.

MBC spokesman Mazen Hayek told the Times many Saudi women can relate to "this glamorous woman from very modest beginnings" because Saudi Arabia is a once-poor country that has quickly been transformed into a wealthy consumer society thanks to oil money.

A homemaker who would identify herself only as Nayla told the Times she writes to Winfrey every month.

"I feel that Oprah truly understands me," she said. "She gives me energy and hope for my life. Sometimes I think that she is the only person in the world who knows how I feel."

"Oprah dresses conservatively," Princess Reema bint Bandar al-Saud -- daughter of Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi ambassador to the United States -- told the newspaper. "She struggles with her weight. She overcame depression. She rose from poverty and from abuse. On all these levels she appeals to a Saudi woman. People really idolize her here."