The Saudi blogosphere is in mourning after the sudden death of a young female web-diarist and author who battled for a freer media in the restrictive kingdom.

Hadeel Alhodaif died last Friday after failing to emerge from a coma she fell unexpectedly into last month, just two days after her 25th birthday.

Her death made news in Saudi dailies today, while many distraught online admirers offered prayers for her soul and condolences to her family.

“Saudis from all ages and backgrounds – liberals and conservatives alike, those who knew her closely or from a distance, and even those who did not know her at all – are mourning the bright, skinny girl with high dreams and hopes of better future for all Saudis,” Arab News, an English-language Saudi daily, said today.

The response to Ms Alhodaif’s death highlights the importance enjoyed by blogging in the Middle East, where it provides fascinating insights into closed societies.

Issues are raised that may be taboo in the conventional media, although official tolerance and debate in Saudi Arabia has grown since King Abdullah, a cautious reformer, assumed power in 2005.

It is difficult to imagine the death of a blogger in the West making national news. But leading Arab and Iranian web diarists enjoy an almost cult status. Their closest cultural counterpart in the West would perhaps be a graffiti artist, such as Banksy, or even a campaigning pop star, such as Bono.

Liberals admired Ms Alhodaif because she was a gifted, published literary writer who also promoted freedom of expression in her blog, Heaven's Steps. For them, there was a tragic sense of loss: a writer had been cut off in her early prime before she had the opportunity to produce her best work.

“There were great expectations of her,” Ebtihal Mubarak, an Arab News journalist, told The Times. Conservatives liked her because she wore the veil and her father, Mohammad, is a respected conservative academic and writer.

What made Ms Alhodaif so influential was that she blogged under her own name instead of choosing the safety of a pseudonym like most of the thousands of Saudi bloggers of both sexes.

When another celebrated blogger, Fouad Al-Farhan, was arrested in December and held for four months without charge, Ms Alhodaif was the only Saudi woman who came out publicly calling for his immediate release. She launched a “Free Fouad” website and created a forum on Facebook, the social networking website, to publicise his plight.

Mr Farhan, who also wrote under his own name and had taken advantage of the growing space for free speech under King Abdullah, was freed last month. His arrest had sent shock waves though the Kingdom’s blogging community, but also made them aware of their influence.

Ms Alhodaif, who said she loved reading and good food, fell ill last month before Ahmed al-Omran, another celebrated young Saudi blogger, was due to meet her for the first time at a blogging conference in Jeddah.

“I have special respect for her because when my blog was briefly shut down in the summer of 2006, she was one of the first to support me,” Mr Omran, who writes under the name Saudi Jeans (http://saudijeans.org), told The Times. As it was, his blog was blocked for just two days: he was told there had been a mistake.

Ms Alhodaif’s writing – she had published a collection of short stories as well as penning a play – clearly resonated with many readers. “She’s the rock my soul grabs on to in its ongoing attempts at escaping the now-ness of pain and working towards a brighter future,” one blogger wrote while Ms Alhodaif was in intensive care.

Another, beseeching her to recover, wrote: “You have to come back. You are a survivor, Hadeel. You have to see for your own eyes that there’s an entire life, people, places, futures and hopes that cannot go on without you.”

The Internet was not alone responsible for Ms Alhodaif’s high profile. She made appearances on Saudi television and al-Jazeera and gave lectures at home and in the region in which she urged women to start their own web diairies.

“I would like to educate Saudi women about the importance of blogging as an efficient medium that can greatly influence public opinion,” she told a female audience at the Riyadh Literary Club last year.

Ms Alhodaif’s wry sense of humour was to the fore last year when the Kingdom’s strict policy on segregating the sexes meant that her play, “Who Fears the Doors”, premiered before a male-only audience at King Saud University.

“I guess I have to beg the male audience to inform me how my play was produced,” she wrote.

“I hope that a day comes when I can attend a cultural function where the presence of women does not cause anyone an allergic reaction.”

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