I have a distinct memory of reading , some years ago on the interweb, an account of an incident involving the teenage daughter of the American ambassador to Saudi Arabia. … I am hoping that my recollection is not of some fictional story.
Apparently she was out shopping with her mother in Jeddah (or Riyadh, I can’t remember which) and a couple of members of the Saudi religious police started beating her lower legs with their canes, because she was wearing a skirt which didn’t totally cover her legs down to her ankles.
The assailants were immediately overpowered by the Secret Service bodyguards who were accompanying the girl and her mother, and were forced to the ground at gunpoint. My recollection is that the Saudi policemen were subsequently disciplined for their ill-judged assault on the girl.
Thing is, I have been unable to find any reference to this incident by Googling … does anybody else remember reading about this at the time, or can supply a link ? TIA
Sounds fictional to me. Not that the beating would have happened, but that the religious police would have been given “discipline” for doing what is their job. I’d think praise for the religious police and threats of imprisonment or expulsion for the ambassadors more likely. (If it did happen, it didn’t make this Wikipedia list.)
Such an incident would be a HUGE incident. Battery on Americans who are protected by diplomatic immunity from arrest by local police, culminating in a confrontation in which the local police were having their lives at grave risk, is like stop the presses, page one news with immediate cable news coverage of the crisis in US-Saudi relations.
Can’t find any story about this on Google? Well, there’s your answer right there. About two years ago, the US expulsion of an Indian diplomat for employing household help at wages well below minimum wage was a major news story for a week. Is it really plausible to cover up a violent assault on a US ambassador’s daughter by religious zealots of the Muslim persuasion?
The Secret Service doesn’t guard US diplomats overseas or their families. That’s the job of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, part of the State Department. And I don’t think they have guards following family members around in foreign countries normally.
My thought too - especially Saudi Arabia is generally very safe.
Plus, I assume there’s a directive from the embassy to politely obey the local customs; at least full skirt and cover the head, even if the full face mask is not recommended. Going out dressed like it’s the USA is a deliberate provocation as likely to start a disturbance as it is to attract the police. Not to mention, even the Saudi God Patrols can’t be so stupid as to not realize “there’s more to this story” and not apply Saudi summary justice on a foreigner when they see a (young) western woman inappropriately dressed. More likely they would have hauled then down to the station to sort things out there.
Anecdote:
During the aftermath of Desert Storm, we had a lot of service personnel in Saudi Arabia. A shipmate reported seeing a bus driver in Riyadh (spelling?) harrass and paw a female US soldier in uniform. There was a pair of religious plolice on the bus, and they arrested the driver on the spot, and hauled him away somewhere. The bus sat for over an hour before a replacement driver showed up. Fate of the offending driver was unknown.
Anecdotally, at lesat, it appears that the Religious Police were keenly aware of the problematic nature of offending a major military power. That might potentially have been affected by temporal proximity to the recent war.
Well, there’s a big difference between after the fact he-said-she-said accusations, which these countries seem to decide to the detriment of the woman’s claim - vs. some moron violating behavioral rules/laws in plain view of the public.
As I recall, when a western, unmarried couple in Abu Dhabi (a lot more lax rules) were caught going at it on the beach one night, both the woman and the man ended up doing time in jail. Being a man doesn’t put the person automatically in the right and immune from punishment.
Concur that the rules in Abu Dhabi were much more relaxed - I rather liked the place. But yes, “More Relaxed” =! “Lax.” Damn-fool stunt to pull, what they were doing. Many things would be ignored, if kept private. Rub folks’ face in it, they will take offense. With consequences.
So long as you excercise a modicum of common sense, Bahrain or UAE are fine places to visit. Depends on whether or not you can see yourself contributing to the economies of nations with a rather different view of human rights than the rest of the West.
Just got back a few months ago from a trip to Dubai, with a day trip to Abu Dhabi to see the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque.
They are pretty lax. There were (western) women in tops with string shoulder straps, and nobody cared; there were plenty of non-white women (Locals? Guest workers?) wearing western outfits, or with just a head covering (burqa). Guys were dressed in pretty much anything western.
They prefer “no public displays of affection” but I suspect that meant you’d get a warning from friendly to stern, depending on the degree of “affection” and the setting. The Grand Mosque, for example, did not even want groups men posing arm over each others should or obviously touching for photos inside the enclose prayer hall. It’s all about restraint. They know damn well that turning the place into a bull run for any God Police would basically destroy the atmosphere that makes it the playground of the rich and business hub of the Middle East…
Funny thing is, outside our hotel one night near the Emirates Mall I saw these color photo business cards advertising massage and escort services tucked into the windows of the cars parked along the street - almost like I was back in London.
So as we told our friends and neighbors who asked if we felt safe going there - “Why not?”
If you have the opportunity (and money!) you should go there and experience something different.