Not Katie, it was her producer or other co-worker. They had a segment in the women’s area of Kingdom mall and mentioned that the camera-man had been banned from going up there. They then turned the camera around and showed a blond woman in a black, sleeveless top and said she was the producer and filling-in for the usual guy. Take that job-title with a grain of salt as I didn’t pay much attention to it. I’m surprised she wasn’t seriously hassled though, and I’m wondering how many “minders” from the min of interior they had with them.
Katie wore some sort of black, long-sleeved thing. Not an abayya but it would have been fine in most places around here except for the lack of head-covering.
Amazing how different Dubai and Saudi are, isn’t it? Neighbors where one is a modern, progressive country, while the other is still in the dark ages.
All the best.
As an oh-by-the-way, we really don’t indulge in orgys/wife swapping or whatever. It’s a pretty quiet place. I believe there was a group in ARAMCO about ten years ago that got into that kind of thing but I they are all gone now. Sorry to kill a really interesting urban legend.
If it helps, a lot of people do drink heavily though. I’ve had to send two people home in the last few years for uncontrollable alcoholism.
I get it now about the sleeveless dress/women’s thing. She’d be legitimate naked in a women’s area, without men present.
Interestingly, as a professional videographer I’ve been considering trying to hunt down some lucrative freelance gigs filming Arab ladies’ weddings and parties etc. Apparently female cameramen/camerawomen (both sound weird in that context!) are far and few between.
Well, we still have excessive drunkenness if it helps! Also, I could tell tales of our weird contract where a guy ran off with someone elses wife and the peeved hubby was trying to have the illicit lovers stoned. There are VERY few women videographers around. None, AFAIK. The government even banned the import of GSM phones with the picture capability as they were being used in the women’s area at weddings. Of course, the ban started an immediate black-market in the things.
Being a pro at videography you could probably do a good business around here. Princesss types would pay some big bucks for the videos. The issue would be in getting you in and out of the country, especially without a male relative for an escort. Other venues as well, although using a view-finder through an abbaya would be a problem.
I would think that getting listed as an option at the wedding palaces would be a good start. There are some large ones in Riyadh and judging by how often they screw up traffic they are quite busy. If I can do anything for you please let me know.
Testy,
Katie wore the Abayah when she was shopping, I would have thought the producer did also, Katie said they were harrassed for not covering their hair. In my experience, if one wears the abayah it’s asking for matawah to tell you to cover your hair, bloody hypocrites.
Driving does not make an independent woman, the women in Saudi have bigger fish to fry, now they say a woman under 50 preforming the Haj needs an escort!! Everyone knows that if a woman preforms a holy journey she’s a slut if not accompanied by a man. What a bunch of crapolia.
This is not a place for heavy drinkers that I will say, the stuff will kill you.(as it did a woman in Dha. recently) No wife swapping since I’ve been here…over 10 years.
Well, sorry to hear you’re missing out on the orgies. The producer bit was around 5 seconds long and I just remember being surprised by a blond woman in a sleeveless top. As istara pointed out though, it was an all-female environment so it wasn’t really a big deal.
As far as having to cover your hair when wearing an abbaya goes, in Riyadh that’s about all a woman can wear. It’s a lot worse here than in Dhahran. We used to live there and the wife was seriously pissed when we moved to Riyadh. My wife had one tailored with a hood and when she is bothered by the mutawwa, she just flips up the hood and keeps going. Bothers the hell out of them but there’s not much they can say.
Sorry to hear about the woman in Dhahran. She must have either got some bad sid or really got into the stuff. I’ve heard some nasty tales about what bad sid will do. In Dhahran, you should be able to get real booze unless it’s changed a lot since I was there. It used to be about SR 300/litre for good ol’ Johnny black.
Well after five years in Damma and now two in Jeddah, I can say the supply of Real Stuff and “White Meat” is about zero here. Bummer.
Anywho I have decided. I am nowl ooking for a job in Latin America, a year off to really learn the language. Then, who knows, maybe back to the Kingdom.
Please take me with you. With the Red sea so close I’m surprised there aren’t tons of “recreational materials” around. Oh well, you’re probably just hanging around with too nice a class of people.
Seriously though, all the best to you.
So we should not have gotten our shorts in a knot over Pearl Harbor because it killed less than our traffic accidents? What would it take for you to get excited ? A supernova?
Testy - I was more thinking of doing videography here in the UAE, but it’s interesting to know that there could be demand in Saudi too.
Saudi expats: what would happen if I as a women getting hit by a stick with the religious police gave them a good clout back with my handbag? Anyone tried it? Just wondered what the laws on violence were and how much protection the religious police have under those laws?
IMHO, most Arabs don’t really hate us (AMERICANS), they just hate the fact that we support Israel (or for the real matter, they just hate the Jewish people).
Their hatred for the Jewish people goes back to the bible. Back to the brothers Jacob and Ishmael. The descendants of Jacob are the Jewish people. The descendants of Ishmael are the Arabs ie…Muslims.
Religion or history…yaddah yaddah yaddah…the hatred of the Jews goes all the way back to the big betrayal.
Its not about the Palestinians, its not about Jewish settlements, its not about Allah or Mohammed…its not even about religion.
Ismaels’ descendants still have an axe to grind and they won’t rest till all of the descendants of Jacob are destoryed.
eenerms- not anymore. I was born there in '83, lived there most of my life. Came out to Cali for boarding school for two years, went back to Saudi and commuted to Bahrain for last year of high school, then finally left for good a couple years ago.
My parents just retired in November after living there for over 20 years.
Eh? Was this hatred of Judaism to be found in the great Islamic Civilizations of the Middle Ages? Why are Jews and Muslims living in relative peace in Morocco?
For my money, this “Islamic hatred” is a new phenomenon, brought upon my many contemporary factors.
Didn’t speak in Arabic…not fluent in Arabic, wouldn’t speak to the hypocrites if I were. Because I wasn’t with my husband and I was sick of it that day , I told the jerk not to talk to me. He got on his cell phone probably to call the PO lice. I walked into a store and disapeared.
I love how they’re allowed cellphones despite any mention of them in the Qaran, but they won’t let women drive. I know a Saudi businesswoman who accidentally drove from one Aramco base to the other (as a woman you can drive in the Aramco bases, they’re like huge mini-cities AFAIK) - but the two bases are linked by a couple of miles of public, not private, road.
When she arrived at the other base the guards were horrified. They didn’t know how to let her back again. She had no male relative etc available. So they couldn’t drive her car, and she couldn’t go in theirs, but they couldn’t just let her drive back alone because of the laws.
In the end, when she’d finished her business they arranged for a huge police escort of cars driving in front and behind of her, flashing their lights and stuff, escorting her all the way back to the first Aramco base. Bizarre.
Also, I could tell tales of our weird contract where a guy ran off with someone elses wife and the peeved hubby was trying to have the illicit lovers stoned. There are VERY few women videographers around. None, AFAIK. The government even banned the import of GSM phones with the picture capability as they were being used in the women’s area at weddings. Of course, the ban started an immediate black-market in the things.