Beautiful Najran

Finally I am catching up again with my German co-travellers in Najran. Najran is a city 30km north of the Yemeni border. Sometimes you can hear the rocket thunder, but apparently, no rocket has hit for a very long time. That's good to know!!
As my friends had left I drove to the undeveloped outskirts of the park we were staying in as I thought I would go undetected by police. However not soon after I got there a police car stopped and he tried to send me away “as it was too dangerous, I could be hit by a rocket”. After a few discussions, he asked me if I was Muslim. No, it told him, and to make things easier, I was Christian. His response still puzzles me to this day: he said, that if this was the case, I could remain here in the park. I am still pondering if he meant, my Christian beliefs would protect me from the rockets, or if it not mattered if a Christian more or less crawled this earth… I will never know.
Visiting or trying to visit the castles, most of them were closed for renovation, and the archaeological excavation grounds of Najran.
Hamed, my Jazan friend and his brothers took me for a walk through the old city and to their farm with houses built in the traditional style and stables with horses and camels. Their father is the Sheikh of their tribe.
Saudi Arabia is a tribal society and each tribe has their own Sheikh. A Sheikh is not a position you inherit, like a prince, or king, but it’s a position of merit. A Sheikh has to have memorized the Koran, as the Koran outlines the laws and rules to be applied. There is no set remuneration for the advice, you pay what you can afford, or deem appropriate for the advice. When there are conflicts within a tribe, property disputes, marriage problems etc you can involve the Sheikh and he will try to find a solution.
This weekend, as on any other weekend the family gathers at his family’s property. At least 40 women and I don’t know how many children in the women’s area, and I am unsure how many men were in the men’s Majilis, the sitting room. Only family members. Many of the women attending spoke English very well, and the conversations gave me invaluable insight into the lives of Saudi women.
On my trip to Najran, my bodyguards had caught up with me again. Now they were informed of my prolonged stay at the Sheikhs house, and after they rejected the invitation into my host's home, they went to have dinner with their families. At around 11pm they sent a messenger to the female Majilis and requested to see me to make sure I hadn’t eloped. As adult male family members cannot simply march in for any purpose, children are being sent to deliver messages between the male and female areas. After me waiting outside for some time, in the cold, for my bodyguard to arrive Hamed suggested for the ease of purpose that I wait in the male Majilis for another call. This gave me the unexpected pleasure to enter the male sanctuary at this time of day, which is an honour usually not bestowed onto a woman not being a member of the family. But, as everyone was interested to hear my story and ask a myriad of questions, this was a good enough excuse to make an exception.Läs mer