Ar Riyāḑ

My big dream before commencing my trip into Saudi Arabia was to experience some family life. One hears or reads so much about this country and particularly the hidden life of the Saudi Woman however how much of it compares to reality?
So often during my trip I have experienced that what we learn from the media about a country is more about the politics and the fall out to the normal people than real life experiences. At the end we don’t really know much about the day to day lives people are living. Let’s take Iran: peoples’ perception of this country is one of mullahs, terrorists, fully veiled and locked away women, however the society I experienced showed me an incredible friendly, hospitable, very open minded, well educated and cultured people.
Now I am so curious to experience the life in the KSA, particularly the life of women.
This opportunity presents itself on my way to the historical town of Shaqra. After being overtaken and me overtaking a family car a few times, waving at each other, they hail me down in Shaqra and invite me to their home.
And what a lovely family it was: parents with 3 of their 6 “children”, daughter and son at university and the other daughter with 14or 15 still at school. Very generously they invited me including Rex into their home, offering some refreshments and then taking me to a sightseeing trip to the historical town of Ushaiqer and then later to Shaqra, before turning back home where the rest of the family has arrived to spend the weekend together.
This is the weekend home of the extended family, and this weekend most of them are coming here from Riyadh. I am not quite sure how many people they were, I would guess around 30-40? And nearly everybody spoke English exceptionally well, even the elderly or the young children. So I was able to find out a lot about their lives and culture.
This was a for our perception, but I don’t know if of Saudi as well, very closely knit family. The women of this family I talked to were university educated, working as dentist, lawyer or still studying, far from the suppressed women we westerners expect.
Their clothing in public ranged from full Hijab to open hair, so there seemed to be no pressure of the family what to wear. What to wear appeared to be every woman’s decision depending on preference or religious interpretation and probably as well comfort level in the public eye.
Everybody, women or men alike seemed to be very happy and in agreeance with the developments and social changes initiated by the crown prince since the beginning of his reign a few years ago. The women don’t need to wear hijab, they don’t need the permission of the head of the family to move in society, they are permitted to drive, cinemas have opened. But the society overall will not be able to change in their attitudes to women over night, particularly in the countryside and in some of the more conservative cities. Women will need to patiently wait and continue to fight for their full rights and acceptance in the society.
I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to experience family life the Saudi way. Of course this is only one facete, but I am sure I will have some more opportunities to experience Saudi day to day life.
The next day, after saying good bye to my lovely family I went again into Shakra to have a look at the sights during day light, when a man asked after my wellbeing and took me on a tour through the historical part of Shakra. He turned out to be the Mayor of the town.Read more