Opinion
The Other Side of Saudi
January 28, 2008 - 12:00amIn a previous article, I mentioned Saudi Arabia in what was perceived by some to be an unjust light. One of my best friends is Saudi Arabian, and she’s had a lot of defending and clarifying to do pretty much all her life: “So, do you like live in tents in the desert?” “Do you have oil in your house?” “Wait, you wear normal clothes under the abaya, I thought you just wore nothing?” “Do you ride a camel to school?” “Do you have, like, seven mothers?” “Do you know lots of terrorists?” To be fair, she did get most of these questions when we were in middle school. (Note: If you think any of these questions are valid, maybe you should reconsider whether Cornell is the best place for you.)
Hence, I’d like to take the opportunity now to talk a little about the side of Saudi (by the way, cool people drop the “Arabia.” They also use words like “hence”) that you don’t see, and to clarify that all people in Saudi don’t have oil fields in their back yards, although I’m sure they wish they did.
You hear a lot about Saudi Arabia on the news, especially in the wake of 9/11, and rarely is the news positive. The Al Saud-Bush relationship, women’ rights issues and most recently, the story a girl who had been gang-raped have all been at the forefront of the American media. I asked a friend what came to mind when she thought of Saudi Arabia: “Closed, oppressive and controlling,” she said, and I’m sure many of you would agree with that. I certainly had that impression of Saudi, but decided that I wanted to go there to see for myself.
My friend who was going home to attend a wedding invited me to go along with her and her family, so I jumped at the opportunity. Overall, it was a very nice and enlightening trip — I decided that I wanted to be a rebel and do as many illegal/socially taboo things in Saudi as I could. I drank beer (non-alcoholic — it actually tastes horrible), I drove (don’t ask me how) and I removed the hijab (headscarf) at a mall in Riyadh, though the “religious police” (called the mutaween) did ultimately make me wear it again.
Other than the culture shock that I felt at these restrictions to my freedom, I did have a very pleasant time and spent my days, like any suburban kid, wandering the shopping malls and having Pizza Hut for dinner. But the truth of the matter is that these restrictions are in place. What many people, both in the U.S. and across the world, do not realize is that many Saudis do not defend these oppressive taboos. Many, in fact, want change, but it is not simply a matter of changing a law.
My friend described the situation in Saudi this way: “In Saudi, there is a new generation, and they want to live normally, as defined by American standards. They want to drive, to go to the movies, to just be normal. It’s like in Saudi there are two societies: one that is the extremely religious people [who] are mostly the older generation, and the people who want Saudi to modernize, mainly the younger generation.”
In 2005, King Abdallah became the new king of Saudi Arabia after King Fahd’s death. Although he may not have a perfect human rights record (but really, who are we to criticize when our own government has secret torture-prisons hidden around the world) there is something to be said about his attempts at modernization. He is building the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, scheduled to be finished in September of 2009, which will have state-of-the art resources and a $10 billion endowment. Not bad for a university that hasn’t even been completed yet. (Cornell’s been around since 1865 and we’ve got only $4.3 billion to show for it.) The university seeks to be an enclave from the world outside, where Saudi’s “religious police” have no authority. Is this is an adequate solution to the restrictions of Saudi society? Of course not, but change in Saudi cannot come in one swift step, it has to come in stages.
Upon returning from my trip to Saudi Arabia, the U.S. customs officer looked up from squinting at my passport and stared blankly at me when I said that tourism “was the reason for my trip.” I don’t expect you to perceive Saudi as a nation with a libertarian government, because that simply is not true. It is true, however, that there are many people in Saudi who literally are just like you and me and want change in their nation.
But bringing Saudi into the 21st century is not an easy process. It is one that may not even occur in our lifetime. Nevertheless, the change has begun. This past month, the Saudi Arabian authorities lifted a ban that forbade women from staying in hotel rooms alone without a male companion. I know what you’re thinking, but for Saudi, it’s a monumental first step that will hopefully pave the way for many other needed changes. King Abdallah has said that he is willing to lift other bans, such as the one on women driving, if society would accept it.
I don’t think that those Saudi friends were upset with me because what I said about Saudi was untrue. I think that instead they were sick and tired of having to defend their home country, a country that they love very much despite its flaws. With the American media constantly focusing on the negative side of Saudi, living in the U.S. and being Saudi Arabian is not easy. I hope this column shows the other side.
Good points, but. ..
You make some valid points that are worth mentioning, but I wonder the circumstances of your trip to the other side of the world simply to attend a wedding? It sounds to me like you saw one side of Saudi Arabia: the world from the perspective of a presumably wealthy Saudi Cornell student. Saudi has a lot of profound problems and allowing women to check into hotels alone is -- quite frankly -- not much of a reform to anyone, even inside Saudi Arabia. Riyadh is extremely conservative even by Saudi standards. In more liberal Jeddah, in the eyes of many of the the wonderful Hejazi people of Saudi Arabia, and the women down in Abha who drive regularly, this reform is decorative at best.
It is impossible to get a thorough view of the Kingdom in a short trip to a tony wedding in Riyadh.
King Abdullah heads one of the most corrupt families that has ever ruled a country: as Crown Prince he pardoned the mayor of Jeddah who stole the city's money for building a sewage system -- to this day the city of nearly three million runs on septic and has no drainage, and when it rains the entire city inundated.
Qatif Girl was pardoned, which means the system found her guilty and the "king of humanity", as he is often called, pardoned her -- which implies she is guilty.
For all this talk about judicial reform, nothing of substance has happened except that a a few separate courts have been created within the same system. I've spoken to immigrant workers who have horrible sotries to tell about how the Labor Court operates.
I live in Jeddah, and just the other day I was told that 438,000 people were arrested last year trying to enter the Kingdom at the southwestern border with Yemen. This border is one a hot zone for child trafficking.
The missions of Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Indonesia are filled with thousands of abused and unpaid domestic servants. There Labor Court is heavily stacked on favor of Saudi employers. When a Saudi women recently was found having enslaved a Sri Lankan woman (her name is Anista Marie and you can Google it yourself) for 8 years. The Riaydh police, to their credit, rescued the Lankan woman, but the Saudi slave-driver wasn't even charged with a crime. The result: Anista was deported and the Lankan Embassy bragged that it had negotiated a partial repayment plan with the Saudi woman. This is obscene behavior and it deserved to be criticized and outed and slammed by the outside world, because embarrassing the Kingdom into action seems to work.
I do not believe in the unfair, racist criticisms that are charged at Saudi Arabia and Saudis.
At the same time: I cringe when I read gushing platitudes from people who spend a few days in the Kingdom under the sponsorship of some insulated, wealthy Saudi family. (The fact that you claim that you drove in Riyadh is evidence of the insular situation by which you visited the Kindgom.)
You weren't a tourist in the "Kingdom of Humanity" (whose leader last year showered Omar al-Bashir, the butcher of Sudan, with Saudi's highest humanitarian honor) you were a visitor in a bubble.
Even Saudi liberal reformers would agree with me: it is imperative that the world keep the screws turned on Saudi Arabia when it comes to certain issues, especially pertaining to the abuse of wage laborers.
PS: And none of this, by the way, excuses America invading Iraq and killing 171,000 people. I speak as a human being, not as an American citizen. Unfortunately the actions of the leaders of my own country have made it very hard for Americans to criticize. But I'm going to do it anyway, because it needs to be done to help people there.
You missed the whole point of the article..
I think it is within your right to point out these issues and there is no doubt that Saudi Arabia has many of issues stated above. However, what you seem to have missed from Ms.Choueiri's article is that people are trying to change the situation. No where in the article did she say or even imply that the new King miraculously transformed Saudi Arabia into a perfect country. every country in the world has similar issues to the ones you had just mentioned. instead of CONSTANTLY focusing on the bad qualities why not highlight some of the positive aspects of Saudi Arabia? Everyone in the world is aware of the problems it is dealing with and as a result hardly anyone can think of anything else when Saudi Arabia is brought up. That is practically the only thing that the Media covers and this article was an attempt to add some balance to the negative image people in the media have forced onto Saudi Arabia.
you want to talk about corrupt families in the governments? why don't you take a look at the history of europe, or actually, the history of the world. Power almost always corrupts man. I am not excusing the Royal family for the negative things they've done, but merely trying to show how invalid your argument against the royal family is. if you want to talk about corrupt governments why don't you include the governments of Africa? why is a whole continent still starving? why don't you criticize Putin's current government, or better yet, look at the atrocious actions of the american government throughout history.
what you need to understand about the political situation in Saudi Arabia is that everything is highly sensitive and as a result everything must be done in a highly diplomatic way. before criticizing a decision made by the government or certain officials you must consider the social, political, and economic circumstances of each issue. then, as a person in a position of power, must decide what would be in the best interest of all parties. With that said, i fully understand that there have been countless bad decisions these people in power have made, but i have to reiterate that this is inevitable in an imperfect world. To ignore and undermine all the progress Saudi Arabia is making is just as unfair as ignoring all the problems it is experiencing. The fact that the government has officially lifted the bad on women staying alone in hotels is a significant move toward all the reforms you are calling for. All these laws or social taboos that are currently present in the country is supported by certain members of society and in order to change them, the government has to do it slowly and in a clever, diplomatic manner. so for you to say that it is "not much of a reform to anyone" is highly invalid. As the article states, "change in Saudi cannot come in one swift step, it has to come in stages."
as for you comment about Ms. Choueiri being in a bubble, i'm afraid i disagree with you. Her experience was quite the typical experience of a middle class teenager living in Riyadh. It is also wrong for you to assume that she saw the "wealthy" side of Saudi just because the family she accompanied were going back for a wedding. you are making the assumption that only the wealthy make it a priority to attend family weddings. since you claim to live in Jeddah, you should know the customs and traditions of the Middle East and should know the importance of cultural events such as weddings. you cannot make that assumption without knowing what kind of sacrifices that family has made or what circumstances they were in when making the decision of traveling.
Clearly, the point of the article was to show a different perspective on Saudi Arabia than the one presented in the Media. It shows that there is progress and that there are citizens of the country that are trying to make changes to the problems you've listed above and that there is potentioanl for Saudi to move forward. i don't understand why you choose to dwell on the problems rather than look at what positive things can happen in Saudi Arabia.
Original Commenter here
Original Commenter here (from the first thread):
Allow me to itemize my responses. This is to the first response.
“instead of CONSTANTLY focusing on the bad qualities why not highlight some of the positive aspects of Saudi Arabia?”
My reply:
The problem with the US media is they focus on the bad qualities incorrectly. For example, Qatif Girl wasn’t punished for being raped: she was punished (and later pardoned for her “guilt”) for breaking a law based on a obscenely austere interpretation of Shariah’s “kulwa” (“isolation” with an unrelated man, which in Saudi Arabia includes riding in a car with a man in the absence of her legal male guardian); so one of the profound problems is that the criticisms are often misinformed, overly simplified, and often racist. That’s inexcusable.
At the same time, I find a lot of reporting on King Abdullah’s reforms, so I think it’s not true that the US media doesn’t focus on the good qualities; it focuses incorrectly on the bad ones. But that doesn’t mean the media shouldn’t be focusing more accurately on the bad qualities. As I said: the author makes valid points, but I don’t think she has had enough exposure to the Kingdom to base her assessment and not at the very least pay lip service in this column to very legitimate human rights issues in Saudi Arabia.
“I am not excusing the Royal family for the negative things they've done, but merely trying to show how invalid your argument against the royal family is. if you want to talk about corrupt governments why don't you include the governments of Africa? why is a whole continent still starving? why don't you criticize Putin's current government, or better yet, look at the atrocious actions of the american government throughout history.”
My reply:
Indeed, there would be no excuse for excusing the royal family for claiming imminent domain to a country a third the size of the United States. Interesting you bring up Africa: the tragedy in Darfur lands squarely on the shoulders of the Arab World in particular and the Muslim Ummah in general. As Imam Faisal Abdul Rauf said recently: "Genocide in general is a very horrible thing that must be eradicated. But this situation in Darfur should be even more important to us because these are Muslims killing other Muslims, which is something we need to raise our voices against loud and strong."
And absolutely we can and should and do criticize not just Russia’s deplorable arms dealing in Africa (most coming actually from former Russian states). I would add to that India, Spain and Germany for selling the world’s most dangerous WMD, the Kalishankov and its bullets, to fuel African wars. (America is not so much into such rinky-dink arms dealings. OxFam has a very good list of the worst offenders when it comes to modern arms dealings in Africa. I find it interesting that India is never mentioned as a major exporter of arms to African countries, but I digress)
As far as the historical references: Are you implying that because America and Europe went through such a sad historical process that it is OK for other countries to do so today? If so, that’s a pessimistic appraisal of the progress of history. It’s an interesting question: as an American, am I to shut my mouth because my country had slavery or murdered Central Americans in the 1980s? I don’t see it that way and I don’t represent my country in this regard.
“the government has to do it slowly”
My reply: But the “government must move slowly” argument is precisely why Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote “Why We Can’t Wait”. You should read it. (Or if you have read it, read it again in this context.)
“It is also wrong for you to assume that she saw the "wealthy" side of Saudi just because the family she accompanied were going back for a wedding.”
My reply: I did make it clear in my original post that I drawing a assumption based on figuring out how the author got to have the experience.
The per-capita GDP of Saudi Arabia is about $15,000 right now, thanks to the oil boom. But it has been for a long time about $9,000. (It ebbs and flows between these two, roughly speaking.) If it weren’t for Saudi Arabia’s relatively generous social welfare net (for Saudis only, not the 25% of the population that’s non-Saudi) the country would have collapsed a long time ago. I suggest anyone who thinks that the typical middle class Saudi studies at Cornell and flies home for a wedding should venture to the poorer parts of Riyadh and (especially) Jeddah and definitely the medium-sized cities and villages before making such an assessment of how the typical Saudi lives.
“i don't understand why you choose to dwell on the problems rather than look at what positive things can happen in Saudi Arabia.”
Because I believe the job of the media is to highlight what’s broken, not what’s fixed. This is the same argument floated by the “Fox News” crowd – saying we always focus on the bad aspect of the War in Iraq and not the good ones. I think it’s a coercive argument that dumbs down the media, IMO.
"but really, who are we to
"but really, who are we to criticize when our own government has secret torture-prisons hidden around the world"
Yes, how dare we, the freest nation in the world, criticize one of the most oppressive nations in the world! The gall of us! Who are we to say that women who have been raped shall not also be punished for their promiscuity by being whipped or killed or that women should be able to drive without "society"'s permission (are they planning on asking the women about this, because I'm pretty sure in Saudi Arabia, they don't count women as part of society). Who are we to say that other people should be allowed to freely and openly practice their faiths? We shall judge no one because we are no better than they are!
Also, what good is a sparkling new university if the women who get to go there will ultimately be banished to the homes of their future husbands? I guess it's their one last hurrah before a life of servitude.
Actually women in Saudi
Actually women in Saudi Arabia play a key role in society. please read the response to the first comment and consider it a response to your first paragraph.
I'm curious to know what makes you think that the women that would attend the new university would ultimately be banished to the homes of their future husbands? are you aware that many saudi women not only continue their education at the undergraduate level but go on to get degrees in graduate levels as well. are you aware that many Saudi women not only make it a point to get their master and doctorate degrees but would travel abroad and attend the best programs in the world for their specific fields. i'm not even talking about young women, i'm taking about married women with families. women with jobs and familial obligations. just because you have not heard about these women does not mean they do not exist. furthermore, there are more women entering the Saudi workforce every single year. if anything, this university, and the King Abdullah Economic City as a whole, will open up many more job opportunities for the women and men of Saudi Arabia. what information do you have to support your assumption that women would live a life of servitude after college? it is completely ignorant of you to even make the that kind of an assumption about marriage in general. It is obvious to me that your comment is completely biased and is just a product of the Media.
"I'm curious to know what
"I'm curious to know what makes you think that the women that would attend the new university would ultimately be banished to the homes of their future husbands?"
Because women make up only 5% of the Saudi work force. If you would like to tell me that now it is up to 7%, well then let's all go out for a drink to celebrate the liberation of Saudi women!
Yes, women have it great in Saudi Arabia. Just ask that woman who was gang-raped and then sentenced to 200 lashes for being alone with an unrelated male, increased from the original punishment of 90 lashes because she had the gall to appeal this outrageous punishment. Of course you will try to claim that everything is ok because the gracious king pardoned her. The fact she was punished in the first place is despicable and if no one outside of the kingdom had heard about it, she likely would not have been pardoned. If we took your advice and stopped "CONSTANTLY focusing on the bad qualities," do you think Saudi Arabia would change at all?
Original Commenter here
Original Commenter here (from the first thread):
Allow me to itemize my responses. This is directed at “Steve” :
“The fact she was punished in the first place is despicable and if no one outside of the kingdom had heard about it, she likely would not have been pardoned. If we took your advice and stopped "CONSTANTLY focusing on the bad qualities," do you think Saudi Arabia would change at all?”
Absolutely. This kind of crazy stuff happens a lot. I have a long list of evidence regarding Saudi Arabia’s completely dysfunctional judicial system, and very little of it floats into the pages of the New York Times. And Steve is right: you want to help these people; you have to keep the screws tightened and publicly embarrass the system. There is no other way. Saudi Arabia is a top-down system of governance. And the Saudi government has proved time and again that little gets done until much ado is made of it. Anyone who understands the Saudi system knows this.
At the same time: the reporting must be accurate, free of hyperbole and as objective as it can be. I find a lot of Saudi bashing sometimes unjustified and almost always misinformed. But that’s no excuse for some of the things that actually happen there.
Another other side of Saudi
"A leading human rights group appealed to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on Thursday to stop the execution of a woman accused of witchcraft and performing supernatural acts."
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=4290209
Good to see the spirit of Salem, Massachusetts is alive and well in Saudi Arabia.
Original Commenter here
Original Commenter here (from the first thread):
Allow me to itemize my responses. This is directed at the third comment on this thread.
I just have to say that I agree with the reply TO that comment by the second commenter. The third commenter was using a lot of hyperbole with little substance that reflects a deep misunderstanding about how Saudi society functions. Perhaps some “good qualities” are in order here.
She's actually right
I think this is exactly what she meant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ_S5DwAc5M&feature=relatedra