Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

My trip to Jeddah was mid-August. I was going to support another Interior Designer, so my workload was light, but I definitely helped out alot when it came to working the furniture inventory! We were given our Abayas by our expeditor as soon as we got to the airport and we had to change into them right away in the bathroom! Hot as heck! The airport was pretty intimidating, but I was surprised at the lack of security- I expected to see men with guns all over, but I didn't see any at all. The capital of 'the Kingdom' is Riyad. Jeddah is on the coast, and tends to be cooler and less strict in dress codes.

Once outside the downtown area, we were told that we could take our head scarves off, but most of the time we kept them on. We made a mistake and sat in the 'men's area' of the hotel cafe one morning, but the waiter politely told us to move to another area and it really wasn't a big deal. Most of the men we saw in the hotel were business men and the formal dress for them seems to be the robe with the red/white checkered head scarf. Younger men wore a mix of stuff- we saw a group of young guys hanging out by a car and 2 were wearing tank tops and shorts while the other was fully robed. We were told it was a personal preference for them, not so much religion-based. Most of the women didn't cover their entire faces, but when we visited the local mall, we saw alot of women with the whole look- covered face, gloves, etc. It was kind of spooky. I just got the feeling that they looked down on us 'hussies' because we weren't covered. But someone else pointed out that they may be jealous of our freedoms, so who knows! Young girls (pre-puberty)didn't have to wear the abayas.

I didn't get many photos of stuff because really there wasn't alot of time. The Saudis look down on photographs of people, so I wanted to make sure I didn't offend anyone. So all of my photos are taken from a fast-moving armoured car!! One of the things I wish I had gotten pictures of are all of the modern sculptures around the road. Very interesting! The area where we stayed was a newly built suburb, so there was good infrastructure (as in wide, paved highways, etc.) They love their indoor malls over there! I guess it makes sense because of the heat.

One interesting thing I learned was that, although men could have more than one wife, the rule is that you have to be able to treat them all equally. So we saw many 'compounds' with several identical houses (or mansions, really!)- each wife got their own house. The opression of women is a very real thing, at least to this westerner's eyes! One woman we talked to (at the Embassy) said that alot of men don't treat their wives equally and many get excited by their 'new' wife and kids and toss their older ones out with the bathwater. If a wife is beaten and runs to the police, she is held there until her husband can come pick her up again. If she leaves her husband, he keeps the children- they can't leave the country. The only way she can leave with her kids is if she somehow can talk her husband into a trip outside the country and then escape from there.

We asked if the womens' dress was by choice, by religion or by husband and were told that its a combination of all 3. The fully covered (face, gloves, etc) would be classified as 'fundamentalists'.

All in all, not a place I really have to go to again.......hopefully! But I did get to keep my abaya, so maybe next Halloween.........