Journey to Saudi Arabia with Ms. Atwell!

December 20, 2007

Day 10 – Riyadh

Another beautiful day in Riyadh!  It’s 80 degrees and sunny.  The view outside the window from my hotel room says it all.  LA is probably about the same (albeit 10 hours earlier – so pitch black; oh well, you get the idea).  I confess that I can’t really appreciate the weather like my trip colleagues from Detroit, Vermont, Iowa, Chicago and upstate New York!

Actually, Riyadh in some ways is A LOT like Los Angeles – can you see the brown layer of smog along the horizon?  Along with Saudi Arabia’s rapid modernization and urbanization have come the typical urban ills: traffic, pollution, ubiquitous shopping malls, overcrowding and expensive real estate.  And no good public transportation.  Sound familiar, LA? 

One urban woe you won’t find in Riyadh, however – crime.  The crime rate is low for both violent and non-violent offenses.  To give you some perspective: in 1998, the murder rate per 100,000 inhabitants for Saudi Arabia was 0.47, while the United States was 6.3, Russia was 19.27 and South Africa was 59.0.  Some people credit the harsh punishments under Sharia law as a deterrent (as is often reported, the punishment mandated for theft is to have a hand cut off, but in practice this only happens if a thief has been convicted multiple times), while others point to the relative dearth of “societal facilitators” of crime like alchohol and drugs, while others point to informal social controls.  However, in recent years there have been signs that the Kingdom’s low crime rate is inching steadily upward.  Property crime in particular seems to be rising the fastest.  Some commentators have linked this phenomenon to the growing number of youth in Saudi society.  Many young men are unemployed or have nothing productive to do after school or work.  By recent estimates (source: CIA Factbook), the jobless rate for Saudi males in 2007 was 13%.  And we all know that young men with nothing to do tend to get in trouble!  [This figure actually represents a marked drop from estimates as high as 30% in 2003.]  Others have blamed the influx of violent, lawless Western media into the Kingdom.  Although movie theaters are banned, many people have access to satellite TV or films on DVD.  Still others blame a sense of anomie, hopelessness and anger at authorities (including the government), coupled with feelings of entitlement, held by many Saudi youth.  Will they have access to good jobs and a high quality of life?  Will they have to work twice as hard as their parents?  Still others blame the shift in Saudi society toward “modernity” – its values, pressures and atomization of traditional social structures.  And still others blame the influx of foreign workers hired to take care of the menial labor and service industry jobs that Saudis have traditionally been unwilling to perform.  By now, many of you reading this may be experiencing feelings of deja vu.  Haven’t we heard these same arguments about crime in the United States?

Foreign workers in the Kingdom is a challenging – and politically charged – issue.  Non-Saudi nationals comprise approximately 27% of the population.  They come from a variety of countries in the Middle East, Africa, South and Southeast Asia.  In my time here, I’ve met Pakistanis, Filippinos, Malaysians, Somalis, Egyptians and Yemenis (and no doubt others too!).  Saudis seem to view these workers as a “necessary evil.”  On the one hand, they need the services these workers are willing to provide for relatively inexpensive wages.  On the other hand, Saudi cultural chauvinism sometimes influences the treatment of these workers in not so pleasant ways.   Periodically in the Saudi and foreign presses there are stories of workers who have been physically abused by their employers or who haven’t been paid.  Since many foreign workers send their wages back to their families in their home countries, this has ramifications beyond just Saudi Arabia.  And unfortunately I personally witnessed some rather condescending and rude behavior by a few Saudis to their hired help.  Of course, these issues are certainly not confined to Saudi Arabia; they occur in many places around the world.  But with such a large foreign population, it’s something that the Saudis are going to have to confront more directly. 

Foreigners come to Saudi Arabia in several ways.  Most workers arrive on visas sponsored by Saudi nationals or businesses.  The Saudis take full financial responsibility for the workers, paying their travel expenses to and from their countries of origin, providing living accommodations in the Kingdom, and of course paying wages.  It’s a bit like the “guest worker” program that Germany and several other European countries experimented with after World War II.  Like in Germany, foreign workers aren’t eligible for citizenship.  One way the system isn’t like the “guest worker” program: the Saudi employer holds the employee’s passport and the employee isn’t free to change jobs or travel without the employer’s consent.  Moreover, a female worker isn’t allowed to leave her employer’s house without an escort.  As a result, those that run away from abusive employers are sometimes sucked into even worse situations involving human trafficking for the sex trade.  The Saudi government’s rationale for its passport policy is that when labor disputes arise, many foreign workers are likely to just leave the country, making resolution of the dispute impossible.  There is a National Labor Board that adjudicates labor disputes.  [By the way, H-1 work visas issued by the United States to foreign workers also stipulate that workers cannot change employers.]   However, workers, whether Saudi or otherwise, aren’t allowed to organize in the Kingdom, which makes it difficult for them to press for change as a group.

Saudi Arabia only officially abolished slavery in 1962.  Soon after, the foreign worker program was established.  In pointing this out, my intention isn’t to single Saudi Arabia out for criticism.  Labor abuses have existed for as long as people have been hiring others to work for them – so basically since the beginnings of civilization! – and continue to exist around the world.  Child labor, sweatshops, human trafficking – exploitation even surfaces periodically in the United States, a country in which the right of workers to organize has been enshrined in law since the early twentieth century.  Recent exposes of working conditions on sugar cane plantations in Florida are a case in point.  And this is 35 years after Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers!  Moreover, undocumented workers in the US in fields such as domestic work and child care often ”work off the books” and therefore are reluctant to report abuses.  Besides the fear of deportation, it’s difficult in practical terms to sue an employer for back wages in the United States because of institutional and financial barriers in the legal system.  The Saudi government is grappling with many of these same issues surrounding the treatment of foreign labor, and is making laudable, if perhaps insufficient, attempts at reform. 

Other major sources of foreign immigrants in the Kingdom (besides specialists hired to work in the oil sector) are the so-called “overstayers.”  These are people who came to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj or Umra and never left, as well as people who overstayed their sponsored work visas.  Many work in the underground economy.   Some become beggars (a phenomenon commented on yearly in the Saudi press during the Hajj, since many seem to congregate around holy sites).  According to the Indo-Asian News Service, in 2005 there were more than 60,000 Pakistani and 40,000 Indian overstayers in the Kingdom.  Although the number of Pakistanis has dropped over the past two years, Indians still comprise a large percentage of undocumented immigrants.  Saudis consider overstayers to be a security threat and sometimes blame them for the increase in crime in the Kingdom (see above).  Periodically, the government rounds up and deports groups of them.  On occasion it also offers amnesty to employers, eliminating fines and jail time for those who haven’t ensured that their sponsored workers have left the country on time, as long as those employers help send the workers home.  According to the Arab News, the Saudi government spends approximately SR 420 million per year to repatriate overstayers.  [This is equivalent to roughly $120 million in US currency.]

Here are a few recent news stories about the “overstayer” issue:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7137096.stm

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=83555&d=10&m=6&y=2006 (an interesting editorial from Arab News that puts the “overstayer” issue in a comparative context dealing with illegal immigration around the world)

One factor that may ultimately lessen Saudi Arabia’s dependence on foreign labor is the government’s “Saudization” campaign.  Since the late 1990s, the government has been trying to funnel Saudis into jobs held by foreign workers, but so far has met with limited success.  According to the Saudi-American Forum (using figures produced by the Shura Council, Saudi Arabia’s quasi-parliament – see below for more information on this legislative body), the government hopes that 80% of the country’s workforce (in companies employing 20 or more workers) will be Saudi nationals.  This is an ambitious goal; according to the Saudi government’s own figures, only about 30% of the workforce was Saudi in 2002.  Nevertheless, the country’s booming birth rate makes this shift in the labor pool a necessity.  Employers reluctant to support the government’s policy argue that Saudi nationals demand higher wages and better benefits, which employers deem too financially onerous for their businesses.  And many Saudis are still unready to undertake the “mental mind shift” necessary to accept work formerly considered beneath them.  The government is acutely aware of the potential disruption to the economy Saudization might cause in the short-term, so implementation is proceeding at an uneven, moderated pace across different labor sectors. 

By now, you might be thinking that all of this sounds a lot like the debates in the US over undocumented immigrants.  As Saudi Arabia modernizes its economy, it increasingly faces the same challenges found in Western nations, particularly the United States.  In the US, a self-declared “nation of immigrants,” these issues are currently front and center in political circles, as they’ve been periodically since our country’s founding.  In Los Angeles alone, there are an estimated one million undocumented workers.  Without the vital labor they perform in construction, health care, domestic work and child care (among many other fields), the economy of LA would grind to a halt.  Yet some fear a loss of jobs for native-born Americans and a drain on social welfare resources.  Immigration policy promises to be a top issue in next year’s presidential election.  What lessons might the United States learn from Saudi Arabia, and vice versa?

Our first stop this morning was the Shura Council.  The Shura Council is the closest thing the absolute monarchy of Saudi Arabia has to a legislature.  After ten days in the Kingdom, we were all curious about how political decisions are made and power is really exercised in the government.  “Shura” in Arabic means consultation among the elite in society (experts and scholars) to seek the best outcomes for society, and is a principle approved in the Qur’an.  In its present form in the Kingdom, this means a group of leaders from all sectors of society, including business, the armed forces, religion, education and the traditional Bedouin tribes, who meets to offer advice to the king.  The Shura Council has both legislative and government oversight functions.  Members are nominated by a committee and chosen by the king.  The king also decides how many people will serve in the Council, usually based on population.  Currently, there are 150 members.  When the Council was established in 1924 (with 12 members), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had not yet been founded.  The Council helped draft the Basic Law on Governance which more or less serves as Saudi Arabia’s “constitution.”  Today, its members participate in twelve standing committees on different subjects of importance to the Kingdom, as well as ad hoc committees when the need arises. 

Here’s the outside of the Shura Council building:

Before visiting a session of the Council, we had the opportunity to meet with four of its senior members.  These men were very forthright with their opinions about Saudi Arabia’s role in the world today and its prospects for the future.  No topic was off limits, even if some of their answers seemed politically calculated.  What do you expect?  They’re politicians!  That being said, these men are no “empty suits” (or would that be “empty thobes“????); they are dedicated public servants who have no desire to rubber stamp  government policies they think are unwise.  Nor does the fact that they do not have final decision-making authority mean that their voice in the legislative process is mute.  For us in the United States, the idea of an abolute monarchy seems antiquated and unjust.  But, as I hope my discussion below will demonstrate, “absolute monarchy” in this case does not equal a complete absence of societal input into the political process. 

First, our hosts walked us through the Shura Council’s role in the Saudi governmental decision-making process.  Typically, a government ministry submits a proposal based on its own internal reports or studies.  The proposal is sent to the chairman of the Shura Council (and yes, it’s always a “chair-MAN”) who then refers it to one of the twelve standing committes.  After review and comment in committee, the proposal goes to the floor of the full Shura assembly, which votes whether to recommend its approval by the king and his Council of Ministers (like the US Cabinet).  If the king disagrees with the Shura Council’s recommendation, he may send the proposal back for further modification or he may reject it outright.  The Shura Council also has the power to amend existing government regulations, again with the ultimate approval of the king. 

Beyond its legislative role, the Shura Council also has oversight authority.  It may initiate proposals and present strategies to the government on a wide variety of matters.  For example, in recent years the Shura Council has recommended reforms of the political aspects of the traditional desert tribal system and also put forward an anti-corruption program.  In the wake of 9/11, members of the Council also interviewed terrorism suspects to try to ascertain their motives in order to propose societal reforms that might help prevent future attacks by alienated Saudis. 

Our hosts also addressed the role of interest/lobbying groups on the Saudi political process.  Although (as mentioned earlier) many groups are still prohibited from organizing legally, the Shura Council members argued that more and more interest groups are becoming active in the Kingdom.  There is even a human rights organization that’s been very critical of many issues in Saudi society and the record of the government in addressing them.  [This may be true, but remember that the human rights attorney representing the victim in the Qatif rape case was disbarred.]  Of course, different sectors of society also have their representatives on the Shura Council, but since members tend to be from the societal elites, the poor and dispossessed (and women) tend not to have a very strong voice.  Instead, women and others are “consulted” when necessary.  As of 2005, there was no pressing move to include women in the membership of the Shura Council.  [By way of context, by 2005 women had already assumed cabinet-level ministerial positions in several other Gulf nations, including Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain and Oman.  Saudi Arabia lags behind many Muslim countries in this regard.  Remember Benazair Bhutto, the former prime minister of Pakistan?  Women can also vote in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.  Of course, this does not mean that full equality in suffrage has necessarily been achieved in these countries.   There still exists a great deal of hostility in many countries to Muslim women in political life.  See this story from February 2007 about a Pakistani government minister killed by a religious zealot:  http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSISL2961020070220] 

Our hosts also mentioned recent efforts on the part of the government to improve and diversify the Saudi economy.  New industrial zones are being established throughout the country in order to move the country away from reliance solely on oil and natural gas production.  The government is also investing in new universities and training schools to help build a “knowledge economy” in Saudi Arabia.  The most high profile of these ventures is the construction of King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST), which the Kingdom hopes will become the “MIT of the Middle East.” [Here's a link to the web site:  http://www.kaust.edu.sa/]

When the floor opened for questions, I asked about the role of the armed forces in Saudi politics.  The issue of whether General Pervez Musharraf should be able to remain as head of the army while serving as president of Pakistan has been in the news recently.  More generally, the power of militaries as “kingmakers” or behind-the-scenes political heavyweights has been problematic for many non-Western nations in recent years.  Pakistan has had problems with its security forces funnelling assistance to the Taliban, in contravention of official government policy.  General Nasser came to power in Egypt thanks to a military coup.  Military juntas ruled many Latin American countries until well into the 1980s, and juntas still rule in Myanmar and several sub-Saharan African nations.  One of our Shura Council hosts is a general in the Saudi armed forces and has written extensively on Saudi security policy.  He said that the Saudi military isn’t as strong as in Pakistan largely because the existence of Saudi Arabia as an independent state has never relied on military defense.  Instead, it has been based on, in his words,  ”social bonds and the legitimacy of the royal family.”  In other words, there is no external threat such as Pakistan has historically faced vis-a-vis India to motivate people to view the army as their best assurance of survival.  Although there is a standing Shura Council committee dealing with security, our host called the Pakistan model “threatening.”  Compared with its neighbors in the region, the Saudi armed forces are very small.  The national guard, for example, numbers just 100,000 soldiers.  Officers are trained at the Kingdom’s seven or eight military academies.  These academies maintain close ties with the United States military.  Since 1975, the US has trained Saudi soldiers and helped plan the overall military strategy for the Kingdom.  [This, of course, proved politically problematic for the Saudi Arabian monarchy during the first Gulf War, when US troops were stationed on Saudi soil in order to defend Saudi Arabia from possible attack by Iraq.  Osama bin Laden has pointed to this close military alliance - and the stationing of "infidels" in the land of Mecca and Medina - as one of his major complaints against the Saudi and US governments.]

This led us into a more general discussion of the role of the United States in the Middle East.  According to our hosts, Saudi Arabia considers the US a very close ally, partly because of its historical role in the development of the country and its oil wealth (remember, Standard Oil of California was the first concessionaire in the Kingdom, and this eventually led to the formation of Aramco!).  In return, Saudi Arabia believes the US should consider Saudi Arabia as its most important ally in the region.  One Shura Council member emphasized that even when policy disagreements arise between the US and Saudi Arabia, the “Saudi people know how to separate US policy from the US people and have a lot of love for [our] culture.”  However, Saudis are worried that Americans don’t have the same perspective.  They are worried about the “demonization” of Islam in the United States and the effect this will have on the historically close relationship between the two countries.

To help maintain this relationship, as well as keep its own people (and ruling system?) safe, the Saudi government is working hard to combat terrorism.   Two parallel approaches are being employed.  The military approach focuses on pursuing and disrupting terrorist activity.  Army soldiers, internal security forces and the national guard were redeployed after 9/11 to protect government offices and other areas that might be considered “soft” targets, including places frequented by foreigners such as housing compounds and hotels.    The civil approach tries to mobilize society against the terrorists’ message.  To this end, the government has enlisted the help of mosque imams, religious scholars, writers and other prominent members of Saudi society (including the king) to get the message out.  According to one Council member, this approach has yielded surprisingly strong results.  In some cases, family members have even begun informing on each other.  He also reported that because of tips from ordinary citizens, just last week the government captured 208 terrorists still in the planning stages of an attack.

Next our discussion turned to Saudi Arabia’s role in the Middle East, and particularly in the Arab-Israeli peace process.  As mentioned in a prior blog entry, the government of Saudi Arabia officially endorses a “two-state” solution to the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians.   A few years ago, the Saudi king proposed a deal that would have embraced this idea, along with a return of Israel’s borders to its territory in 1967 (before the major wars in the region which resulted in Israel capturing and occupying territory from several bordering Arab nations, including Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan).  However, the Saudi government, along with many other Arabs, is adamant that a two-state solution must include the right for Palestinians displaced as a result of these wars, along with the creation of Israel, to return to their homes and property.  This is a position the Israeli government rejects, and the United States has generally supported Israel on this point.  For example, President Bush recently used the phrase “creation of a Jewish state” which Arabs take to mean a state wholly Jewish and not multi-confessional or multi-ethnic (i.e. containing a sizable Palestinian population).  One Shura Council member described US mediation in the peace process as “well meaning, but has tended to complicate the resolution of the conflict.”  Another expressed the Saudi position this way:  “Why do you deny the rights of Palestinians who still have keys to their homes but Jews get the right to return to a place their ancestors haven’t even lived in since ancient times?”  Unfortunately, it’s not quite as simple as that.  Leaving aside the issue of recent Israeli settlements in Gaza and the West Bank, Israelis have now established roots in the areas from which Palestinians fled.  Simple repatriation of land and property would create chaos and economic turmoil, not to mention horrific violence.  Furthermore, many Israelis feel that they have a religiously ordained right to the land.  This issue has created rifts within Israeli politics, just as it has in the wider international arena.

US support for Israel is just one factor complicating its relations with Saudi Arabia and others in the region.  The other big factor is the war in Iraq.  According to our hosts, the US entered the war with a great deal of hubris, “based on a lie” (their words).  Coming from the “leading nation in the world with regard to human rights” (their words), this has done irreparable harm to the moral authority of the United States in world affairs.  Before the invasion began, the Saudi government lobbied US officials extensively, urging them not to go to war without first pursuing other diplomatic alternatives.  Furthermore, the Saudi government thought it might have some bargaining leverage with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, but the US invaded before anything had been achieved.  Then, once the invasion began – and reconstruction plans unfolded – the Saudi government again tried to offer its help and advice, but US officials once again rebuffed them.  In particular, said our hosts, the Saudis understood that reconstruction was going to be difficult and expensive, and it would be a monumental task to get Iraq’s oil sector up and running again.  After all, this is their business!  Instead, the US decided that they could do it on the cheap.  As you can see, our hosts from the Shura Council pulled no punches.

After this lively exchange of ideas (which lasted for over an hour and a half!), we moved to the viewing galleries of the main chamber of the Shura Council.  I confess that I don’t really remember what was being discussed; I was still so excited by our previous meeting.  Here I am with one of our hosts:

As you can see, the decor is quite ornate – a little like Versailles meets 1001 Arabian Nights, with lots of rococo gilding intermixed with Middle Eastern design motifs.  And here’s the chamber itself:

After a quick lunch at the golf course restaurant of the Riyadh Intercontinental Hotel, we headed for another “power meeting” – this time with His Royal Highness Prince Faisal Ibn Turki al Saud, senior advisor to the Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources.  Prince Faisal’s father was King Abdul-Aziz, the first Saudi monarch.  But don’t get too excited – by some estimates there are 5,000 princes in Saudi Arabia.  King Abdul-Aziz had 45 legitimate sons, not to mention countless daughters.  Prince Faisal, 42 years old, is one of the younger sons of the first king by one of his 22 wives.  Since Abdul-Aziz’s death, his elder sons have succeeded him, keeping the line of succession within the second generation.  [The current king is in his eighties, so many observers speculate that it will soon pass to the third generation, bypassing the rest of the other 40 sons of the second generation like Prince Faisal.]  For a detailed genealogical discussion of the House of Saud, along with lots of other great resources, visit the website from the television series Frontline, produced in 2005 by PBS:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saud/tree/

Here he is:

Someone in our group asked Prince Faisal to clarify for us the process of royal succession in Saudi Arabia.  He told us that the Basic Law of Governance (like the “constitution” – see above) specifies that the king must be a direct descendant of King Abdul-Aziz.  After that, the next king is supposed to be chosen from among the most qualified candidates to rule.  In other words, birth order is not solely determinitive.  Recently, amendments to the Basic Law have formalized this selection process further.  All sons and grandsons of the king (through the male line only) meet in a council to elect the next king.  The offspring of the daughters of King Abdul-Aziz aren’t eligible for succession or participation in the selection process. [For more on this process and its ramifications for Saudi politics, click here for an article from the International Herald Tribune: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/12/10/africa/ME-GEN-Saudi-Succession.php]

I asked about the role of women in the royal family.  Do they have any informal political power?  What societal functions, if any, do they fulfill? Other than Queen Effat (for whom Effat College in Jeddah was named) we hadn’t heard much about them on this trip.  This question clearly took Prince Faisal a bit by surprise.  Eventually he answered that in the early years of the Kingdom, royal women weren’t very visible.  They stood in the background and raised the children.  Now women in the royal family can work, serve as patrons of charities and invest in businesses.  They make their opinions known to their male relatives informally.  However, they have no official role in the Kingdom, unlike female members of royal families in Europe.   Perhaps this isn’t so surprising in a country where as recently as 2006 women comprised 55% of university graduates but only 5% of the workforce?  [I'd like to find out more about this topic, but unfortunately little has been written.  One author who has focused on the lives of royal women in Saudi Arabia is Jean Sassoon.  Her "Princess" trilogy is based on interviews with an anonymous member of the royal family who decided to speak out about the plight of women in the Kingdom.  I haven't read these books yet, but I hope to.  Here's a link to information about the books, published between 1994 and 2002:  http://www.jeansasson.com/princess_trilogy.htm]

Prince Faisal proved to be an opinionated and progressive-minded observer of society, economics and politics in the Kingdom.  He made links between resource utilization and geopolitics that few of us had considered in the context of Saudi Arabia.  He argued, for example, that the most important resource in Saudi Arabia isn’t oil, but water.   Saudi Arabia doesn’t have rivers, lakes or other above-ground sources of fresh water like its neighbors do, so it’s not likely to become engaged in disputes over water rights in the future as the worldwide climate becomes hotter.  [This is already issue in the US, with states like Arizona and California currently disputing claims to water from the Colorado River, and Florida and Georgia fighting over access to river water usage as well.]  Instead, Saudi Arabia is dependent upon desalination of sea water.  Saudi Arabia must try to ensure political stability in the Middle East – on both its coasts – because if war breaks out it might disrupt its desalination operations.  Oil factors into this equation in two ways.  First, it gives Saudi Arabia the resources to produce water, since the technology is expensive.  Second, it serves as the fuel for desalination operations.  As he pointed out, water in Riyadh must travel a distance of 600 kilometers, while water serving other areas in the Kingdom must travel even farther.  Moreover, the western part of Saudi Arabia is rich in mineral wealth and could serve as a way for Saudi Arabia to diversify its economy.  But water is necessary for mining operations also.

Prince Faisal sees both advantages and disadvantages for Saudi Arabia in globalization.  Saudi Arabia’s biggest challenge, in his opinion, will be determining how to properly exploit the talents of its people in order to compete in the world economy.  This will require enormous investment in education.  Education is critical for another reason as well, according to Prince Faisal.  It is imperative that Saudi Arabia create an environment to counteract the disillusionment of its youth.  Otherwise, they might be susceptible to the lure of terrorism.  Faisal’s recipe for success: education (to gain knowledge and skills); creation of a sense of hope and a strong work ethic (because many Saudi parents have spoiled their children); and good jobs.  He used Ireland as an example.  Fifty years ago Ireland changed its education system to move away from a curriculum controlled by the Roman Catholic Church to one based on more secular subjects.  For Prince Faisal, faith-based education isn’t the issue, it’s the quality of intellectual inquiry that the education inspires.  Now Ireland is a leader among European nations in the new “knowledge economy” as the home of many software companies. 

Prince Faisal concluded his remarks by reminding us that Islam is a religion of peace, that Saudis are people of peace and that Saudis genuinely like American culture.  “It’s exciting,” he said.  “We believe that America is a country where anyone can go and be treated as a human being and have opportunities and not face discrimination.  You can integrate quickly, which isn’t true in many other countries.”  However, he made it clear that the American government is another issue . . .

A few more fun facts about Prince Faisal: 
- His favorite movie? The Godfather 
- His favorite bands?  Led Zeppelin and AC/DC

Finally, it was time to head for the airport – and time to begin the long journey back to the United States.  Here are a few photos taken in the Riyadh airport while we waited for our flight to Dammam, the first leg of the trip.

Note the Pepsi cup, designer purses, and full veils . . .

Prayer area in the departures lounge – can you imagine this at LAX?

And lastly my wonderful friend Hanadi, one of our Aramco program guides - the best traveling companion anyone could ever wish for.  Of all the many things I’ll miss about Saudi Arabia, I’ll miss her most of all!

Thank you, Aramco, for the trip of a lifetime.  Your generosity and openness in sharing your country’s culture and people has fulfilled its purpose – it truly reshaped my view of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. 

Masalaamah and Best Wishes,
Ms. Atwell

December 17, 2007

Saudi Arabia in the News

Saudi Arabia has been in the news a lot lately – here are just a few recent articles. 

The New York Times reported recently on a Saudi call-in radio show designed to air the “little guy’s” grievances against the government – with the support of the king: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/05/world/middleeast/05zaid.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

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I’d be interested in your responses to this editorial by Ayaan Hirsi Ali.  Ali is a prominent Muslim intellectual, former member of the Dutch parliament and controversial, outspoken critic of many aspects of Islam. 

 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/07/opinion/07ali.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

What do you think of Ali’s argument about Muslim moderates and Sharia law?  Do you think she’s right?  Why or why not?

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Here’s another interesting editorial, this one from Slate.com:  http://www.slate.com/id/2180169/

Do you think the comparisons between race and gender relations made in the article are valid?

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And remember the Qatif rape case I wrote so much about?  King Abdullah has pardoned the victim, sparing her the 200 lashes and jail time to which she’d been sentenced.  The Hajj is just about to begin, a time when mercy is traditionally shown, but the king has emphasized that the timing of the pardon was unrelated to the Hajj (thanks, Amanda C., for passing on this link!). 

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/12/17/saudi.rape/index.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/18/world/middleeast/18saudi.html?hp (The New York Times mentions another interesting aspect of the case – the danger many women face from relatives who believe they have “shamed” the family honor, and the steps the Saudi government takes to help these women; this article also goes into more detail about the king’s possible motivations for issuing the pardon)

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In all of this political maneuvering, it can be tough to figure out who the “players” are in Saudi Arabia.  Here’s a “cheat sheet” from the BBC:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7068977.stm

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And here’s an article from the Detroit Free Press about American Muslims preparing for the Hajj (thanks, Rick!).

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007712110336

December 16, 2007

Day 9 – Riyadh

Aramco sure knows how to treat its guests.  The Intercontinental in Jeddah – and now the Four Seasons in Riyadh!  This hotel is gorgeous both inside and out.  Here’s the facade:

No, that’s not a publicity shot from the hotel – it REALLY does look like that, because I took that picture!   I heard some people compare it to a gigantic bottle opener and it’s not difficult to see why. The top contains a sky bridge with a view of Riyadh all the way out to the desert.  Many people on our trip went up there, but I thought the view from my room on the 44th floor was good enough.  See for yourself:

The hotel is attached to a mall filled with every store you can imagine, from every continent.  Claire’s Accessories sits next to Coach, which sits next to Etro (high-end Italian woolens), which sits next to Marks & Spencer (the giant British department store chain).  The mall is open until 10 p.m. because most shops close between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. for prayers and lunch.  One evening I took a stroll around the mall and made my way up to the third floor, reserved exclusively for women.  It’s called “the Ladies’ Kingdom.”  A uniformed guard stands by the elevator to make sure that no miscreant male sneaks up there to make trouble.  Women are not required to wear the hijab or abaya in the Ladies’ Kingdom, so you can really see what Saudi women wear to go shopping: lots of tight clothing, high heels, t-shirts and hoodie sweaters (for the younger girls).

Shopping and relaxing in Riyadh and Jeddah – from the Wall Street Journal (I didn’t feel comfortable taking pictures in the Ladies’ Kingdom) - check out those red stilettos!

I admit I did some serious retail damage at a store called Al-Yashmac.  It stocks beautifully embroidered women’s thobes (robes), ranging from simple to luxe “Arabian-princess-on-steroids” creations.  Only later, when I told our guide Hanadi about my purchases, did she inform me that Yashmac is owned by one of the top Saudi designers for women.  Check out the web site: http://www.alyashmac.com/index1.htm [I realized I was in rarefied fashion territory when Hanadi told me that one of our hosts in Dhahran - the lady with the private museum in her house - was wearing Yashmac both times we met her.]

The mall is also filled with fast-food joints.  There’s even a “food court.”   In fact, you can’t drive down ANY Saudi street without seeing at least two or three American restaurant chains: McDonald’s, KFC, even Chili’s.  [By the way, the number one menu item at McDonald's is the McArabia sandwich: two chicken patties, lettuce, tomato, onion, and garlic sauce wrapped in pita bread.  Not much is actually 'Arabic'; the bread comes from England and the meat comes from Malaysia.]

Near the mall gateway to the Four Seasons, I passed the requisite Starbucks.  Note that there are two entrances, one for men (the “bachelor’s side”) which is open to view, and one for “families” (women and women accompanied by male relatives) which is hidden behind frosted glass.

We began our morning with a visit to Al-Yamama College, a co-educational private college.  Of course, when I say “co-ed” I mean that only in terms of the composition of the student body, not the composition of the classrooms.  Al-Yamama is a slick operation.  Just four years old (with the women’s program started in 2005), it’s geared toward training business students to compete in today’s global marketplace.  Students learn how to put together multi-media presentations and use the latest software programs.  They take e-quizzes and make use of electronic message boards to collaborate on school work.

Two boys and two girls gave presentations about their experiences at Al-Yamama.  The presentations were funny and personal but also great marketing efforts.  These kids are going to go far.  Here’s one student delivering his presentation:

I LOVE the leather jacket over the thobe look – very hip!

During the forum we learned that nearly all of the students at Al-Yamama went to private schools, either in Saudi Arabia or abroad.  And most Saudi students in the audience assumed that the student bodies at American private schools are equally elite.  [They said they got this impression mostly from TV shows like The OC.]  I spoke up to clarify that while many private schools in the United States cater to wealthy students, this isn’t the whole story.  Many schools like Marlborough offer scholarships based on academic promise, athletics or other talents.  Moreover, many elite schools are actually more ethnically diverse than you might expect.  The pressing challenge for many private schools, I said, was achieving socio-economic diversity.  With rising tuition and stagnant “real-dollar” wages, many middle-class families now find it nearly impossible to pay upwards of $20,000 (or much more!) per year.  Are US private schools as diverse as most public schools – or as diverse as we’d like them to be?  Of course not – but they’re not all Gossip Girl either.

After the presentation, the head of the women’s section at Al-Yamama wanted to talk further with me about private vs. public schools in the United States.  She’d done her teacher training at a well known Lab (experimental) school in Chicago.  The biggest difference between private schools in the US and in Saudi Arabia, she said, was in the freedom they had to experiment with curriculum.  In Saudi Arabia, private schools must hew to the state-mandated curriculum in all subjects.  The only real difference between private and public schools is resources – the schools’ resources and the students’ financial resources.  Private schools attract students from wealthy families more or less exclusively.  In the past year a law has been proposed allowing private schools to develop and implement their own curricula.  However, the law’s fate is unclear, since it hasn’t yet been enacted by the Ministry of Education.  In the United States, by contrast, there is much more freedom in private schools to experiment with teaching techniques, educational philosophy and curriculum.  Thus, there exists a broader diversity of private school experiences available to students.  It will be interesting to see how educational reform plays out in the Kingdom over the next few years.

Next, we had time to ask some questions of the students.  Many looked a bit uncomfortable answering some of our more pointed questions – they clearly didn’t want to get in trouble for saying the wrong thing – but we managed to get the real scoop once we met one-on-one with some of them afterwards.  For example, one teacher asked about Facebook and MySpace.  Both are used extensively by teenagers in the Kingdom for socializing, but no one would admit it.  They just said that they use these sites for help with school work!  Yeah, right . . .  Later on we learned that Facebook and MySpace are where Saudi teenagers arrange dates and parties, as well as gossip and flirt.  Sound familiar?  Another student admitted that pre-marital sex and drinking occurred more regularly than the authorities admit.   These illicit activities usually take place in private homes or in rented hotel rooms.  I asked the student to define “sex” and he said it could mean anything from kissing to intercourse!  In their minds, it was all the same because it was all forbidden.   Moreover, girls acquire “reputations” just as they do in the US.  Another student described a rave he’d been to out in the desert.  Students danced all night to a series of DJs flown in from Germany for the party – and no, the girls weren’t wearing abayas . . .

In our discussion with the students, one theme recurred time and time again – concern about the misperceptions non-Saudis have regarding their culture.  One young man stood up and said that he was recently on an internet chat site where he was surprised to learn that a number of users from the US expressed amazement that there even were computers in Saudi Arabia!  I guess they assumed that everyone lived out in the desert in tents??  He wanted us to “take the message back home that Saudi Arabia is civilized.”  Another student mentioned the recent Hollywood film The Kingdom.  “Can’t you see now what a false impression it gave of Saudi Arabia?” he asked.  The female students also emphasized commonalities between the US and Saudi Arabia: “Tell people we’re normal and we’re just like you!”  [Out of earshot of the school authorities, another student admitted to sometimes purposely playing into foreign stereotypes about Saudi Arabia when he was abroad just because he was so sick of hearing about rich, obnoxious Saudi playboys.  My favorite: he tells people that "all Saudis bathe in oil."]

These negative stereotypes of Saudis do have implications.  Think about airport security in the US – if you even look remotely Middle Eastern, what happens to you?  Now think about changes to the entry visa program enacted by the US Department of State after 9/11.  It’s become extremely difficult to obtain a visa to enter the United States for business, education or tourism.  Applicants must wait months and still may be denied.  Many Saudis have given up for the moment on coming to the United States.  In my opinion, this is really shortsighted.  Mostly in America we see images of Muslims as terrorists on 24 and other TV shows and films.  We don’t see the bright, articulate students of Al-Yamama College.  Saudis are acutely aware that such negative stereotypes are driving US fears and therefore US policy.  I think that’s partly why they’re so desperate to dispel those stereotypes when they meet people from the United States.

After the forum (and the obligatory cardamom coffee poured by a student), we took a tour of the campus.

My tour guide was Omar (shown below).

When I first met him, Omar said, “I’m sure I know you – we’ve met before in Los Angeles!”  That freaked me out a little.  Where would I have met this guy?  Were pick-up lines really that similar in Saudi and the US?  So I asked him what he’d been doing in LA.  His response: “Goin’ out – havin’ a good time.”  Uh oh – then I got REALLY nervous!  So we played the “how might we know each other?” game.   Turns out his family has a house in Potomac, Maryland, the town I went to high school in.  That still doesn’t resolve it, though, because Omar wouldn’t even have been born when I was in high school!  I have to admit that by the end of the morning, he’d begun to look familiar to me too, but I still have no idea why.

As we talked, Omar showed me the library and recreational facilities.

Check out that foosball technique!

He also introduced me to some of his friends:

Omar is really a cool guy.  Smart, down to earth, and a good sense of humor.  He’s also traveled enough to have developed a tolerant, expansive world view.  [His favorite country is Thailand.]  Omar told me that he has several Israeli friends whom he met while traveling abroad.  Omar views the situation pragmatically: Israelis are an important force in the Middle East and the world, both economically and politically.   Plus, they’re people too, just like him.  It just doesn’t make sense to pretend they don’t exist or refuse to build bridges.  Of course, Omar’s view isn’t shared by all Saudis (including some in his own family), particularly those from the older generation who came of age during the Arab-Israeli wars of the 1960s and 1970s.

I admit that I’ve been surprised by how little direct ”anti-Israel” rhetoric I’ve heard on this trip.  That’s not to say that I haven’t heard criticism of Israel’s policies in the Middle East, particularly with regard to the Palestinian issue.  But that’s different from being “anti-Israel” or anti-Semitic.  For example, I haven’t heard anyone question Israel’s right to exist.  Instead, the Saudis I spoke to seem most bothered by the Israeli government’s recalcitrance on the issue of “right of return” for Palestinian refugees as well as the creation of a two-state solution based on borders excluding territorial gains made by Israel during the 1967 war.  The Saudi king has recently taken an active role in Middle East diplomacy, and perhaps this will be enough to spark a change in the direction of the negotiations.  Saudi newspapers have been covering Middle East peace conferences intensively (leaders were meeting in Annapolis while we were in Jeddah), as have Al-Jazeera and the BBC.  Saudis believe, and I think rightly, that no final resolution will be reached without Saudi Arabia’s approval.

In offering these observations, I don’t mean to imply that anti-Israeli feeling is non-existent in Saudi Arabia – I’m sure it’s there, and in sometimes really nasty forms.   Israel’s security in the region is a legitimate concern – it still doesn’t appear on government-issued Saudi maps!  So, were people acting on their best behavior with us and not revealing their true sentiments?  I don’t really think that’s true.  Reasonable people, I hope, can see past the vitriol.  And disagreeing with a government’s policies isn’t the same thing as denying its legitimacy as a whole.  As Americans we’re currently in the same boat – the Bush administration’s foreign policy is extremely unpopular around the globe.  Would we want everyone in the world to condemn us for the decisions made by our leaders?  This issue did prompt me to reflect, though, on exactly what part of Saudi society we were meeting on this trip.  The most liberal and tolerant, a minority – or a “silent majority?”

I left Omar and his friends at the entrance to the women’s section:

Inside, we had another fascinating opportunity to get to know some students.   I sat down with a very intense-looking group of girls who were discussing their recent ”Introduction to Social Science” exam.  I learned that almost all the girls were merit scholarship recipients because of their high grades.  But before I knew it, the conversation had switched to clothes.  I asked what their favorite fashion trends were, and they answered “skinny jeans, polka dot tops and sweaters, flats and peep toes.”  Vintage clothing also got high marks.  We took a photo together, modeling our abayas and designer shades. [Note: Photo removed below to protect the privacy of female students at the university.]

I couldn’t help taking a picture of the “dress code enforcement” posters lining the walls.  I felt like I was back at Marlborough!

These girls may be brainy, but they’re also pretty tech savvy.  Check out the electronics they were using when I showed up:

[Yes, that's an iPhone . . . and another phone is made by Prada.]  Despite the plethora of gadgets, the girls took great pains to tell me that not all Saudi girls are spoiled little princesses.  Although they were prohibited from working outside the house to earn spending money, they all had to earn their allowances and privileges either by getting good grades or by helping out around the house.  Another surprise: all of these girls knew how to drive!  Most girls, they said, either obtained their driver’s licenses while traveling abroad or had their fathers teach them.   I couldn’t help feeling like I could be sitting in my own Marlborough classroom, talking to my own students.  These young Saudi women were opinionated, articulate, charming and driven to succeed in a male-dominated world.  Wow!  If they’re in any way indicative of the next generation – its values and hopes for the future, then Saudi Arabia will be going places, and FAST.

Before dinner, we visited the fortress where the first Saudi king conquered his rivals in Riyadh in order to take the province that would become the nucleus of the new Saudi state.  It sits right in the middle of a major shopping area, surrounded by modern buildings.

We took this opportunity to continue shopping since the old souks were nearby.  My big find: traditional Bedouin face masks and jewelry mounted into a shadow box.  Another teacher showed me some of the jewelry she’d bought because she was puzzled by the writing on the coins used as decorations.  Was the language Cyrillic?  Sure enough, they were Russian kopeck coins dating from the 1860s!  What amazing evidence of regional trade in the region – probably through the Caucuses, or perhaps through Afghanistan or Persia?

Saudi women hailing a taxi

Dinner was at the King Abdul-Aziz Cultural Center, a new museum complex housing an exhibit on the history of Saudi Arabia, as well as many personal belongings of the first Saudi king.  The complex also includes the king’s first palace in Riyadh, which is now used for historical exhibits and special events.  The building is a stunning blend of old and new.

Entrance

Palace

I was fascinated by the exhibits detailing the development of civilization on the Arabian Peninsula going all the way back to the Paleolithic Era, as seen on these early rock carvings.

The museum also had lots of evocative old photos dating from the 1930s and 1940s:

The first king and his retinue relaxing in the desert – who needs camels when you have Rolls Royces?

The first school in Saudi Arabia

Saudi warriors riding into battle to unite the Kingdom

The museum even had a full-length piece of embroidered cloth that was once draped on the Ka’ba in Mecca.

And of course the museum had a section devoted to the Bedouin lifestyle:

After our museum tour, we ate dinner in the old palace, hosted by one of Saudi Arabia’s leading female physicians.  It was a wonderful meal, but by the end of such a long day, I was really happy to fall into the crisp white sheets of my bed at the Four Seasons!  Just one more day in Saudi Arabia – I can’t believe this incredible, eye-opening trip is almost over . . .

Love, Ms. Atwell

December 12, 2007

Day 8 – Jeddah

Jeddah is where Saudis go to relax and have fun (leaving aside Bahrain and Dubai, of course!), and so did we at the Fal Resort on the Red Sea.  Luxury resorts and private villas line the beaches on the outskirts of Jeddah.  Middle- and upper-class families typically rent a condominium unit or villa for the entire year and then use it whenever they want to get away from the city.  [We visited a similar operation in Khobar earlier in the trip, the Sunset Beach Resort.]  There were restaurants, swimming pools, jet ski rentals – even a “Beach Bar!”  [No, it didn't serve Pina Coladas . . .]  Dress is casual, and many women didn’t wear abayas.  Jeans, capris and flip flops – just like Malibu!  Aramco provided us with six rooms to use for the day, along with access to all of the resort’s water sports.  

I spent most of my time snorkeling along the reefs near the shoreline.  The Red Sea is famous for the diversity and abundance of its marine life, and now I know why.  Every few feet there seemed to be a new type of fish, each more colorful than the last!   It was like swimming in the best aquarium you’ve ever seen.  My description here won’t really do it justice, so the only thing I can say is – you’ve GOT to experience it for yourself!  I wanted to go scuba diving as well but because we were flying to Riyadh that evening, scuba was inadvisable because of the extreme variations in pressure.  [Apparently, you don't have to be certified; they'll give you a short lesson in the pool, and then off you go.]

Next was the jet ski.  I’d never ridden one before, and I felt somewhat guilty given the fun I’d just had with the fish down below (those jet skis are LOUD!), but that didn’t stop me from gunning the motor to see how fast I could go while slaloming through the waves.  [Answer: VERY fast.]  By the way, you need pretty strong muscles to hold the jet ski steady while turning at high speeds and crossing the wakes of other boats.  I imagine this must be what it’s like to ride a motorcycle.   [And no, I've never driven a motorcycle.  California Highway Patrol officers call them "organ donor-cyles."  It's dangerous - and my mom would kill me - but I bet it's fun on deserted back-country roads.  In LA, driving a motorcycle in traffic is like painting a sign on your chest that says, "Maim me now."] 

 

And then the speed boat.  I put myself in the hands of some of our Jeddah Aramco guides (see below); I almost didn’t make it back.  Apparently, “slow down because I’m about to bounce out of the boat” wasn’t in their English-langugae vocabulary.  I was sitting up front with two other teachers from the trip, Martha and Rita, who were trying desperately not to be pitched overboard.  In order to keep them anchored, I had to brace my legs across their bodies with my back pressed against the seat.  One big bounce, and I was walking lopsided for the rest of the day.  Seriously, though, it was a lot of fun – thanks, Marwan and Amr!

 

Unfortunately, that afternoon our time in Jeddah had to end.  We headed for the airport on our way to Riyadh.  A few kilometers from the airport, we passed the “Hajj terminal.”  [It looks a bit like the new Denver airport, with its sea of white tents.]  This is the staging area used for pilgrims arriving to participate in the annual religious ritual held in Mecca. 

Jeddah is the gateway to Mecca, and most pilgrims enter the country here.   Several million arrive each year.  The process for obtaining a visa has been reorganized in recent years due to the massive influx of people.  Even with the full financial and logistical support of the Saudi government, there are only so many people that can be accommodated in such a small space at any one time.  Several years ago, a number of people were crushed to death in the Great Mosque because of inadequate crowd control measures.  Now, pilgrims must apply for visas through their home countries, and a set number of visas are available per year for each nation. 

Participants in the Hajj (both male and female) wear special white clothing.  Here are two pictures (source: King Adbullah Cultural Center in Riyadh):

The centerpiece of the Hajj pilgrimage is the ritual circling of the Ka’ba.  The Ka’ba is the large square structure located in the middle of the Great Mosque.  It contains a stone believed by Muslims to be the place where Abraham sacrificed a lamb instead of his son Isaac.  [Islam, as one of the three "Abrahamic" faiths, accepts all of the stories and prophets contained in the Hebrew Torah, (Christian Old Testament).  Islam considers Jesus the second-most important prophet after Muhammad, and Jesus' miracles are believed to be true.  However, Muslims don't believe in the divinity of Jesus.]  The Ka’ba shrine is covered by a beautifully embroidered black cloth containing verses from the Qur’an.

Picture of the Ka’ba from 1898 – thank you, Wikipedia!

Circling the Ka’ba – picture from www.britishmuslims.co.uk

Sometimes Muslims make a “practice Hajj” called the Umra.  This may be completed at any time of the year.  Often, you will see pilgrims on their way to perform the Umra in the Jeddah airport, dressed in white towels.  This means that they’ve already performed their ritual ablutions (washing) and are ready to go.   I only saw a guy ready for the Umra in Bahrain (seeing him walk past the liquor displays in the Duty-Free arcade was a definitely a moment of cultural dissonance!), but not in Jeddah itself.

Traveling on the Saudi national airline was a pleasant experience.  Nice wide, comfy seats (with footrests – take note, Lufthansa!) and chicken curry for the in-flight meal.   Here’s what the flight attendants look like.  They wear tailored pantsuits, little pill box hats and loose-fitting hijabs.  Pretty stylish, and not an abaya in sight.  I guess they decided that traveling down the aisles in a big black robe might be impractical.  What if the hem got caught under the drinks cart?

 

My favorite part of the flight is the prayer that plays over the loudspeaker before take-off.  It’s a prayer that the Prophet Muhammad used to say before travel.  The guy whe recites the prayer sounds like a Middle Eastern Barry White – listen for yourself! 

Prayer for Travel

 When we landed in Riyadh, it was clear that things would be a little different.  Riyadh, located in the center of the country, is surrounded by desert.  [Here's the view from the airplane window.]

 

For one thing, the first sight visible from the arrivals area is a gigantic mosque:

I decided to try out the veil, just in case . . .

 More from Riyadh soon!

XOXO, Ms. Atwell

P.S. Here is what the signs look like on restrooms . . .

December 10, 2007

Day 7 – Jeddah

Our Aramco guides must have been sick of hearing us clamor for shopping opportunities, because this morning they finally turned us loose to do our worst in the Jeddah souks (aka bazaar).  First, though, we were treated to a fascinating history lesson and tour of the Old City.  Lucky thing I bought that replacement camera yesterday!

Our tour began in the building below, the former home of the King Abdul-Aziz, the first Saudi monarch in modern times.  Although the building looks old, it actually dates only from the  mid-nineteenth century.  Inside, it’s not all that ornate.  I confess that this was a bit of a surprise, given our contemporary stereotypes about the super-rich and ostentatious Saudi royal family.  The building’s simplicity makes sense, however, when you remember that massive amounts of oil wealth didn’t really come until after World War II. 

One more fun fact about the building: the white part of the building is actually coral!  Coral from the surrounding reefs was a common building material in Jeddah until quite recently.  Lots of buildings in the historical quarter make extensive use of it.   The coral also came in handy during attacks by the Portuguese in the early 1500s; the Portuguese couldn’t navigate the coral reefs in the harbor and thus couldn’t conquer the city, despite putting it under siege for three months.

Another typical feature of old Jeddah architecture is the use of wooden screens along the facade of residential buildings.  These screens were Persian imports, showing the mixture of cultural influences in Jeddah.  The screens were originally erected to shield women from public view from the street, but still allowed them to catch the breezes in the stifling humidity.  Today, of course, they use air conditioners – can you locate them on the building below?  Walking around, I discovered firsthand how important those screens probably were; after about 10 minutes I was drenched in sweat under my abaya and hijab!  How do those Saudi women do it????  It’s late November now – what must it be like in the heat of the summer?

 

Beginning in the 1950s with the influx of oil wealth, many Jeddans moved to the suburbs and new housing developments, abandoning the historic city center and its crumbling architectural infrastructure.  Many buildings fell irretrievably into disrepair. Today, however, there’s a new historic preservation movement that’s seeking to rehab the old buildings and make them attractive residences once again.  Sounds a lot like the “urban gentrification” movements in many big US cities; neighborhoods that had been deserted by the professional classes are becoming hip again, like Hollywood Boulevard and the warehouse district in downtown Los Angeles.   The Jeddah regional government is also planning to establish schools for traditional craftsmen to help restore the buildings.

Here’s the view from the top of the king’s palace – old and new Jeddah, side by side:

 

As we walked through the city streets (accompanied by our ever-present military escort, of course), I was struck by the number of stray cats scurrying around.  Cats in Saudi Arabia look very different from the tabbies we’re familiar with – more like Abyssinian cats, with gigantic ears and lithe, feral bodies.  Virtually no dogs on the street (no surprise there, if you’ve read my previous blog entries), but we did see lots of caged birds hanging above shop entrances.

 

 Although we were on a tight schedule, I couldn’t resist popping my head into a fabric store to practice my feeble Arabic.  OK, yes, and to take a rest in the air conditioning. The shopkeepers must have taken pity on me sweltering in my abaya and hijab, because they invited me in for a snack.  Ahh, air conditioning!  By the way, if you’re left-handed, it’s harder than it looks to eat with your right hand, particularly if you’re trying not to drag your abaya sleeve in hummus.

We returned to the king’s residence to regroup, then struck out in small groups to hit the souk. 

 

I went with Hanan, one of our lovely local guides from Aramco.  Let me tell you, that woman knows how to bargain!  [This picture is from lunch the previous day; the other person at our table is Mike, our IIE trip coordinator.]

We made stops at a thobe store (for an embroidered women’s lounging gown), a book shop, several silver stores and finally the fabled gold souk.  [Here Cathy, another teacher on our trip, decides on a souveneir  . . .]

 

We had to “power shop” because afternoon prayer time was fast approaching.  All storefronts shut down in Saudi Arabia, seemingly in an instant, the minute the call to prayer is heard.  Stores don’t reopen until late in the afternoon.  The Muttawiyyah (the religious police) enforce store closures in accordance with religious dicates.  Because virtually every mosque has its own minaret from which the call to prayer is issued, the result can be both hypnotically melodious and cacophonous. [Below, a minaret with loudspeakers.]

We had lunch at another waterfront seafood restaurant, again with an interesting group of women as our dining companions. 

Discussion invariably turned to the issue of abayas.  Our tablemate, a young Saudi businesswoman, told us that she wears the abaya and veil so that people ”will admire my mind and my soul, not my body.”   She kept her veil on throughout the meal, lifting up the edges in order to eat and drink.  This was a refrain I heard from several women on the trip – men wouldn’t be distracted by a woman’s appearance if she were veiled and thus the woman would be taken more seriously for the quality of her intellect.  In theory, this is a compelling argument.  But at the end of the day I’m not sure I buy it.  For one thing, it lets men off the hook a bit too easily.  If I were a man, would I want to believe that I was incapable of controlling myself around women or making rational judgments about their character, skills and talent unless they were functionally invisible to me?   Not to get too Freudian here, but we’re all – men and women alike - subject to irrational, subconscious urges, including sometimes violent and sexual ones.  What makes us human is our ability to rise above these impulses and make choices dictated by reason, not base ‘animal’ instinct (to borrow language from the Enlightenment, which I fully understand is fraught with its own problems).  

This is not to say that I am opposed in general terms to the idea of women covering themselves as a sign of modesty or respect for God.  For example, covering one’s head is a common practice in many faiths.  Catholic women covered their hair in Mass until Vatican II, and Jewish men wear yarmulkes.  In this context, wearing the hijab isn’t much different.  In societies ranging from America and Europe to North Africa and the Middle East, however, people sometimes see the hijab, abaya and veil as having cultural significance far beyond any religious intent.  Clothing can have many meanings for those who wear it and those who observe it being worn.  [Basically the theme of my "Costume and Culture" class at Marlborough!]  The debates that have occurred recently in France and Turkey over whether girls should be allowed to wear head scarves in school are a case in point.  In those countries, is the issue really “religion” or expression of “identity”?  In the past, France has made assimilation a hallmark of its society.  Anything that seems to purposefully differentiate people has been construed as destabilizing to France’s sense of shared values – of “Frenchness.”  It also raises the spectre of France’s colonial past in North Africa.  In Turkey, the issue has more to do with the country’s political self-conception as a secular society dating back to the country’s founder, Kemal Ataturk.  Some Turks worry that wearing the hijab is a visual code that signals support for the creation of a more Islamist political system.  So what does this mean for the women around the globe wearing the hijab?  They must navigate through a minefield of meanings, both intended and unintended, every time they cover their hair! 

Another irony raised by our lunchtime discussion: because Saudi women are not permitted to drive and must be chaperoned at all times, they must employ drivers.  Who are these drivers?  Men!  Almost exclusively men from other countries like Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines.  However, there is no expectation that these foreign men cannot be left alone with the women under their care.  Do these men have no sex drive?  Or are only Saudi men considered so virile that they cannot be trusted alone with a woman?  If so, then that virility and lack of self-control seems to be what is being celebrated in Saudi culture, not the preservation of women’s virtue.   It’s not really about the women and their behavior at all.  Once again, it becomes clear that some restrictions on Saudi women’s actions are the product of culture, not religion – in this case, the macho ethos of the desert, perhaps?

As the conversation got into full swing, we were joined at the table by another woman, a distinguished professor of sociology at King Abdul-Aziz University, the public university in Jeddah.  She does research on women’s issues (often in the face of vocal resistance) and is a staunch advocate for women’s rights. 

 

We were asking about the Qatif rape case (again!).  The Saudi businesswoman at the table said she hadn’t heard anything about the case, but that if the woman had been in a car with a man who wasn’t her husband, she deserved to be punished.  At this point, the sociology professor sighed and said, “The biggest enemies of Saudi women are the women themselves.”  Wow!   She then mentioned the case of Rania, the Saudi television announcer who publicized her abuse by her husband (see yesterday’s blog posting for more information).  Although the professor was appreciative that Rania had brought the issue of domestic violence into the public eye, she also criticized her for then dropping the charges against her husband and forgiving him (this is an option under Sharia law).  Was this cowardice or did she buckle under overwhelming societal pressure?  I’d probably be a bit more inclined toward sympathy for Rania, given what she went through.  It can be lonely to be a whistleblower.  But the professor also has a point in stating that Rania ended up providing ammunition for her critics once she dropped the charges.  I wouldn’t, however, go as far as she did in stating that if Rania hadn’t been prepared to see the process through, perhaps she shouldn’t have started it in the first place.  Rania can’t change it all herself, and asking her to do so is, at least in my humble opinion, probably unfair. 

However, the professor did also reserve some of her criticism for the Saudi government.  For example, Saudi women are not allowed to publicly organize.  She wasn’t even allowed to form a group for female professors at her university – it was thought to be too dangerous! 

More information about the Qatif rape case we learned from the professor:  the rape victim is now suing the government because she says the government slandered her, referring to her as “the guilty one” in the press.  Moreover, the victim is Shiite, not Sunni.  There is a sizeable Shiite minority in northeastern Saudi Arabia near the border with Kuwait and Iraq.  Although many Saudis won’t admit it, there is a high degree of prejudice against Shiites.  Some go as far as to call them “infidels” and “traitors to Allah.”  Would the victim have been made such an example of had she been Sunni, wondered the professor?  Finally, the case has revealed the desperate need for judicial reform in the Kingdom. Saudi Arabia has a chronic shortage of judges.  It can take years to try a case to its conclusion in the courts.  Because of tradition and nepotism, most judges come from Al-Qasim, an extremely conservative desert area.  The judges from this region often hold views out of step with the rest of Saudi society.  When a particularly harsh ruling comes out that shocks the international community, it’s usually been meted out by one of the Qasim judges.  According to the professor, only when more qualified judges are appointed, and only when those judges represent viewpoints more in keeping with mainstream Saudi society, will cases like the Qatif rape trial cease to occur so regularly. 

In October, King Abdullah announced a plan to reform the judiciary by increasing funding for the training of new judges and the creation of a new “supreme court” that is supposed to be more independent of conservative religious authorities than the Supreme Judicial Council, currently the final court of appeal in KSA.  For more information, click on the following link to a recent article from The New Republic (reprinted on the CBS News web site): http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/opinion/main3472820.shtml

After this intense lunchtime conversation, I was ready for a break.  Hanan kept her promise and took me abaya shopping!  In Dhahran Aramco had provided me with a beautifully embroidered abaya, but I wanted to see what it would be like to shop for my own.  Amr, one of our Aramco guides, drove us through the city to a strip mall filled with one abaya store after another.  Amr said that this was where his wife liked to shop.  I settled on a fancy one with sparkles and embroidery up the sides of the bodice as well as on the back.  Again, Hanan performed her bargaining magic and negotiated the price down to a very reasonable sum of less than $50.  Later on, I checked out prices at a regular shopping mall, and abayas virtually identical to the one I purchased were retailing for several hundred dollars!

By the way, I’ve been told several times that the historical origins of the abaya‘s black color go back to mourning for the defeat of the Umayyad Caliphate in Spain.  However, other Muslim societies in which women are expected to dress modestly do not necessarily wear black.  In other words, the Saudi abaya is just one form of female covering worn in the Muslim world.  Many regional variations exist.  Click here for a nice pictorial overview of other forms, including the Afghan burqa and the Iranian chador:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/nation-world/infocus/mideast/islam/veils.html

Our day concluded with an evening of Hijazi culture, music and food at the private Fal Resort on the Red Sea.  Lots of dancing, lots of fun!  See for yourself . . .

That’s Tariq, one of our Aramco guides – he sure can shake those hips!

Masalaamah, until tomorrow!
XOXO, Ms. Atwell

By the way, the sculpture below points in the direction to Mecca.  Jeddah is full of public art . . .

December 9, 2007

Day 6 – Jeddah

Believe it or not, the trip is more than halfway over now.  Fatigue and lack of sleep continues to plague many of us, but the comfy beds and big bathtubs at the Intercontinental Hotel certainly help.  Teachers don’t usually travel in the lap of luxury like this, and believe me, we’re grateful!

My camera has been located and was supposed to be shipped to me at the hotel yesterday, but it still hadn’t arrived by the time we left in the morning.  Much thanks to the Aramco photographer for the pictures below.

Our day began at the Disabled Children’s Association, another school for special needs children.  One of the other teachers on the program, Daniel, teaches at the Governor Morehead School for the Blind in North Carolina.  It was impressive how our Aramco tour guides tried to tailor the itinerary to meet our specific needs as educators.  At this school, we spent most of our time wandering through the corridors and interacting with the children and faculty.  Besides Daniel, a number of educators on the program teach children who have disabilities, whether mental, emotional or physical.  The issue of “mainstreaming” students with disabilities is a hot topic in American pedagogical circles right how.  Marlborough tends to have a much more homogeneous student population than most schools, so I confess I didn’t have much to contribute to the professional discussion.  Most of my students who need additional resources (counseling for learning disabilities or emotional challenges, for example) tend to access them outside of school.  In public school, however, those resources must be provided by the school itself.  If not, where else would the students receive the help they need?  It really made me appreciate how sheltered I am from many educational challenges as a teacher at Marlborough.  It also made me feel a little guilty. So I just hung out with the kids and tried to give them a reason to smile – or at least not scare them too badly! 

[For a more nuanced and informative discussion of this issue (and many others) - not to mention great photos, please read the blog written by my friend Martha Infante, another teacher from Los Angeles:  http://www.lasensei.blogspot.com.   Martha is an insightful, elegant writer, and really funny too.  Getting to know her was one of the many wonderful things about the trip!] 

Next stop on our jam-packed itinerary:  the production plant and editorial offices of The Saudi Gazette, one of two leading English-language newspapers published in KSA.  Check out their web site:  http://www.saudigazette.com.  [The other, with a much larger circulation, is Arab News - http://www.arabnews.com.]  Many on the staff are expatriates but most are Saudis, a large number of whom have studied abroad.  The company that owns The Saudi Gazette also publishes several other Arabic-language periodicals, including the newspaper Okaz and magazines for women and children.  It’s owned by a consortium of independent investors, and editorial direction tends to be progressive since the founder is a former university professor and reform advocate. 

 

Here were are getting a tour of the facilities.  The man in the center of the photo is Essam al-Ghalib, a senior reporter/editor who formerly worked for Al-Jazeera as a war correspondent.  ‘Google’ him and you’ll see for yourself what controversial and dangerous stories he’s covered, including the Iraq War – from inside Baghdad!  Before becoming a journalist, Essam attended Menlo College in Northern California.  He was one of several Saudis I met who went there – what’s the connection, I wonder? 

We also had the opportunity to sit down with several editors and reporters for a roundtable discussion (OK, they were technically on a dais, and we were in the audience, but you get the idea).  What a fascinating conversation!  We asked about virtually everything, with no holds barred:  freedom of the press in Saudi Arabia, the role of women reporters and specific challenges for them in news gathering (my question, of course), how corporate advertising affected editorial decisions, and the future of reform in the KSA.  Here’s some of what we learned:

The Saudi Gazette has been pretty aggressive about reporting on stories that other mainstream Saudi publications have avoided, particularly the Arabic-language press.  Recent stories have discussed male prostitution in Jeddah and domestic violence against women.  The Saudi Gazette was also the first to report within Saudi Arabia on the Qatif rape case.  Its coverage has been supportive of the victim and eager to support the judicial reforms recently proposed by King Abdullah.  This takes courage in a society where, according to one panelist, “there is – and isn’t – freedom of the press.”  There isn’t a First Amendment here.  Criticism of certain subjects, including Islam and the Saudi royal family, remain taboo.  The government might also advise the paper to quash or tone down a story that might inflame public opinion to the point of inciting civil unrest.  Essam used the example of recent events in Pakistan surrounding President Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of martial law and the return of political exiles.  Because of the sizeable Pakistani community in Saudi Arabia (most of whom work in the service industries), coverage of this explosive issue was muted. 

Otherwise, overt government interference in the press has substantially abated over the past five years.  The biggest issue is really self-censorship.  The editors saw it as their duty to provoke and inform, but not to outrage readers’ sensibilities to the point where they would be unwilling to listen to new points of view.  That would be counterproductive.  Thus, the newspaper doesn’t really criticize the tenets of Sharia law, although it might criticize its uneven or improper application in certain cases.  Moreover, the paper doesn’t publish the names of victims or perpatrators except in rare circumstances, in order to avoid damaging family honor or inciting violence against those mentioned.  Photographs of women likewise appear less frequently than those of men.  [For a more complete overview of press freedoms in Saudi Arabia, check out the website of the International Committee to Protect Journalists: http://cpj.org/Briefings/2006/saudI_06/saudi_06.html]

Nevertheless, the press does have some clout.  Essam pointed to a recent story investigated by Okaz about a hospital holding a baby as collateral to make a poor family pay for medical expenses.  Okaz gave the hospital an ultimatum: release the baby or we’ll bury you in bad press.  The baby was released within four hours.

If you have time, I highly encourage you to visit the web sites of both The Saudi Gazette and Arab News and search for “Qatif” and “rape.”   The public dialogue about the issue is fascinating.  Many in Saudi Arabia acknowledge that the case has severely tarnished Saudi Arabia’s international reputation.  One even noted the irony of Saudi Arabia celebrating International Elimination of Violence Against Women Day just after the latest draconian ruling!  Others blame the international media for turning the case into a wholesale indictment of Saudi society and values.  I also found instructive the segue found in many of these articles to the more general topic of violence against women in Saudi Arabia.  There’s a lot more going on right now than many of us in the West realize (and lots more related issues to deal with in Saudi culture too!).  This case really seems to have galavanized public opinion, at least within more progressive sectors of society.  Perhaps some good may finally come out this disheartening, brutal episode in Saudi history.

Financial considerations sometimes also sometimes enter into editorial decisions, just as they do in the US.  Essam told us about a story he proposed having to do with environmental and health concerns over McDonald’s use of polystyrene containers in the Kingdom  Health advocates in the US have already succeeded in pressuring McDonald’s domestically to abandon styrofoam Big Mac cartons in favor of paper.  Why not in Saudi Arabia?  Answer:  McDonald’s is a big advertiser in the paper.  Nevertheless, the story may still go to print.  [Update: The Saudi Gazette just published the article - December 8, 2007!]

 One comment that surprised many of us came from that hard-charging crusader for human rights, the reporter Essam.  He was quite critical of the Western media’s monolithic and stereotypical depictions of Saudi Arabia.  We had been peppering him and his colleagues with questions about controversial - and admittedly negative – stories concerning Saudi Arabia.  He told us that he sometimes felt used by the Western media, who didn’t really want his help in understanding Saudi Arabia, just in crucifying it.  Essam has close contacts at all the major Western news outlets, such as The New York Times.  They discuss stories and sources, as all journalists do, and occasionally Essam will even feed them a story from inside the Kingdom that his own paper is constrained from covering.  He also collaborates with these journalists when they need “eyes and ears” inside the country.    Recently, he was contacted by the producers of Oprah concerning a special show about violence against women around the globe.  He agreed to interview Rania al-Baz, a Saudi television newscaster who had been beaten severely by her husband and chose to go public with her story, even allowing herself to be photographed in the hospital.  Rania was pilloried by many conservative Saudis, who said that she must have deserved it and had brought dishonor on her family for daring to air its “dirty laundry” in public.   Rania’s case became big news all over the globe and helped to raise the curtain on domestic violence within the Arab world, along with such other issues as honor killings and child abuse of daughters.  Today, Rania works in Lebanon, having been effectively chased from her home in Saudi Arabia by death threats.  Essam was well familiar with Rania’s case, and had covered it sympathetically in his own paper.  Yet he felt betrayed by Oprah when the final episode appeared.  What he had been led to believe was a show about domestic violence around the globe had morphed into a show about women’s lives around the world.  Positive, hopeful images of women in other countries were juxtaposed against the horrific tale of Rania’s abuse, first at the hands of her husband and second at the hands of Saudi public opinion.  

[For more, here is a link to an article Essam wrote about the experience for Arab News: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=66540&d=7&m=7&y=2005.  At the time, he was working as a reporter at Arab News, the first media outlet to break Rania's story.  Here's another editorial by a female writer at the paper about the Oprah controversy: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=9§ion=0&article=66215&d=3&m=7&y=2005.  And here's the Oprah show's web site about the program: http://www.oprah.com/tows/slide/200504/20050425/slide_20050425_109.jhtml]

If you think about it, Essam does have a point.  What did you know about Saudi Arabia (and women in Saudi Arabia) before beginning to read my blog?  What did I myself know and what did I focus on?  I admit that my points of reference were pretty narrow, and I’m a world history teacher!  Most of my information comes from the media, just as yours does.   And what if the shoe were on the other foot?  Imagine if everyone who asked you about going to school in America focused only on Columbine?  Or if everyone assumed that America’s views on human rights are defined exclusively by Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib?  Or that you, as a young American woman, must necessarily have the moral rectitude and fashion sense of Britney Spears?

And now to my question about female reporters in Saudi Arabia:  Women have been working as journalists in Saudi Arabia for just a short time.   There are almost no Saudi training programs for women in journalism (although this is beginning to change), so most must go abroad to learn their trade.  In theory, female journalists are permitted cover all of the same stories as men, but in practice interviewees sometimes refuse to meet with a woman, so a man must cover the story instead.  [Obviously, women don't "embed" with military forces either.]  To help remedy this situation, The Saudi Gazette has inaugurated a paid summer nternship program for students.  It occurred to me that in terms of recruiting the best female journalists, The Saudi Gazette and Arab News are in a great position because most men training to be journalists prefor to go to work for Arabic-language papers.  I’d love to set up a conversation betwee the Marlborough Ultraviolet staff and the female reporters of The Saudi Gazette!

The discussion about female journalists (and what constitutes appropriate behavior for women in the public sphere in Saudi society) led into the subject of the Muttawiyyah, or the religious police.  [Their official moniker is the Orwellian-sounding "Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice."]  Essam was careful to say that the Muttawiyyah are “a necessary part of our culture.”  However, he did say that their tactics in the past have sometimes been heavyhanded.  He pointed to the tragic fire at a girls’ school in 2002, when members of the Muttawiyyah ordered fleeing girls back into the burning building because they couldn’t be seen outside without their abayas, hijabs and veils.  Many girls got lost inside the smoke and flames and couldn’t find their way back out again.  Thirty perished.  This episode caused such outrage among certain sectors of Saudi society that the Muttawiyyah were forced to undergo “sensitivity training.”  Moreover, they are no longer allowed to beat people on the street whom they accuse of behaving immodestly.  Now, they must be accompanied by a policeman, who will instead mete out any punishment. [One fun fact: in 2006, the Muttawiyyah banned the sale and ownership of pets as a pernicious Western influence.  Click here for an article explaining the rationale for the ban, which applies to Jeddah and Mecca (guess you're not coming with me next time, Humphrey!!!): http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/fea/pets/stories/090906dnintsaudidogscats.7d3afade.html]

 One final surprise awaited me at the offices of The Saudi Gazette:  a familiar face from Marlborough!  Steve Westfall, who used to work as in the communications office at Marlborough, now works in production design and layout at the Gazette‘s Jeddah headquarters.  Unbeknownst to many of us at Marlborough, Steve grew up in Saudi Arabia in a family of expats, and many of his close relatives still live there.  It was great to see him doing so well.

Lunch was at a beautiful seafood restaurant overlooking the water.   Once again, we met with female business and education leaders.  Check out those fancy abayas!  Saudi women certainly prove that being smart and being beautiful are not mutually exclusive.

That afternoon, things began to get complicated once we returned to the hotel for a break.  Bianca, a media specialist from Kansas, tripped on the hem of her abaya as she descended the steps of the bus and broke her leg!  Our Aramco hosts escorted her to the hospital for treatment.  She reappeared several hours later in a wheelchair with a cast on her foot.  Because Mike, Hanan and the other people whom we relied on to keep us in line were gone helping Bianca, chaos ensued.  It’s a miracle we made it to our next appointment!  Of course, I bear a substantial bit of responsibility because I inadvertently held up the bus while trying to buy a new camera.  Mine still hadn’t arrived from Dhahran by the evening, so I went to find one in the hotel gift shop.  When it became clear that this wasn’t going to be an easy transaction (the store didn’t take credit cards so that meant a cash advance from the hotel front desk, the store clerk didn’t speak English and I didn’t speak Arabic, etc.), I ran outside to the bus to tell our Aramco handlers to leave without me.  That message somehow didn’t get transferred and I can imagine that there must have been a lot of unhappy people on the bus wondering what was going on.  Eventually, the bus did leave without me and I got a ride later, new camera in hand.  Having traveled in groups before, I can tell you that NO ONE wants to be the person who inconveniences the entire group, just as no one wants to be inconvenienced themselves.  I was convinced that my fellow travelers would label me as some sort of selfish prima donna – the stereotypical California airhead.  That’s my own neurosis, and I know it’s absurd – but that’s why it’s a neurosis, right? 

Before dinner we toured the Safeya Binzagr Art Gallery.  Ms. Binzagr specializes in painting scenes of vanishing Saudi traditional life.  She built an entire museum to house her collection and to host an art school for Saudi women.  Below, our tour guide introduces some of the artist’s work to us:

Ms. Binzagr also collects antique textiles and clothing, which of course was right up my alley!  Here’s a picture of two antique wedding gowns.  Traditional Saudi wedding attire in many regions used to be green.

 

During our gallery tour, the evening call to prayer took place.  I snuck downstairs for a peek. 

After the tour, we headed to the Nuit d’Or restaurant for yet another gourmet meal and intense exchange of ideas. 

Our host for the evening was Sheikh Amr Khashoggi, one of Saudi Arabia’s leading businessmen and philanthropists.   

  

Mr. Khashoggi spoke frankly to us about the vast challenges facing Saudi Arabia’s youth.  He used the word “youthquake” to describe the effects of demographic change coming to the Kingdom.  Today, over half of the population are under the age of 20.  This isn’t surprising in a country with growing access to health care and an average family size of 7-8 children.  How will the Kingdom educate these young people, and where will the good jobs come from?  Mr. Khashoggi warned that the current generation of Saudi youth had been spoiled by their parents and would need to rethink their aversion to work in the service sector. 

I asked how he thought the rapid urbanization of Saudi Arabia would affect the environmental, political and socio-economic development of the country, given the challenges it has created for other rapidly modernizing nations around the globe.  Here I am, soaking up his every word!  I found Mr. Khashoggi to be one of the most brilliant and impassioned advocates for Saudi Arabia’s future that I met on the trip.  He has devoted much of his life in recent years to opening dialogue with the US in order to reduce extremism in both countries and to foster greater mutual understanding.  I really admire him for that. 

Click here to learn more about Mr. Khashoggi – another graduate of Menlo College and a board member of Effat College - I’m beginning to see a pattern!  http://www.saudi-us-relations.org/newsletter2004/saudi-relations-interest-10-18.html

By the way, ”Khashoggi” isn’t a Saudi name – it’s Turkish.  Mr. Khashoggi’s family has been in Saudi Arabia a long time but the surname shows how diverse settlement in Jeddah has historically been.  And yes, Mr. Khashoggi does hail from the same family as Adnan Khashoggi, the infamous international arms dealer and businessman implicated as a middleman in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s.  Another famous family member = Samira, the mother of Dodi Fayed, the Harrods department store heir who died with Princess Diana in the Paris tunnel car crash.

Here are a few more photos from the evening, for your enjoyment!

A senior Saudi bank executive addresses a question, surrounded by our local Jeddah Aramco hosts

Dinner!  (That’s Martha, the other teacher from LA, in the middle) Some parting thoughts for today: Everywhere you look, change seems to be occurring exponentially in Saudi Arabia.  Yet, “it’s important to go slow” – this was a refrain I heard repeatedly, both at The Saudi Gazette and elsewhere.  “It took you more than 200 years to get where you are today in America – we’ve only been at it for less than 50!”  We in the US want and expect everyone to be like us – right now.  It certainly won’t take Saudi Arabia another 200 years to create a truly open, democratic and egalitarian society, but it won’t be overnight either.  Nor should we expect that the solutions eventually adopted by Saudis to their problems will be the ones we would have proposed.  Being equal doesn’t necessarily mean being the same.With much love, Ms. Atwell

December 8, 2007

Day 5 – Jeddah

There’s a saying in Saudia Arabia: “Jeddah is different.”  And even after one day in the city, I think I’m beginning to see why.  Jeddah is one of the most cosmopolitan cities in Saudi Arabia; its cuisine, architecture and social mores all seem relatively relaxed and multi-cultural.  If you think Saudi Arabia is one big desert oil field, Jeddah will change your mind.  Women routinely wear their hair half covered, like this (OK, maybe not this loose; I’m still trying to master the art of the hijab).  Abayas are more colorfully decorated.

 

Perhaps it’s the Red Sea air?  Perhaps it’s the Hijazi culture, based on fishing, urban pleasures and trade rather than on Bedouin nomadic traditions?  Perhaps it’s the diversity of peoples living here, some of whom came to trade, some of whom came to pray, and some of whom came looking for opportunity?

Jeddah’s history long predates the establishment of Islam in the seventh century CE.  Because of its location along the western coast of the Arabian Peninsula, Jeddah lay along the north-south and east-west trading routes linking Eurasia and Africa.  According to legend, the tomb of the Biblical Eve is even located here.  The city’s name supposedly derives from the Arabic word for ”grandmother,” a reference to Eve.   At a minimum the city is at least 2,500 years old, and possibly older. 

Soon after the Prophet Muhammad’s death, Jeddah was designated as the gateway for Muslim pilgrims traveling to Mecca on the Hajj.  [The Hajj is the religious pilgrimage to Mecca that all Muslims, if physically and financially able, must perform at least once in their lifetimes, according to the Five Pillars of Islam.]  Because of Jeddah’s central location near the confluence of the spice and silk trading routes, not to mention contact with pilgrims from the farthest reaches of Dar-al-Islam (the “House of Islam” or Islamic territories), it incorporated cultural influences from virtually all of the great Islamic dynasties in the Middle East, including the Umayyads, Abbasids, Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans.  African and Indian influences are visible too.  The rulers of the Hijaz region, known as sharifs, had a certain degree of independence even as subjects of other empires due to their control over Mecca and Medina, Islam’s two holiest sites. 

Jeddah in 1924 – thank you, Wikipedia!

Today, Jeddah is the second-largest city in KSA after Riyadh, the capital.  Many industries and companies are headquartered here.  Jeddah also has a buzzing cafe scene, sophisticated restaurants and hip shopping.  Private resorts line the waterfront just a few miles from the city, where traditional restrictions on behavior and dress are muted.  Frequently, Saudis from other cities told me that they come to Jeddah to relax and have fun.

Of course, OUR trip to Jeddah wasn’t all sun and surf – we had lots of professional meetings lined up as well.  We began Day 5 at Effat College, the first private college for women in Saudi Arabia, founded in 1999.  The college takes its name from Queen Effat, the wife of King Faisal (ruled 1964-1975), who helped promote the cause of women’s education until her death in 2000.  Today Effat College enrolls 367 students in eight majors, including engineering, information systems, psychology, early childhood education and business.

Effat College’s origins lie in Queen Effat’s efforts to establish a school for elite girls in Jeddah in the 1950s.  At the time, she met with a great deal of resistance.  People were worried that schooling would undermine traditional values.  Effat instead decided to open an orphanage/boarding school for girls.  Ironically, many of the same upper-class women who had initially resisted Effat’s idea of a school for their daughters now changed their minds and pressed her to educate their daughters!  With the orphanage as the nucleus, a new primary school opened in 1956 and a high school in 1963, under the leadership of Mrs. Hanan Ruzhdi.  Ms. Ruzhdi told us this story during an open forum in the Effat College atrium (she’s seated on the far left of the table). 

  

Ms. Ruzhdi was also instrumental in the establishment of public schools for girls throughout Saudi Arabia.  In 1961, less than 5,000 girls in the KSA received a primary school education; public secondary school education for girls didn’t exist until 1971.  In part this was a function of cultural conservatism and in part it was due to a lack of teachers – the first teacher training college for women didn’t open until 1971.  Today, all girls receive free public education up through high school.  What an inspirational leader!

Despite the remarkable gains that Saudi women have made in the educational arena over the past 40 years, much still remains to be done, particularly with regard to higher education.  Ms. Ruzhdi reminded us that private colleges and universities were only legalized in the late 1990s.  Since these are fee-based institutions, they cater primarily to the upper and middle classes.  [Scholarships do exist, however.]  Public universities (which do not charge tuition) number only five in the entire Kingdom, and thus opportunities for lower-income women to access higher education remain iffy.  Moreover, jobs for female graduates are still limited.  Although women may now work in banking, government, business, engineering, education, journalism and medicine, they may not practice law or pursue a variety of other professions on an equal footing with men.

For students at Effat College, however, the future looks pretty good.  Currently, 29 nationalities are represented among the students and faculty, although 75% are Saudi.  65% of Effat College graduates are either employed or working toward a post-graduate degree.  Many students travel abroad to complete special research projects or to take internships with multi-national corporations.  The school also hopes to produce well-rounded young women.  Thus, it promotes physical education and outside hobbies.  Extracurricular interest groups include a book club, a fashion club, a computer club, an Islam club, an art club, a journalism club and a photography club.

I asked whether “well rounded” also meant that Effat College students gain exposure to other areas of intellectual inquiry beyond their majors, most of which are quite vocational.  [Here I am, microphone in hand - stirring up trouble!]

 

I was glad to hear that Effat College has a required general studies program offering classes in literature, history and other humanities subjects.  Unfortunately, this is not the case in Saudi Arabia’s public universities.  There, students take courses in their major field of study exclusively.

We also had the opportunity to hear from some current students at Effat College.  One young woman is conducting epidemiological research on the incidence of sexual abuse in Saudi Arabia.  This sounded really impressive until she was asked about the Qatif gang rape case (see earlier blog posts).  She didn’t know much about the particulars of that case (not surprising, since it hasn’t been covered that well by the Arabic-language Saudi press), but she did argue that most sexual attacks against women were probably provoked because the women were wearing revealing clothing!  In other words, women need to wear abayas because if they don’t and they’re raped, it’s their own fault.  At this point, an interesting exchange occurred between the student and one of the professors, who sharply rebuked her for blaming the victims. 

And this is when I learned a profoundly important piece of information about the history of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia:  strict segregation by gender and legally mandated covering of the female body only emerged in Saudi society in the 1970s!  Before this, women and men mixed more freely in social situations and fewer women wore the veil and even the abaya.  Of course, women in the most conservative desert areas still dressed and behaved according to old tribal customs, but many women in cities did not.   As political turmoil in the Middle East increased during the 1970s and the pace of economic and social change quickened due to the massive influx of petro-dollars into the Kingdom, society became more conservative.  New laws, regulations and social norms were introduced that dominate our contemporary Western ideas about Saudi society.  These new norms were justified through religion, and reified as being the only way to live according to the true precepts of Islam.   Of course, I guess this really shouldn’t have been such a surprise.  Similar things have happened in recent decades all over the world.  Think about Afghanistan under the Taliban.   Until the 199os, women worked, wore make-up and jeans (not burqas!), and went to school.  Same thing in Iran – until the Islamic Revolution in 1979, women wore mini skirts in Tehran.  Nor is this phenomenon confined to Muslim countries in the throes of rapid modernization.  Don’t forget when and why the “religious right” came to the fore in American politics!  Likewise, the resurgence of support for the Communist Party in Russia during the 1990s had little to do with affection for “Uncle Joe” Stalin.  It did, however, have everything to do with fears about the breakdown of civil order and growing economic inequality.  In other words, culture is not static – in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else.  It’s a product of a particular time and circumstance.  You certainly can’t blame Islam for Saudi Arabia’s prohibition against women driving, but you can blame anxiety about modernization and the loss/fragmentation of cultural identity.  After all, Muhammad’s wives Khadijah and Aisha certainly knew how to ride camels!  Aisha even rode into battle on one.  [Or maybe it was a horse, but you get the point.]

Another student described her struggles to balance motherhood with her studies.  I was really pleased to hear this perspective expressed, since it’s a big issue not only in Saudi Arabia but also in the United States.  Although our typical image of a college student is an 18-year old fresh out of high school, in the US the average college student is much older than that.  Many have children and/or work outside of school to support their families.  We don’t do a very good job helping these young women succeed, and I hope Effat College can provide a more supportive environment.  In their case, it’s a necessity since so many Saudi women marry young.

Two more surprising things I learned during our session at Effat College: first, all girls receive sexual education in high school in both religion and biology classes.  Second, Saudi Arabia is in the midst of a huge breast cancer awareness campaign.  Public outreach workers are approaching women in shopping malls to encourage them to make appointments for mammograms, and one professor at Effat was even wearing the pink breast cancer symbol embroidered on her hijab and abaya!

Our day continued with a tour of the International Medical Center (IMC), Jeddah’s newest hospital.  The IMC was created in partnership with the Cleveland Clinic to offer cutting-edge treatment in the context of Islamic medical practices and precepts.  The hospital even has real-time audio-visual links between operating theaters in Cleveland and Jeddah, so that doctors can collaborate during procedures.  How cool – it sounds like something you’d see on an episode of “House!” 

During the medieval era, Islamic doctors were the most advanced in the world.  At a time when European Christian doctors would perform a demon exorcism first, amputate a limb second, and ask questions third, Muslim doctors developed the first infectious disease wards and wrote meticulously observed textbooks that remained in use in Europe until the eighteenth century.  Muslim doctors have long believed in holistic medicine – treating the soul as well as the body.  In recent years, this has also come into vogue in Western medical circles.  As a result, every hospital room has a view out onto a garden, and is filled with natural light.  The walls of public spaces are decorated with verses from the Qur’an designed to comfort patients and their loved ones.  The maternity ward even has its own long terrace trellised with flowers, foliage and fountains where pregnant women can walk during labor to ease pain and hasten childbirth.  Below is a picture of the main window in the hospital’s foyer.

 

Another surprising thing about the IMC?  Its fees for medical procedures!  In the United States, the typical cost of a heart bypass operation is approximately $60,000 to $70,000.  In Saudi Arabia, even at a more expensive facility like the IMC, the same treatment would cost about $10,000 inclusive of all tests and follow-up care.   In certain countries like Mexico and India, “medical tourism” has become big business, as Americans travel abroad for elective surgeries that aren’t fully covered by their insurance back home.  I wonder if Saudi Arabia envisions itself as a medical tourist destination in the future?  Of course, they’d have to open the country up to tourists first . . .

By the way, approximately 25% of the doctors on staff at the IMC are women.  This number seems pretty high until you remember that medicine is one of the few professions that has been open to women for some time.  Initially, female doctors could only treat female patients.  Now, however, they may treat both men and women (same thing goes for male doctors).  Nevertheless, cultural taboos still can hamper medical treatment for women.  For example, in many cases men will still accompany their wives/daughters to the doctor, and the doctor will speak exclusively with HIM about the woman’s symptoms.  The patient herself is never consulted!  Moreover, a woman must still obtain her male guardian’s permission for medical treatment.  What does a woman do if the reason she needs medical treatment is that she’s being physically abused by her husband??  Nor can a woman leave the country for any reason, including for medical treatment, without male consent.  We also heard a horrific story (not from the hospital staff, of course) about a woman who drove her husband to the hospital because he was suffering a heart attack, and she was then punished by the authorities for having the temerity to drive the car!  With good reason, these issues are ones that figure prominently on the agenda of women’s rights activists in Saudi Arabia.

By the way, almost all buildings in Saudi Arabia, whether schools or hospitals or airports or government offices, have an area designated for prayer.  Here is the prayer area in the hospital.  [This photo, along with all others on today's blog entry, were taken by the official Aramco photographer, since my camera is still somewhere in Dhahran.] 

 

Muslims are expected to pray five times per day (another of the Five Pillars of Islam), although in the Sunni tradition it is acceptable to combine some prayers for a total of 3 prayer sessions per day.  Men should pray publicly, while women should pray in private or in the home.  Mosques often have screened-off areas for women so that they cannot be seen by the rest of the congregants.  As a result, we almost never saw women at prayer.  Even when our female Aramco guides went to pray, they did so away from view.  One reason might be a Hadith (religious saying/teaching attributed to the Prophet Muhammad, but not contained in the Qur’an) stating that men receive 30 blessings from Allah for praying in the mosque, while women receive 30 blessings from Allah for praying at home.  Why? Muhammad recognized that women’s principal role in society at the time was to raise hildren, and he didn’t want women to neglect their domestic responsibilities by leaving her children alone while they went to the mosque to pray.  It was a practical response designed to make women’s lives easier, not to repress them by keeping them out of the public sphere, as we would view it today (thank you, French Enlightenment!).

Of course, no day on the Aramco Educators Trip would be complete without a gourmet lunch.  Today’s feast took place at Byblos, a chic restaurant serving Lebanese cuisine.  What a meal!  Here we are, enjoying the appetizers. 

 

I was fascinated by the appearance at a nearby table of two young Saudi women who looked like they’d just stepped off the pages of Vogue.  Neither one covered her hair, and both unbuttoned their abayas to reveal the latest designer fashions.  Topping off the ensembles?  Huge Christian Dior sunglasses.  I felt like I was in Paris during Fashion Week, not in Jeddah two weeks before Ramadan.  Seated to my left (and not visible in the photo) was a woman in her 40s who worked as a branch manager in the women’s section of a commercial bank.  [Women work with women, and men work with men.]  She was divorced, like me.  I confess that I really pumped her for information about what it was like to be a divorced woman in Saudi Arabia.  She seemed pretty content with her situation, particularly with the freedom it gave her to pursue her own interests, work opportunities and friendships, but there was one major downside – contact with her children.  Once her son and daughter reached puberty, her ex-husband took custody.  [Men automatically get custody of children after the age of 7 if they want it, according to Saudi family law.]  They now live with him in the Eastern Province, several hours away by plane.  She sees them regularly, and she’s on good terms with her ex-husband, but that’s got to be hard.  Interestingly, she didn’t seem to disagree with the traditional Saudi notion that adolescent girls should be raised by their fathers rather than their mothers.  She thought that fathers were better suited to supervise their daughters’ activities, particularly as they related to the opposite sex.  Would you agree?  In the US, by contrast, family courts have traditionally granted custody of children to the mother, except in rare instances, because conventional wisdom has held that women are more nurturing.  This is beginning to change now because of  challenges by divorced fathers who want to play a bigger role in the lives of their children.  It will be interesting to see whether Saudi Arabia modifies its family law code as it modernizes other aspects of its legal system related to women’s rights, as well as whether the US legal system can become more gender netural as well. 

Before dinner we visited Anqawi House, the personal residence of one of Saudi Arabia’s leading architects.  Mr. Anqawi designed the building, and Mrs. Anqawi designed the interiors.  [Here she is, peeking through the front door.]

 

The house is a marvel of Islamic architecture, both modern and traditional.  Every corner held another surprise: intricate wooden carvings, sophisticated tile mosaics, soaring arches, elegant paisley fabrics, rustic kilims, colorful stained glass, lush greenery.  Bill Clinton came here to swim in the pool, and I can understand why!  Here is one view of the main atrium.

Below is a dining area in one of the sitting rooms.  The table actually rises up from the floor by a hydraulic lift!

We finished the day with an elegant meal at Le Ciel Restaurant, atop one of Jeddah’s main commercial buildings.  The restaurant rotated 360 degrees while we ate.  The room was so ornate – with gilded paneling and velvet everywhere - that we might as well have been at Versailles!  Our dinner companions were, once again leading female educators and some of their students.  At my table, I chatted with two remarkable young women.  The first, pictured below, plans to study in London next year.  She’s a business major.  [And yes, gentlemen, she really IS that gorgeous.]

The second young woman was even more spectactular.  Meet Manal Bakur Quota, the 2006 student commencement speaker at UCLA! 

 

Manal currently works as an account executive at Hill & Knowlton, a well known international public relations firm.  Speakking with Manal was a revelation – so smart, funny, opinionated and down to earth.  She answered all of our questions and more.  Over winter break she’ll be returning to UCLA, and I hope she’ll be able to come speak at Marlborough.  Girls, you’ll love her!  For more information about Manal (and to read some articles she’s written), click on the following links:

http://spotlight.ucla.edu/students/manal-quota_saudi/

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/Saudi-Arabian-Super-Achiever-to-7125.aspx?RelNum=7125

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=67602&d=28&m=7&y=2005

http://www.international.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=22162

http://www.today.ucla.edu/2006/060815voices_quota.html

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=67858&d=2&m=8&y=2005

I asked Manal how her family felt about her success and all the attention she’s received.  She said that while her immediate family has been unstintingly supportive, there had  been issues at times with members of her extended family.  Some thought she was bringing shame and dishonor upon them by being so outspoken and having her photograph appear in the press.  Those family members pressured her father and mother to “rein her in,” but to their credit they just encouraged her more.  If you want to see the promise that Saudi Arabia’s future can hold, look no further.  Change is occurring incrementally, and perhaps unevenly, but still far more quickly than I ever expected. 

On that hopeful note, “Masa el khair” – Good night!

December 7, 2007

Day 4 – Dhahran

Day 4 ended our tour of the Eastern Provinces.  But before leaving for the airport in the late afternoon to travel to Jeddah, we still had a full schedule of school visits and other activities.  This may explain some of the mishaps that befell me later on in the day – or I might just be a klutz!  More on this later . . .

The first stop on our itinerary was one of the schools run by Saudi Aramco for its expatriate employees.  It was located on the Dhahran compound, not far from Steineke Hall.  Aramco sponsors primary and middle schools (up through 9th grade) throughout KSA for the dependents of expatriate employees.  There are no high schools because Aramco prefers that expatriates send their high school-aged children away to boarding school in the US or elsewhere abroad.  Aramco will even pay full tuition!  When asked why, the superintendent gave a cryptic answer about problems high school students sometimes caused on the compound.   What did he mean – being teenagers????  Of course, some parents don’t want to send their children away to boarding school, so a few local day school options off the compound are now available, but they aren’t run by Aramco.

In total, the superintendent of Aramco schools oversees five facilities serviing 1,560 students and 920 families.  52% of the students are American, with 12% from Canada, 4% from Egypt and Jordan, and 3% from Malaysia.  Only 3% of the student population is Saudi.  More than 270 faculty and staff work at these schools.  Below are some pictures of the middle school we visited.   Given the low-slung pastel-colored buildings filled with American accents and colorful art projects, we might as well have been at a school anywhere in California!  [Well, maybe not at Marlborough, because there were boys too!]

 

The Aramco schools reached their highest enrollment in the mid-1980s, but after a terrorist attack on a foreigner compound in Riyadh (NOT one run by Aramco), many families left.  It seems that the population is rising again, but I wonder how long that will ultimately last, given Aramco’s efforts to “Saudize” their workforce as much as possible?  Aramco first established the schools in the 1950s in order to attract and retain a high-quality international workforce.  Although the school we visited sometimes seemed like a little slice of America (see picture below from Halloween (NOT a Saudi holiday)), the educators there do work hard to give their students a more international perspective in keeping with the school’s location and student body.  World history is studied in ninth grade. The schools sponsor overseas travel every year to places like Kenya, Switzerland and Korea.  They also participate in overseas service learning programs; last year students helped build a school in Zululand.  Sound familiar, Marlborough?

 

I’ve often thought it would be interesting to teach in a school overseas.  Several teachers on our program even slipped the superintendent their resumes!  [Not me, though.] The pay and retirement package is quite attractive – much better than most teachers earn in the States.  For example, a teacher with 8 years’ experience and an M.A. degree could expect to earn about $97,000.  However, as a single woman, I think I would find the restrictions on my movements and behavior in Saudi Arabia too onerous.  On the other hand, I did receive several invitations from private universities in Saudi Arabia to come and teach history.  I’d certainly consider that on a short-term basis, perhaps for a semester or a year.  

So, why teach overseas? Marlborough students are unusually well informed about global affairs (or at least they are by the time they get through with MY class – right, AP Worldsters???), but most American students fall woefully behind their peers overseas in this regard.  And there really is no substitute for getting out there and experiencing other cultures firsthand.  One shortcoming of the Aramco schools, in my humble opinion – and not really their fault – is the relative lack of interaction with Saudi society.  While the school used to take field trips within the Kingdom, this has become harder to do because of security concerns.

Next we visited the Sumua Al-Amal School for Special Education.  The school treats children with both physical and mental challenges from several months after birth until age 40.  The school was founded by an ex-Aramco executive whose son was born with a disability.   The facilities are state of the art.  Two aspects of the school particularly impressed me.  First was the vocational program for highly functioning students.  In order to raise money, the school has contracted with a perfume manufacturer to bottle and sell fragrances.  The students transfer the fragrance to the bottles and package it.  Second, the school aims to help its students function in mainstream Saudi society.  Traditionally people with disabilities were hidden away from view – not only in Saudi Arabia but in many cultures.  It was even common in the United States until quite recently.  [Did you know that President John F. Kennedy had a mentally challenged older sister who was forced to undergo a lobotomy by Kennedy's father in order to "control her behavior" so that she wouldn't "embarrasss" the family?  That happened in 1941!]  The Sumua Al-Amal school built an entire street, complete with stoplights, storefronts and automobiles, so that students can learn to navigate their way through basic daily activities.  Here are some pictures from the center.  The street is shown below, along with some of the teachers from the school performing physical therapy.

Purpose-Built “Saudi Street”

We ate lunch at Heritage Village, a building that houses both a museum of artifacts from the Eastern Province and a restaurant.  It looked a bit like the set of Aladdin, but it was still gorgeous.

 

Here I am at Heritage Village in my abaya and hijab, trying to blend in.  Not really happening, is it? 

 

We finished our day at the home of another retired Aramco employee.  His wife has devoted the past 20 years to collecting artwork, artifacts and other treasures of Saudi history and culture, which she displays in their home. [Here they are in one of their several living rooms.]

  

On the living room wall, she even has a fragment of the fabric covering the Ka’ba shrine in Mecca!   As you can see, the embroidery is exquisite. [By the way, that's Hanadi, one of our Aramco guides, sitting in the chair.]

Because of my Costume and Culture class, I was particularly interested in the couple’s extensive collection of regional costumes.  Here I am trying on a nineteenth-century wedding mantle from the Najd region. 

 

And here I am in a wedding headdress from Afghanistan. 

After this, we headed to the airport for the flight to Jeddah.   By this point in the trip, I was operating under a serious sleep deficit.  No matter what I tried, I couldn’t sleep more than four hours a night. Thus, by the time we left Steineke Hall for the airport, I was a wreck.  I can only hope that this explains the series of unfortunate events that ensued.  Within the space of a few hours, I managed to lose the following items: (a) digital camera (fell out of my backpack on the bus to the airport), (b) bag containing the Fulla doll souveneirs I purchased in the Dammam airport (left them in the overhead bin on the airplane), and (c) my cashmere sweater (dropped it somewhere in the Jeddah airport).  Of these three items, I only recovered the Fulla dolls.  GRRR!!!

Let’s hope tomorrow is a better day, and that I get my head screwed on straighter. I don’t have much left of value in my luggage to lose!

December 6, 2007

Day 3 – Dhahran

Another full day in the Eastern Province!  After breakfast at Steineke Hall, we boarded the bus to tour the Dhahran Ahliyyah Schools, located in Dammam.  These private schools (one for boys and one for girls) were founded by an American couple in 1977.  The schools educate students from pre-kindergarten through high school.  Because the schools are segregated by gender, we headed to the girls’ section.  800 females are enrolled in the girls’ section, and 1000 in the boys’ section.  Since this was our first school visit in Saudi Arabia, I was amazed by the modern facilities, the high standard of English spoken by the students, and the vitality of the learning community as a whole.  Here is what the hallways look like – pretty nice, don’t you think?

 

First, we visited a 12th-grade Global Studies class, in which the girls discussed issues related to resource management and conservation.   The teacher, a young woman who spoke flawless English (she’d studied at the University of Washington and in London), led a highly interactive discussion in which students worked in teams to answer questions about energy usage and sources in Saudi Arabia, China and the United States.  The girls knew a lot about the latest energy technologies, including wind power, hybrid cars and even energy-saving lightbulbs!  The room was filled with computers – and it even had a Smart Board projector!  I confess that I hadn’t expected such a sophisticated level of technology integration into classrooms, nor such modern teaching methods. 

Once the lesson was finished, we were given the opportunity to ask the girls a few questions.  I described Marlborough’s “Costume and Culture” class  and then asked about the abaya: how did they feel about wearing it?  Many girls responded that they saw the abaya as a means of personal expression.  They loved shopping for abayas and choosing designs/decoration they felt represented their personalities.  The girls typically bought three abayas per year, each with different ornamentation and different cut.  Sleeves can be bell-shaped, slim-fitting or loose, with slits or tassels or frog clasps.  The body can be loose, tapered, seamed or even shirred.  What a switch from typical Western preconceptions that abayas serve to erase individuality!  Several girls also mentioned that they found the abaya comfortable to wear.  You can wear virtually anything underneath, and no one will know!  Moreover, each region has its own style of abaya, as well as its way to wear the hijab (head scarf), depending on the character and degree of conservatism of the city.  How much hair is showing, how much ornamentation?  I had no idea. 

This discussion reminded me so much of the way the Marlborough uniform is worn.  We’re not really strict about enforcing “uniformity” in our uniform, are we?  Although there is technically a dress code, there are a million ways to make that dress code one’s own through accessories and even how one wears the basic elements of the uniform.  Think about it: how many different ways have you seen your classmates wear their skirts??  Inside the walls of the school, girls (and usually faculty) take off their abayas.  Check out the lockers below!

 

By the way, students at Dhahran Ahliyyah have uniforms that vary depending on grade level.  The youngest girls wear blue jumpers, while middle school girls wear grey dresses.  [Here's a picture of a primary grade class - the girls were so proud to demonstrate their reading skills to me!  I can't remember the exact title of the book, but it seemed to be some variation on "Hop on Pop."]

 

 High school girls just wear long grey skirts.  They typically wear hoodie sweatshirts or sweaters on top, with lots of colorful scarves and jewelry.  One girl was even wearing a Red Sox t-shirt!  Just like Marlborough students . . . [By the way, I showed some photos of my Marlborough students to the Saudi girls, and their response invariably was, "Are they cheerleaders?"  When I explained the Marlborough fashion for unzipping and rolling skirts, one girl smirked, saying, "We all have our ways . . ."  I wonder what THAT means???]

During the discussion, we also learned that almost every family has access to satellite television.  Favorite TV shows of Saudi teenagers = Grey’s Anatomy, The Family Guy, Scrubs, Animal Planet, Ugly Betty, The Hills and Desperate Housewives.  According to the girls, their parents watch a lot of news, particularly Al-Jazeera and the BBC.

After the class observation/discussion, we were given small-group tours of the facility.  My tour guides were two eleventh graders named Salam and Aisha.  From them, I learned a bit about the school curriculum and extra-curricular activities.  Students take nine classes, which meet on a rotating schedule, similar to the system we use at Marlborough.  Class sizes range between 13 and 24, with 22 the average.  Ten different nationalities are represented in the faculty and study body, and the school budget is covered through a combination of tuition and private donations.  In addition to academic subjects (and the requisite English classes), students take Home Economics and carry out Senior Projects that are presented to the entire student body (girls only, of course).  Some recent projects have concerned the status of women in Saudi society and the lack of volunteerism by young people.  There is also a self-evaluation and personal reflection phase of the project, which I quite liked.  Student clubs include Model United Nations and Robotics.  There is also a student Award Day, in which prizes are given for athletic and academic achievements, as well as for some more dubious accomplishments.  My favorite:  talking for the longest amount of time without stopping.  The record?  More than two hours!  I also liked the fact that “progress awards” are given to students who have improved their grade in a class by 5% or more, regardless of where they started.  Too often, we get wrapped up in the pursuit of that perfect “A.”  It’s also important to recognize the hard work and diligence it takes for every student to improve, even if just a little bit.

Our visit concluded with a presentation by the school’s head, who described the curriculum in more detail.  As social studies teachers and library media specialists, we were particularly interested in hearing about the social studies curriculum.  In general, all schools, whether public or private, must adhere to the government-mandated educational curriculum, since students must pass state exams before graduation.  Whenever possible, however, the school tries to supplement the curriculum with more internationally-focused materials (such as the Global Studies elective we visited).  European and World History are barely covered – and then only in 10th grade.  Mostly students learn Arab, Islamic and Saudi Arabian history.  This is a real shortcoming of the curriculum, but I guess most students in the US don’t know much about world history either. 

So, here’s the answer to the question I know you’re all dying to ask:  How do the girls meet boys?  Answer:  SUMMER SCHOOL ABROAD!  Many students choose to attend enrichment programs in Europe or in other Arab countries where the rules governing pre-marital social interaction are less stringent.  Another way is to hang out with male relatives, who will invariably invite their friends over to visit.  In other words, contact with boys and dating all occur beyond public view.

After lunch, we visited another educational venue, the Aramco College Preparatory Center.  This nine-month program trains young Saudi men and women to pursue higher education in the United States.  After graduation, they are guaranteed employment with Aramco.  As you might imagine, the program is very selective.  The program administrators try hard to create an environment that closely approximates the American university experience, with rankings determined by G.P.A. and an emphasis on critical thinking and problem solving skills, rather than rote learning.  There is also a mandatory community service component.  Beyond these aspects, students are taught time management, library and research skills, as well as techniques for coping with cross-cultural interactions.  Students are also trained for American standardized tests, including the TOEFL, SAT and AP exams.  Since the program is designed to train future Aramco employees, students study business, mathematics and hard sciences related to engineering and petroleum production.  Both males and females participate in the program, but there is still a marked gender imbalance (3 to 1).  [And no, the boys and girls don't study together - this is one important way it doesn't approximate the American university experience.  It's going to be a big shock, and some students are already nervous about it.]  Below are pictures of some of the students we met – a very impressive group, to be sure.  These are the best of the best.  I wonder, will we meet any “ordinary” or “average” Saudi students on this trip?

 

 

Below are two video greetings from the girls at the College Preparatory Center.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/HndgZ8xW0c4" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/ngaaNR5XtTE" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

[By the way, all of the photos and videos included here were taken with the students' express permission.] 

One of the most fascinating aspects of our visit to the College Preparatory Center was the opportunity to visit an English class.  The girls were discussing Maya Angelou’s poem “What a Woman Should Have.” Below is the text:

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE … 
enough money within her control to move out 
and rent a place of her own, even if she never wants to or needs to… 
 
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE … 
something perfect to wear if the employer, or date of her dreams wants 
to see her in an hour… 
 
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE .. 
a youth she’s content to leave behind…. 
 
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE … 
a past juicy enough that she’s looking forward to 
retelling it in her old age…. 
 
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE ….. 
a set of screwdrivers, a cordless drill, and a black lace bra… 
 
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE . 
one friend who always makes her laugh… and one who lets her cry… 
 
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE …. 
a good piece of furniture not previously owned by anyone else in her 
family… 
 
A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE … 
eight matching plates, wine glasses with stems, and a recipe for a 
meal, that will make her guests feel honored… 

A WOMAN SHOULD HAVE … 
a feeling of control over her destiny. 
 
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW… 
how to fall in love without losing herself. 
 
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW… 
how to quit a job, break up with a lover, and confront a friend without 
ruining the friendship… 
 
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW… 
when to try harder… and WHEN TO WALK AWAY… 

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW… 
that she can’t change the length of her calves, 
the width of her hips, or the nature of her parents.. 
 
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW… 
that her childhood may not have been perfect…but its over… 
 

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW… 
what she would and wouldn’t do for love or more… 

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW… 
how to live alone… even if she doesn’t like it… 

EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW.. 
whom she can trust, whom she can’t, 
and why she shouldn’t take it personally… 
 
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW… 
where to go… 
be it to her best friend’s kitchen table… 
or a charming inn in the woods… 
when her soul needs soothing… 
 
EVERY WOMAN SHOULD KNOW… 
what she can and can’t accomplish in a day… 
a month…and a year…

 Here’s a picture of what the girls in the English class came up with:

 

Would you have said the same things?

Later that night, our Aramco hosts had something special lined up for us – an evening of desert culture!  We were driven to the Sunset Beach Resort, located on the Persian Gulf.  The resort caters to the elite of Saudi society who rent out villas on the property for a year at a time.  The resort has every amenity you can imagine – even a water park.  Aramco set up a series of Bedouin tents for us along the waterfront.  [Here I am enjoying one of them.] 

 

Musicians serenaded us with traditional warrior songs. 

 

A henna artist painted us with temporary tattoos. 

 

There were even camel rides! 

 

My favorite part, of course, was the dancing.   If you’re looking for a laugh, check out this video [Mom, this is for you - is there any doubt now that I'm your daughter?]:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/mHbXN8I14nA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Well, that’s all for Day 3 – lots more to come tomorrow!

XOXO Ms. Atwell

November 25, 2007

Second Day in Saudi Arabia

After our day of rest and relaxation on the beach yesterday, today we began the “official” tour of Saudi Aramco facilities and programs. 

Our day began with an overview of Saudi Arabia and Aramco (its history, current operations, and use of technology).  I learned lots of fun facts:

•  At 868,730 square miles, it is one third the size of the United States.
• The official name of the country is “Al-Mamlakakah Al-’Arabiyah As-Sa’udiyah” – what a mouthful!  This roughly translates to the “Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”
• The flag contains the phrase “there is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his [final] prophet” – this is the first of the Five Pillars of Islam (kind of like the profession of faith in other religions) – and a sword, which represents defense of the faith.

• The country’s population is 22.67 million – that represents enormous growth within the last 20 years; native Saudis comprise approximately 73% of the population, while foreigners are 27%.
• The king’s official title is “The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques” – can you name the two cities where these mosques are located?  [Hint: they're the two holiest sites in Islam.]
• It borders 7 countries: can you name them?  [Answer at the end of this posting]
• Aramco supplies 11% of the world’s energy needs each day and holds 1/4 of the world’s oil reserves.
• The largest oil fields, both on land and sea, are located in Saudi Arabia and controlled by Aramco; the biggest land field is twice the size of the country of Lebanon! (see map below)

• Aramco employs 53,000 people of more than 50 nationalities – it’s like a mini-United Nations!
• Of those employees, 80% are Saudi, including all of the senior management.
• Aramco recently appointed two female directors – a big step for the company and one of which they’re really proud; Aramco really seems to be on the forefront in Saudi society in the training, employment and promotion of women (more on this subject later).
• There are five different grades of crude oil – the best is called “super light crude” which is yellow in color; the darkness in oil comes from sulphur content.  Super light is so pure that you can pretty much put it into your gas tank directly from the ground – it requires very little refining.  It’s also the most costly grade of crude.
• More than 400,000 products use petroleum products for production or contain petro-chemicals.
• The entire Arabian Peninsula was once under water; eventually the water drained off to the east, which is why most major oil reserves are located there.  Oil is created by the decomposition of marine life which is compressed under many layers of rock and soil/sand.  Because the eastern portion of the peninsula was covered with water longer, it has more oil.
• Saudi Aramco has one of the largest and most advanced supercomputing facilities in the world.  From the “control center” real-time data is streamed into the computers from all of Aramco’s facilities.  This is important because as techniques for extracting oil become more sophisticated it’s now possible to pump from areas/reserves that are more difficult to reach.  This computer center has four times the computing capacity of NASA in the US! 
• Aramco employs a large squad of geophysicists and geologists to create seismic and other 3-D mapping (updated every second in real time) to guide the drilling and pumping equipment directly to the oil underground, which allows them to extract as much oil as possible.  For example, Aramco pioneered the use of “horizontal” drills, which burrow into reserves with large deposits of natural gas directly above them.  With traditional “straight down” drilling, the gas would react with the oil and cause it to become unusable.  Instead, the horizontal drill goes straight down some distance from the oil pocket to be exploited, then continues on a more or less horizontal plane, coming into the oil from the side, thus bypassing the unstable gas above.  Pretty cool, huh?

Our group next visited the Aramco Visitor Center, which houses the Aramco exhibit about the history of the company, the technical aspects of oil exploration, extraction and refining, Saudi Arabia as a country, and Islam.  This was REALLY impressive - the exhibits were interactive, well explained (in both English and Arabic) and technologically sophisticated.  It would certainly rival any science and technology museum in the US!  Being the history geek that I am, I particularly liked the excellent overview presented on the spread of Islam and its relationship to political leadership issues, shown through a series of interactive maps and timelines.  It made a very complex topic easy to follow.

 

The Aramco exhibit receives over 200,000 visitors annually, both delegations of foreign dignitaries and groups of Saudi school children.  We saw several (male) school groups, and the kids were fascinated. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 After the museum, we had lunch at the home of one of the vice presidents of Aramco.  He was a very gracious host, and the meal was delicious.  I overcame my natural shyness and sat next to him and asked lots of questions.  It was clear that he’s really a visionary leader.  He is also quite liberal when it comes to social issues and the promotion of women.  Perhaps because his wife is from Texas?  They met while he was receiving his university and post-graduate schooling in the US.  He also worked for many years as the president of Aramco Services Company (ASC), the subsidiary that controls all US operations.  [We received our pre-trip orientation at ASC headquarters.]  His wife may be Christian, since she forces him to put up a gigantic Christmas tree every year!  By the way, his story is not unique.  A number of Aramco employees I’ve met either here or in Houston are married to non-Saudis or Saudis who have lived extensively in the US.

After lunch we visited the Aramco Heritage Gallery, a museum that creates exhibits not only on the history of Aramco, but also on other topics pertaining to the Muslim world.  For example, the main exhibit on view during our visit was about Ibn Battuta, the famous fourteenth-century Muslim scholar and world traveler.  Again, just as at the Aramco Exhibit, the quality was high.  The exhibits were well researched, thoughtfully prepared, lively and interactive.  When I complimented the museum director on her outstanding program and facilities, and she then asked about my background and the courses I teach, she even offered me a job!  If I didn’t love teaching so much, I might have taken her up on it . . .  Here’s a map from the Ibn Battuta exhibit, showing all of the places he traveled in Dar al-Islam (the “house” or world of Islam).  Can you believe all the places he went?  His dictated memoir is fascinating, and it’s been translated into English.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Next, we took a tour around the Dhahran Aramco compound.  The facilities they provide for their employees are top notch:  schools (through 9th grade only, then foreign students usually go abroad to boarding school, which Aramco pays for in full), housing (average rent is $400 per month – try renting ANYTHING, even a storage shed, for that amount in Los Angeles!), shopping (a commisary stocks an amazing array of goods from the US and abroad ranging from school supplies to Vlasic pickles to Gucci sunglasses; however, they only sell non-alchoholic beer), and recreational facilities (gyms, swimming pools, baseball and soccer fields, cafes, yacht club - they even have their own golf course).  Here’s a picture of a park on the compound.  As you can see, they really make it green, but the desert is only a few steps away.  [You can see it in the background of the picture.]  The Aramco compound reminded me a lot of Palm Springs, with lots of green manicured lawns next to the desert.  Ironically, we then passed a water tower painted with the slogan “save water – it gives life.”  The same message is printed on plastic bags in the commissary and dining hall.  I wonder, do they get the irony???

 

One amusing fun fact: Aramco employees are called “Aramcons” – it’s meant to convey the close sense of community the company engenders, but my first thought upon hearing it was that it made them sound like space aliens on Star Trek or worse, prison inmates.  Get it?  CONS!  [I know, bad pun . . .]  It IS true, however, that the company’s treatment of its employees generates an unusually high degree of loyalty, especially compared to company/employee relations in the US.  My favorite stop on the tour was the riding stables.  Here I am with one of the Arabian horses.

After our tour, we returned to our hotel before dinner.  We also finally got measured for our abayas, which will be ready tomorrow afternoon.  [I promise to bring it back to Marlborough so you can try it on.]  I also had to get help with my laptop wireless internet connection, as you can see below.  It only took 45 minutes to figure it out!  People in Saudi Arabia need tech support, just like we do in the US.

And finally, here’s a picture you know I HAD to take! 

 Tomorrow promises to be another wonderful day – we’re touring schools!

XOXO Ms. Atwell

—————————————————————————–

Answer to question about bordering countries: Yemen, Oman, United Arab Emirates (this includes Dubai and Abu Dhabi), Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Iraq

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