Saudi Final Thoughts

This wraps up my posting for my trip to Saudi Arabia. This trip was really great. I learned so much. I got to get out of my comfort zone and experience new things in a pretty comfortable way. My mind was stretched. I’m still processing comparing my sad “free” country, where people seem so unsatisfied with where things stand these days, to a country experiencing some new felt freedom and possibility. I’m chewing over what freedom actually means and how different freedoms or lack there of affect life. I still don’t really have the words, but it feels good to be thinking and processing.

Observations of changes in Saudi Arabia for women and girls

 

I’m having a super hard time figuring out how to summarize my recent trip to Saudi Arabia. It’s a country in the midst of a major cultural shift, but as a short term tourist I’m just not sure what I was seeing no matter how many books, podcasts and people I consulted. Please don’t rush to judge my comments. My effort is to help shed some light on things, but I realize my observations are very limited.

So with that caveat, let’s start diving in. Figuring out the societal norms in Saudi was challenging. As recently as 2016 it was illegal for unrelated men and women to be together in public. These days that reality feels unreal. Now there are lots of “fun” activities, where all Saudis go out together and outdoor cafes with tables of men alongside tables of women. I’m sure people are constantly policing themselves and know the limits of the freedom, but to an outsider like me it felt pretty open if one could look past the idea that most women are still wearing abayas, hijabs and niqabs. (I try super hard not to make any judgement on veiling, since it has deep cultural connections.)

Since the late 1970s the mutawa, officers of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CPVPV) were a heavy presence in Saudi Arabia. They patrolled public spaces to make sure people followed some very strict conservative Islamic norms. All women had to be veiled. Strict segregation of the sexes was enforced, meaning unrelated men and women could not be seen in public together. But in 2016, Mohammed Bin Salman announced a sweeping change and overnight the religious police were demoted from power and society was allowed to begin to open up.

Over the last ten years that has meant major changes in daily life. Restrictions have been eased on women's rights, easing rules around dress and veiling, allowing them to drive, attend sports events and concerts alongside men, and obtain passports without the approval of a male guardian and thus be able to travel by themselves outside of the country.

As an outsider, who had never seen before times, it was hard to be sure what existed before 2016 and what was new, but I believe basically all the fun public places we went are brand new. Throughout my photos you will see pics in many new attractions that Saudi is building to entertain its majority under 30 population. But here I’m going to focus on one location to give an example.

In Ha’il, there is a new place called Bonchai. According to Guinness Book of World Records it’s the largest coffee shop in the world. (In reality, it’s a big space that has spread chairs around, but only had a small area to be served.) but anyway it creates a big public space for people to gather. It felt like any hip cool coffee house I’ve been to all over the world. Small clusters of young people and families were spread out around the room. It felt very modern and free.

At one point, a 14 year old precocious girl came up to us and asked if she could speak to us. She told us of her educational and career ambitions and beamed that wonderful hopeful energy that the new Saudi opening allows her. She has traveled and seen Western life and now she and her mother, who also came over to meet us, and shared her story of being a working woman in Saudi, are pushing forward and creating change in Saudi.

Also, while I was there a group of giggling high school aged girls asked if I would be in a photo with them. I, of course, said yes! The photo they took on their phone was a normal selfie with me and four loosely veiled girls. After, I asked if I could take a photo with them on my phone. They said yes, but were a little cagey. As I held up my phone, I noticed that they had covered their faces and blocked them with their phones.

In general, the rules are clearly stated and repeated that people shouldn’t take pictures without permission, but this is often stated in other places, but Saudi might be the place I’ve seen it most internalized. Even the some men seemed hesitant. As anyone who follows my travels knows, I’m all about pictures of people. I think that is where you can see the real differences between places. I can’t show the changes happening in Saudi culture without including people, so I am a bit unsure what to do. Looking at the selfie with these girls it really made me think more about taking pics and also about how the cultural changes are happening, but the limits of them too. 40 years of strict religious policing has a lasting hold on people.

But back to the girls… what I’m saying is this public space now allowed girls to gather giggling with no veils, where unrelated men were at nearby tables, but society isn’t quite free enough that they feel like they can show their faces on a stranger’s camera. It’s probably their own parents who are policing their behavior because society norms change slowly even if the new legal freedoms have more ambition. But little interactions like this remind me why I travel. As the girls got ready to leave the cafe, they came over again and gave me a bouquet of balloons and said they were happy to meet me. Maybe me, with my different attitude, did a little to broaden their thoughts of who they can be.

Rambling Thoughts on Religion in Saudi Arabia

Ok, now I’m going to try to reflect on religion in Saudi Arabia. I apologize if I totally mess this up. Understanding culture and figuring out the place religion plays in society is so hard, but at this point I’ve been to many places of religious significance in the world and Saudi left me scratching my head.

Prior to going, what I feel like I’ve been told is that Saudi IS the center of Sunni Islam. Muslims from all over the world are supposed to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their life, which means they all come to Saudi. I also have heard so much about Wahhabism, the conservative interpretation of Islam, emanating from Saudi and being pushed around the world.

I must also add that non-Muslims are not allowed to travel to Mecca, so my reflections are from my experiences around the rest of the country and in Medina, the second holiest city where many of the Pilgrims also stop.

So, what I felt/saw… Obviously religion is deeply set there. There are mosques everywhere… but unlike many places I’ve been I did not feel spiritual energy. Maybe this feels more like the US where Christianity clearly is deep within our society in ways we never even think about.

When I go to Turkey I find myself completely moved by call to prayer, wherever I am, as it echoes through the streets. In Saudi, I heard the call sometimes, but definitely not all the time like Turkey. In Turkey, I purposely go to mosques to sit in the courtyards and listen to prayer. They also have volunteers in mosques to welcome visitors and answer questions about Islam. My experience in Saudi was that Islam is everywhere, but I wasn’t able to get close to it. I could walk on the outside of mosques , but didn’t go into them. Possibly that was just me, but other Muslim countries invite non-Muslims in. Mosques were like community centers offering a cool place for a nap or a toilet along with a place to pray. What I thought about was how on a larger level religion is used to control people. So Islam as a force of power vs a spiritual one. I don’t have more words than that, but I’m still mulling it all over and still feeling disappointed by the lack of spiritual energy. I’m telling you, a few minutes in Jerusalem and one instantly knows why all the religions fight and die for control of that land. Or my trip to the Golden Temple, the Sikh holy place in India, left me so blown away that I spent a whole extra day there sitting in silence soaking it in with awe.

Some of this might be that Saudi is just opening to non-Muslims and maybe my tour focused me in other directions and away from Islam purposely. I mean, can one really say they have seen Saudi if they haven’t seen Mecca? And we were rushed by the main mosques in Medina vs being given time to soak in the larger meaning of the scene.

With that caveat, this set of photos will show you some of what I saw. The aspect I loved the most were the pilgrims from all over the world. Saudi may have been closed to outsiders for tourism, but it has always been a crossroads for Muslim pilgrims and Medina and Jeddah are filled with excited people on the most important religious journey of their lives. Jeddah feels much more open to the outside world because of it. I personally love traveling in Muslim countries and have wonderful memories that were sparked when I saw groups from Uzbekistan, Indonesia, and Southern India wandering around Saudi.

In the end, I’m not sure what I saw in basic Saudi society. Conservative dress on women continues after the religious police have been removed from most public life, probably because it’s about culture and tradition more than religion. As I continue to mull it over, I know from history how wrapped up power and privilege is with religion, so maybe that really is what I saw there. And heck, maybe that is totally normal, but somehow with a my preconceptions of Islam in Saudi, I expected more.

AlUla Old City

Continuously inhabited from the 12th Century to the 1980s, when the Saudi government moved people out to new upgraded housing, recently the Old Town of AlUla has been renovated and turned into more of a tourist center for the new tourism boom happening. As in so many things in Saudi Arabia, it felt hip, new and fun with scenic old bones.

One night our group did an incense tour which dressed us up to act out the experiences of traders who for thousands of years carried frankincense, spices and gold across the Arabian Peninsula. (Think about those three kings who visited Jesus. Like I keep saying traveling in Saudi awakened many old stories that float around in my head.) We walked through the dark narrow passageways hearing stories and learning about the importance of incense and fragrances.

Next Stop: AlUla, a 7,000-year-old historic oasis renowned as the kingdom’s first UNESCO World Heritage site

“Set in the AlUla Valley amid the soaring sandstone and granite mountains of north-western Saudi Arabia's Hijaz region, this ancient desert oasis has supported human life for the past 200,000 years. The area's fertile soil and access to water amid the arid, mountainous desert helped multiple civilisations blossom. The Dadan and Lihyan kingdoms that flourished here between 800 and 100 BCE were followed by Hegra, an important city in the Nabataean civilisation whose capital, Petra, was located farther north, in modern-day Jordan.

Yet, it wasn't until 2019 when Saudi Arabia began issuing tourist visas for non-religious travel that foreign visitors were able to witness this long closed-off and unexplored valley. Today, echoes of AlUla's long and mysterious past are everywhere, and as archaeologists slowly begin to uncover the many burial mounds, tombs and rock inscriptions scattered throughout AlUla's numerous sites, this ancient oasis is finally starting to reveal its secrets.” (BBC)

Making a friend on the train

              

This adorable 14 year old Indonesian girl, I’m sitting next to on the train, just told me I looked so young. She said I looked about 20/21. Ahh thank you! I’ve always loved Indonesians since visiting there. Check out that sweet open smile!