Between Reforms and Repression
Continuing on from part 1 of my Saudi experience, the English School marketing fair I attended in Riyadh was held in the NZ Embassy, a compound only accessible by driving through a long maze-like road with machine gun posts at every corner to stop truck bombers from ramming the embassy. I am not sure but I would imagine that other embassies of western democratic countries took the same precautions at that time. The NZ Embassy is deemed to be NZ soil so alcohol can be consumed there and it was interesting to see a lot of Saudi language school agents making a beeline for the bar as soon as they arrived.
In Whitianga I would ask my students why they went to the pub when Islam bans the consumption of booze. Many would tell me with a smile that in Whitianga it was okay, but when they returned home they would abstain. A few said that they drank secretly at home and that there were ways of obtaining alcohol.
It doesn’t pay to come out of the closet in Saudi Arabia, unless you enjoy being stoned, flogged, imprisoned or beheaded, one of which will be the punishment following conviction. All the students I spoke to were 100% sure there was no homosexuality in their country, but when you consider the amount of time men spend in their own company due to the fact that they can’t be alone with a woman who is not a close family member, I would be surprised if the 100% figure reflects reality.
One night I was invited by my ex-student Ahmed to visit his house and meet his father, to eat at a typical Saudi restaurant followed by a visit to a Saudi nightclub. Of course, I accepted his kind offer. On arrival at his home, I met his father and one of his five brothers. However, the women were nowhere to be seen, being sequestered in their own area of the house. I was very impressed by the wonderful food and generous hospitality offered by his father both at his home and at the restaurant. We ate delicious rice-based dishes with lamb, chicken, goat and camel meat and an assortment of couscous-like salads followed by dates and Arabic coffee. He told me that on weekends the family goes to their ‘farm’ in the desert outside Riyadh where they have a house with a swimming pool and a barn-like area where their 10 camels live. Money doesn’t seem to be a worry in the kingdom.
Later, the nightclub Ahmed and I visited was a little different from the flashing strobe lights, loud music and mini-skirts found in a western one. Instead, there were lots of couches spread around outside in the open air with TV sets hung above them and young men lying around watching international football and smoking shisha through a hookah or waterpipe.
Being a polite kind of guy, I tried one pipe of the flavoured tobacco, mainly to please my host. That was enough as I could feel that although the smoke was filtered through water, the stuff was definitely a health hazard. Later research backed up my hunch with one source stating that in ‘an average shisha session (which usually lasts 20-80 minutes), a shisha smoker can inhale the same amount of smoke as a cigarette smoker consuming over 100 cigarettes’. And to make matters worse, the stuff doesn’t even get you high!
Another form of entertainment in Saudi Arabia, especially for those with a death wish, is highway skating where a car pulls the ‘skater’ along at a relatively high speed. The ‘skaters’ wear smooth-soled sandals. They keep one foot elevated to cool down while ‘skating’ along the motorway on the other foot. When both feet get too hot at the same time, they jump onto the running board of the car momentarily, before they start to ‘skate’ again. If their shoes fall apart or if they catch an edge they would likely suffer from a case of fatal road rash. Imagine highway skating on New Zealand roads with their potholes. Fatal road rash, here I come!
My stay in Jeddah was a very relaxed time. This city has a more relaxed and liberal culture compared to Riyadh mainly because of its history as a cosmopolitan Red Sea port and its proximity to the religious pilgrim city of Mecca. It has a thriving arts and culture scene as well as a lot of marine activities like fishing, swimming and boating which many locals enjoy.
However, despite the more relaxed attitude towards dress codes and social norms, and the wonderful friendliness of the locals, basic rules, like a separation of the sexes, still applied. This affected our group on the last night of our stay when we enjoyed a farewell dinner at a restaurant.
Unfortunately, our single female member Elizabeth was banned from joining us as women and families had to eat at a family restaurant around the corner. She was a good sport about it but must have felt a wee bit lonely eating by herself.
All this happened nearly 20 years ago and there have since been some reforms under the current leader Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MBS for short) concerning women’s rights. They can now drive and yes they can even travel alone without permission from, or being in the company of, a male family member, and I believe some dress restrictions have been relaxed.
However other rights, like freedom of speech, are still extremely restricted, as demonstrated in 2018 by the MBS-ordered murder and dismemberment (in the Saudi embassy in Turkey) of Saudi journalist Jamal Ahmad Hamza Khashoggi. His crime was writing articles criticising the Saudi royal family. In the same vein, I doubt that opening a gay bar in downtown Riyadh would be good for one’s health.
I imagine that despite the reforms of recent years, lasting meaningful change will be slow in coming in a religion-dominated autocratic kingdom like Saudi Arabia, especially when you consider the reversal in the direction of human rights that we are seeing in the religion-dominated, increasingly autocratic country, the USA. Let’s hope we never see public executions on the front lawn of the White House on Truth Social.
Words by Ross Liggins
Photos by Tim Graham & Longstreath
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