September 11, 2008 · 4:50 am

Ramadan

Ramadan is month when everyone fasts from sun rise to sundown. We fast from food, water and sex. This deprivation is supposed to make Muslims stop and think about those less fortunate and life in general. Muslims are also supposed to focus on their religious and spiritual wellbeing throughout the month. I cannot deny that it does work for many Muslims, but there are others that have turned it to a commercial holiday. Starting a week before Ramadan, people start congratulating each other on seeing another Ramadan. And there’s a whole lot of shopping and preparation that goes into it. Special Ramadan recipes are dug out and Ramadan themed social events are set up. It can be really fun for people with time-off from work. But people like yours truly and millions of other Saudis still have to go to work and that is tough on an Islamic vampire day schedule.

During Ramadan everything is turned upside down. Government offices are open for only six hours. Everything slows down from the already slow pace it usually moves at. Except of course the traffic. It gets really crazy. Sleep and caffeine deprived drivers in the morning and starving and dehydrated drivers in the afternoon do not make safe roads. I know nothing about the statistics but I bet that car accident numbers increase in Ramadan.

What I especially love about Ramadan is its effect on the younger generation. They get one degree more religious then  they usually are the rest of the year. If you have a teenager or young adult who listens to music, chats, misses a prayer now and then and has a cell phone significant other, during Ramadan they’ll stop listening to music, pray more carefully and ditch the phone buddy. Chat however will resume after a 24 hour attempt at stopping. And MTV Arabia has tapped into this annual trend. That is why it is not broadcasting any music videos for the whole month! Instead they show programs like Cribs and reality shows. This decision has really won hearts here.

Also around Ramadan you get public message type of commercials that are really well produced. They are about being a good Muslim. The first one I remember was about how the five prayers  are your stress free sanctuary during the day. The latest is about a young man who gets an urgent call while apparently fasting during Ramadan. He breaks his fast eating a banana while rushing in his car to the hospital. When he gets there it turns out he was needed for an emergency blood transfusion. And the teary eyed mother of the patient who needed the blood  thanks the young man profusely. So he was actually doing his duty. I wonder who’s paying for them. When the first one was broadcast there were a lot of rumors that a prominent direct grandson of the founder of Saudi Arabia was, but I have not come across anything official confirming that.

One thing that Ramadan is really about is free food. And the poorer you are the fatter you get. Mosques, charities and even individuals fall over each other setting up tents with tons of free hot and cold meals for anyone who’ll show up, Muslim or not. The majority of people who frequent these tents in Ramadan are expatriate manual laborers and drivers. As well as half an hour before sunset, at all the main stoplights you’ll find volunteers passing out little snack boxes to break the fast with.  People offer free food during Ramadan because in Islam it says that when a Muslim breaks his fast on your food then that Muslim’s fast counts as both your own and his. Its kind of like getting extra points.

The last thing I’m going mention about Ramadan is the Taraweeh prayer. This prayer is performed en masse only during Ramadan. It is right after the last prayer of the day (Isha) and it’s about three to four times longer than usual prayers. To get the best experience you are supposed to pick a favourite mosque and stick with it from the night before the 1st of Ramadan until the night before the last of Ramadan. That way you’ll have covered the whole Quran. Taraweeh, by the way, is the only prayer that women are encouraged to attend in the mosque rather than pray at home.

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September 1, 2008 · 4:19 am

My Favourite Professor

As a tribute to a woman who has influenced so many Saudi women over the approximately two decades she has lived here, I have created a page to honour Prof Angele Tadros. I first got to know her as my head of department when I was a teaching assistant in 2003. And now although I no longer work in her department, we still share a friendship that I truly cherish. She is the closest thing to a role model in my life.

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August 28, 2008 · 1:08 am

What does being Wahabi mean?

According to the outside world and media, it is a form or sect of Islam that goes back to  Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulawahab. But to Saudis, especially the central region it is a sub-tribe of the Tameem tribe which coincidentally Sheikh Mohamed and I both belong to.

To set the record straight, no Saudi calls himself Wahbi unless they belong to the sub-tribe I mentioned above. To us Sheikh Mohamed was just another famous big sheikh who also happened to be into politics. He did not start a new Islamic sect. What he did do was educate people in the central region. The central region is practically an out of the way desert. Sheikh Mohamed was born here in Al Uyyanah, not far from Riyadh. He travelled to Makkah, Medina and Iraq to study Islam and then he came back and taught his people. At that time, people here were illiterate, superstitious and many had forgotten or never learned the basics of Islam. There are even stories about paganism and idol worshipping. So he came back to teach people. And he also made a pact with an ancestor of Al Saud, that he would take care of the religion and Al Saud would take care of bringing unity and government to our people.

Sheikh Mohamed, contrary to popular western belief, was not an ultra conservative hell bent against women and human rights. He barely delved into these issues. He had religiously bigger issues to take care of with wiping out paganism and the worship of saints and reeducating people on how to pray! He was also busy stifling the spread of Shiaism. His main focus was to resume the monotheism condition of Islam. He did such a great job that  by the time he was through, the region had all the basics of Sunni Islam down. So much so that for the next two centuries, many many so-called sheikhs sadly had nothing better to do but twiddle their thumbs and create petty fatwas. For example, one that I came across written in the late eighties, early nineties that women should be discouraged from watching soccer matches on TV because the excitement of seeing men in shorts running around is too much for her fragile emotional health. That was a FATWA!

I digress, back to the term Wahabi. This is definitely an outsider’s term. And to those who the term refers to, it is meaningless. It isn’t even derogatory. It has no meaning outside of lineage and tribal names. There is no Islamic sect called Wahabi and Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulawahab did not create a new Islamic perspective. He was just a famous and notable figure in Saudi Arabian history.

So what Islamic sect does the central region and the government follow? It is Sunni and we strictly follow Sheikh Ahmed bin Hanbil and Ibn Taiymiah, both of whom came long before Mohamed bin Abdulwahab. Religiously speaking we call our selves Hanabillah. The next time you hear someone say “those crazy Wahabis” please correct them and say “they’re actually crazy Hanabillahs”.

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August 25, 2008 · 2:10 am

Saudi Salons

They are called Mashghal  in Arabic which literally means a working place, from the Arabic noun shoogal (work in general). This term was coined to refer to little shops where a group of usually Pakistani tailors make women dresses. About 30 years ago readymade women clothes were mostly unavailable to the general public and women drew designs on paper and took then to these tailor shops with fabric bought by the meter from areas similar to outdoor malls. For measurement, they would give the tailor a previously made dress that fits and he would use it as a measurement model. And that’s to avoid any physical contact between the tailor and the customer. I know now you’re wondering where did women get there first well measured dress and I too wonder.  

These little tailor shops started to evolve into closed women shops where the tailors are women from the Philippines. The shops became bigger and the décor  slightly better. However these women only shops are pricier, so the male version stuck around. The women mashghal started to quickly expand into the beauty salon business. So a women could go get her hair done and have a dress made at the same time. But when Al Eissaee, a big name in the fabric import business, started  to also bring in quality readymade clothes, he started a huge trend that snowballed into our current mega malls. This in turn affected the tailor business for both the male and female shops. The male mostly went out of business except for a lucky few and the female shops concentrated more on the beauty salon side of the business, so much so that some even closed the dress making side. But for some unexplainable reason they are still called a mashghal  even on official ministry of commerce licensing papers.

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August 22, 2008 · 3:16 pm

Prominent Saudis: Sheikh Salman Al Ouda

 Sheikh Salman Al Ouda was born and raised in the city of Buraida in the Qaseem region north of Riyadh. He holds a PhD in Suna the prophet Muhammed’s (PBUH) sayings and actions.

The sheikh is really two persons in one; there’s the sheikh pre-prison and the sheikh post-prison. The pre-prison was basically a bin Othaimeen clone, same mentality and type of fatwas. And that’s not a surprise considering that he studied under him. He instructed followers to go to Afghanistan and Jihad in its most violent versions. A Youtube video has a copy of one of his audio lectures where he tells listeners that the only real way to spread Islam is through violence. He pretty much stuck to the norm for ultra conservative Qaseemi sheikhs. Then he deviated into Saudi politics and economy and that’s when he ended up in prison for five years starting in 1994.

Sheikh Salman came out of prison a changed man. You would think he spent his sentence in a western culture. His whole ideology took a 180 degree turn. Now he reminds me more of an Egyptian Azhar sheikh rather than one from Qaseem. My sister saw him in a mall in Dubai with his wife and kids. The real shocker is that his wife was wearing a niqab and her abaya was on her shoulders and NOT tent style over her head! That’s the Saudi equivalent of seeing a priest’s wife sunbathing topless.

That is nothing compared to the fatwas that he has come out with like discouraging Muslims from violent jihad and most recently he said on his show on the MBC network that it is alright to celebrate  personal holidays like birthdays and anniversaries just as long as you don’t call them “Eid”.  Now this is a biggie here. A sign of a true muttawa is that they only celebrate the two religious holidays and nothing else, not even the Saudi national day or the beginning of a new Hijri year. Last December, I threw my son a big party for his sixth birthday and all my in-laws boycotted it because they say it is Islamically prohibited. And that is typical for muttawas, so when sheikh Salman challenged that, there was a huge backlash in newspapers, on websites and even on Youtube. There you’ll find a video titled in Arabic the idiocy of Sheikh Salman Al Ouda in which they show him giving fatwas pre-prison and then giving recent fatwas that contradict his old ones. In many ways this has discredited him as a sheikh for the central region’s ultra conservatives. It also took him out of the running as a contender for the position Sheikh bin Othaimeen left vacant since he passed away. This just shows that Saudi Sheikhs are not allowed to change their minds no matter how long their career span might be.

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July 31, 2008 · 2:00 pm

My little dilemma

I’ve lived in the US as a child, pre 9/11 in Kansas. And in such a “redneck” part of the country, my family and I were subjected to some racial incidents, the most memorable of which is a man spitting on my father’s BMW after finding out the owner was Arab. Another that really sticks out is one time I was doing my business in a bathroom stall and I called something out in Arabic to my sister.  So the lady in the stall next to me stood on the toilet, grabbed me by the hair and started screaming insults at me. I was only about 10 at the time.  Her boyfriend or whatever had to rush in and pry her away. It turns out she had one too many beers and blamed me for her brother’s death in Lebanon. I also remember my art teacher at school who had to have other teachers come in and convince her to treat me like a human being in conversations that were within my earshot. I guess they thought I was too young to understand.  Or my mother at a convenience store being harassed by two farmer looking guys for speaking in Arabic. All of this before 9/11, so logically it must be worse now.

It wasn’t all bad or otherwise we would have left before my father finished his studies. The US is fantastic both for study and tourism. The way I see it, it’s a win-win situation. We get the benefits of the great higher education system and have fun at tourist sights and go back home at the end of the day. We pay our way throughout. And I have never known a Saudi to immigrate to a western country. And yet you still get these little incidents. It’s as if every Saudi is a member of the higher royal family or maybe some Americans think that we are secretly a democracy and all Saudis have a voice in their country’s policies.

Anyway my little dilemma is that I am currently in the US and I have my kids in tow too. Naturally we sometimes get the “where are you from” question from people like store clerks or park bench neighbors. So far, I’ve answered truthfully. But I am considering teaching my kids to say something like Turkey, although I hate the thought of oking lying. Maybe, I’ll just stick to the truth.

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July 22, 2008 · 5:58 am

It’s 1429!

In case some of you didn’t know, it is NOT 2008 in Saudi Arabia, it is 1429. In government circles, schools and most universities, they follow the Islamic calendar (Hijri) which started when the prophet Mohammed PBUH made the pilgrimage from Makkah to Madinah. If you think I’m exaggerating check the English newspapers in Saudi Arabia, they all have both the  Gregorian and Hijri calendar.  You can also convert dates from one calendar to the other at this website.

So where was the “civilized”, “industrialized” and “developed” world in their 15th century? America hadn’t been discovered yet. Europe was ruled by fascist monarchies and the church. Poverty, slavery and abuse of the most basic human rights abounded. Doesn’t sound that different from the eastern 15th century.

So if we were to follow through with this comparison, then the Ottoman Empire would be the Easterners’ version of the Westerners’ Roman Empire. And currently we are in our late Middle Ages. But in this technological age, I believe it will take us a much shorter time to move from here to where the western world is now.

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July 19, 2008 · 9:47 am

Romantically Challenged

With all this gender segregation and emphasis on sex and femininity, you would think that Saudis would be very romantic and passionate. In the same vein of Latinos is the way Saudis come across when they’re trying to woo a woman, but trust me, that wears off pretty quick. Marriage here is really just the funeral of a relationship’s romance. There’s an Arab proverb that translates to the end of love is marriage. Society as a whole tends to view romance in heterosexual relationships as trivial and unimportant. Maybe that is why the Turkish soap opera Noor has become all the rage across Saudi Arabia. It’s about a husband who loves his wife madly. And it doesn’t hurt that the husband is smoking hot! The soap opera was dubbed in Arabic and all the names were changed to Arabic names. I personally have not followed the series but I have seen a few scenes. Turkey as a summer destination has seen renewed popularity thanks to the show. Even old ladies have fallen for Mohanid. Every dinner or tea party I go to, all they talk about is the series. The Arabic names of the main roles have become the most popular baby names this year and the show is even known to have sparked domestic family issues.

For a more detailed post about this topic click here.

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July 7, 2008 · 7:30 am

Women Travel Documents

Yes it is true. If you are a woman you have to have special travel documents. If your main mahram (legal male guardian) is with you then him escorting you will suffice. But if you happen to be a Saudi woman and need or want to leave the country without your main mahram, you have to have a special yellow card. This card is issued by the same office that issues passports and it has to be requested and signed by your main mahram. A main mahram is the legal guardian which basically means the father until marriage and then the husband. If a woman’s father and husband both pass away then guardianship passes to her son, brother or uncle; whichever one is an adult and closest. This mahram not only can he stop a woman from leaving the country without his permission but also can limit the countries to which his “ward” can go to. All he has to do is list the country or countries he will allow the woman to travel to on the card or he can leave it blank which means she can go anywhere. This part is just stupid because yes a woman might be limited to the countries on the card in a Saudi airport but once she’s in any other country’s airport, then it’s only a matter of a tourist visa. In regards to age, legally a woman does not have to have the yellow permission card after 45. However, the airport employees don’t seem to be aware of this. And if you do go to the passport offices and request the yellow card for a woman over 45, they’ll issue it.

Coming back to the country is a lot smoother for Saudi women. No one stops her or asks questions but if the woman does not hold a Saudi passport and does not have a male relative accompanying her then she is held at the airport until her sponsor whether an employer or relative comes to get her. But if a non-Saudi woman is leaving the country, and she has all her visa papers in order then she can leave with or without a male guardian.

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July 1, 2008 · 10:11 pm

Wedding Season

Right after Final exams, we have the wedding season. All the halls are booked even on weekdays and all the furnishing stores have sales and special offers for newlyweds. Don’t even try a walk-in to a salon on Wednesday and Thursday or you’ll probably have to sit a couple of hours waiting, only to be told that they cannot squeeze you in after all.

Even though I personally hate going to wedding, I have attended my fair share of these extravaganzas. Just like everything else, weddings are gender segregated. Strangely enough that does not stop them from being a great place to get hooked up. Young women dress up in their fanciest dresses, usually specifically tailored for the wearer to wear at that particular wedding. They prance around the hall, coming and going and dance on the stage. In between dances they sit on the sides of the stage. All this is to get exposure in front of all the mothers who are looking for brides for their sons. It is not strange for a mother or someone on her behalf to go right up to a girl and ask her about her family name and phone number.

In order for you to get a better picture, a wedding hall is usually just that; a huge room with round tables for eight scattered all around. Name placards are non-existent. Women sit at whichever table they want on a first come, first serve basis. There are a few plush couches in the front reserved for VIPs and elderly ladies.

All over Riyadh, there are women tailors. You can buy material, which is available in every imaginable color and print at material shops at major malls like Al Andalus on Olaya Street. You then take this material to one of the women tailors with a photo of a design or your own creative drawing and they will make it for you. Depending on the design and if there is any embroidery involved, this could set you back anything from 500 SAR to 5000 SAR excluding what you paid for the material. And depending how popular a salon is, you have to book an appointment from a month before the wedding to at least a week.  

I’m fine with all of that and honestly sometimes it can be quite fun. What really annoys me about weddings is the music. It is usually live. Conventionally it was a group of African Arab women with a lead singer and their only instrument is drums. Now things have gotten a little more sophisticated with bands, dancers and different kinds of instruments. They all use microphones and speakers at what seems to me top volume. You can’t have a conversation; only steal a few words in between songs. You can’t even hear yourself think.

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