An Educational Day

I   was recently invited to be a guest at a medical conference that was held here in Jeddah at the Intercontinental Hotel which is located on the Corniche – the long and winding boardwalk running along the Red Sea coastline. I know, I know - I am not, nor have I ever been, in the medical field. So what was I doing there? 

My friend "Amber," another American woman who is married to a Saudi and who has lived in this country for nearly forty years, asked me to come to take photos for her. She was a moderator of the event and her daughter was one of the speakers. I was happy to oblige and excited at the prospect of seeing the hotel and actually attending an event that wasn’t a family get together!

The medical profession is one of the very few fields in Saudi Arabia where men and women are allowed to work side by side with one another. There are not many Saudi women who work outside the home, even though many of them may have attained university degrees. Saudi men still largely feel that a woman’s place is in the home, taking care of the family and running the household. Another problem with Saudi women working is transportation since women are not allowed to drive here and must rely on their husbands or hire a driver. There is no public mass transit, and even if there were, women would probably be restricted from using it.

The annual conference is organized by a female Saudi pediatrician. Over 800 were registered to attend, but those attending numbered in the 600s. There were speakers lined up from all over the world. The session of the conference that Amber and her daughter were involved in dealt with problem solving and encouraging the breastfeeding of premature infants, which can be a dilemma when the babies are kept in an incubator, may not learn how to suckle, and are not taken home for the first couple of months to bond with the mothers. The main speakers events were set up in a huge meeting room with hundreds of chairs facing the stage at one end of the room.

Running right down the center of the room were several large screens serving as a room divider to separate the women’s seating area from the men’s section. There were spaces in between the screens so one could actually see members of the opposite sex over into the other section if one dared! So even though men and women are allowed to work side by side in hospitals and clinics throughout the country, they are separated from sitting beside one another at this medical conference. After all, there's no telling what lurid behaviors might happen if men and women are close enough to sniff at each other when the topic being discussed is something so overtly sexual as breastfeeding!

The Intercontinental Hotel is lovely. It has a beautiful lobby and more than adequate meeting facilities. The lobby’s focal point is a beautiful tiled fountain surrounded by wide columns topped with fanned palm fronds. There are many gift shops offering everything from toiletry necessities to traditional Arabic art. The restaurant was very elegant and well-staffed. There were separate dining rooms for men and women and there were even separate buffet lines. But since we were with the conference speakers, we were allowed to sit at a mixed table in a corner of the men’s dining room. The center of the table was overflowing with dozens of dishes filled with yummy items like hummus, shrimp, and potato salad. Waiters continually came around offering shish kebab, fish, chicken, tabouleh, and many other mouth watering foods. It was a delicious luncheon.

At the end of the day as the sun was setting over the Red Sea, we exited the Intercontinental Hotel and from the parking lot we could see the King Fahd Fountain which rises from the sea in a spray to a height of over 1000 feet. You can see a night-time photo and learn more about this remarkable fountain by reading a recent post I did about it on my other blog, Jeddah Daily Photo Journal. JUST CLICK HERE.