2017 Yanbu Flower Festival Coming Soon

Last year I attended the annual Yanbu Flowers and Gardens Festival, which is a spectacular display of colorful flowers and plants in the city of Yanbu.

This year's festival will be held March 14th through April 7th, 2017.  There is no charge for admission.

Here in Saudi Arabia, one of my pet peeves is that it is difficult to find out about events before they happen. I believe the reason for this lack of proper advertising for events ahead of time was because of the culture's strict gender segregation policies which discourages mixed events.  In the past if the religious police got wind of a questionable mixed gender event going on, oftentimes it would be raided and disbanded. Many social events were kept on the down low, and event venues were often not disclosed until the day of the event by text message.  It can be very difficult to make plans to attend events like this.  While gender mixing is still greatly frowned upon in this culture, things seem to be slowly changing, and there is even a Ministry of Entertainment now in the Kingdom.

You can see more photos of the amazing floral displays on my post from last year by clicking HERE.

Gender Segregation is Insulting!

Few things about life here in Saudi Arabia get me all riled up like the extreme gender segregation does.  It is one of the things that I dislike the most and one of the things that I feel does WAY more harm than good.

In my opinion, gender segregation is largely responsible for many of this country's social problems.  Gender segregation stunts healthy emotional growth.  The high divorce rate can be cited as a problem partially caused by gender segregation.  At puberty young boys and girls are suddenly separated socially from each other and there is no interaction with the opposite sex.  As a result many young people who marry do not know how to communicate, act or behave around the opposite sex.

Photo Credit: RealSociology.edublogs.org

Many young Saudi men are often accused of harassing women - and it's directly due to the way this society is set up with severe gender segregation, plus the lack of accountability for men and their actions.  Instead, this society usually chooses to put the blame on women by punishing them for men not being able to control themselves around fitna-inducing temptresses.

At the university level, young female students often fantasize, become obsessed with, and even fall in love with male professors who conduct classes for women from a remote location via closed circuit television.  I’ve heard many stories about how female students frequently pursue these male professors, who are often married, much older, and not even particularly attractive.

And now the latest issue regarding gender segregation has come about involving two women who were elected to the municipal council in Jeddah.  These women were elected to their positions, just like the men on the council were.  Yet there is an anti-women crusade going on to prevent these women from taking their rightful positions on the council alongside their male colleagues.  

This faction is trying to preclude these duly elected female officials from participating effectively on the council, marginalizing the women by forcing them to sit outside the council chambers, like children who are being punished, instead of full-fledged elected members of the board. 
  
Seriously? Women in Saudi Arabia achieved a major milestone when they were allowed to vote and run for public office for the first time in their lives in December 2015 - a HUGE step forward for Saudi women.  But now others are trying to prevent them from effectively carrying out their duties.  Gender segregation carried to such an extreme like this is not only insulting to the women, it is extremely insulting to the men on the council who are being perceived as incapable of being trusted or of controlling themselves around a couple of female colleagues and incapable of seeing women as anything other than sexual objects. 

To make matters worse and to exemplify the severity of this extreme gender segregation, the two councilwomen, Lama Al-Suleiman and Rasha Hefzi, have now received death threats for attempting to take their rightful place at the meetings.  Fortunately there has been support for the women from the community, but there are some who oppose them.  
  
Don’t miss these two articulate opinion pieces recently written by a couple of Saudi women about this very subject:

“Saudi Women’s Work and Challenges in the Council Just Starting” by Maha Akeel

“Women’s Empowerment” by Nabeela Husni Mahjoub

New Yorker Magazine Article: "Sisters-in-Law "

The following is an article which appears in the latest issue (Jan. 11, 2016) of New Yorker Magazine, written by Katherine Zoepf. 

"Sisters in Law"

Saudi women are beginning to know their rights.

The guardianship system gives a woman a legal status resembling that of a minor. Credit Illustration by Eiko Ojala

In September, 2014, Mohra Ferak, twenty-two years old and in her final year at Dar Al-Hekma University, in the Saudi port city of Jeddah, was asked for advice by a woman who had heard that she was studying law. The woman was the principal of a primary school for girls, and she told Ferak that she had grown frustrated by her inability to help children in her charge who had been raped; over the years, there had been many such cases among her students. Regardless of whether the perpetrator was a relative or the family driver, the victim’s parents invariably declined to press charges. A Saudi family’s honor rests, to a considerable degree, on its ability to protect the virginity of its daughters. Parents, fearing ruined marriage prospects, chose silence, which meant that men who had raped girls as young as eight went unpunished, and might act again. And for some of the girls, the principal added, the secrecy only amplified the trauma. She asked Ferak if there was anything that she, as principal, could do to help them.

“I told her, ‘You can go to court and ask the judge to make the proceedings private and save the girl’s reputation,’ ” Ferak recalled one recent afternoon. We were sitting in a modish Lebanese restaurant near the Jeddah corniche, sharing plates of tricornered spinach pastries and stuffed grape leaves across a black butcher-block table. The call to afternoon prayer had sounded several minutes earlier, and the restaurant, in accordance with law, had locked its doors and dimmed the lights. The “family section”—the secluded area for women that restaurants serving both genders must provide, where female diners who cover their faces can eat comfortably—was quiet. Except for a waiter, we had the place to ourselves. Ferak is slight, with a lilting voice and a round, bespectacled face framed by a tightly wound black shayla. Head scarves, which Saudi women typically wear unfastened, have a way of slipping off, and Ferak fidgeted with hers as she described her conversation with the principal, repeatedly tugging it back down into its proper position.

The principal was amazed to learn that Saudi plaintiffs can request closed court proceedings. She began peppering Ferak with legal questions, many of them about how to advise teachers who were in abusive marriages, or whose ex-husbands wouldn’t allow their children to visit. The principal was in her early fifties, which meant that, as a school administrator, she was among the best-educated Saudi women of her generation. Well into the nineteen-eighties, according to UNESCO, fewer than half of Saudi girls between the ages of six and eleven had received any education outside the home. But, Ferak said, it quickly became clear that the woman knew little about the fundamental principles of Saudi law.

CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE READING

Save my Life - then my Modesty

Apparently the senseless deaths of 15 Saudi schoolgirls back in 2002 weren’t enough to learn the lesson.  The teenagers perished in a school fire when the religious police would not allow them to escape the burning building because the girls were not properly veiled according to religious customs.  The results were public uproar and outrage, and we all thought the lesson had been learned, that we would never again see this type of backward ignorance and apparent disregard for human life. 

But it has happened again and this time one young Saudi woman is dead.

Graduate student Amna Bawazeer suffered a heart attack on the campus of King Saudi University in Riyadh on Feb. 6, 2014.  She had a known heart condition. 

There are conflicting reports about the length of time that elapsed from the moment Amna collapsed to the time that medical assistance was actually summoned.  Fellow students tweeted that administrators delayed calling for help for 25 minutes.  A staff member speaking confidentially was quoted as saying that the administrators basically freaked out about the situation and were unable to react effectively. 

Reports say that the male paramedic team arrived within 10 minutes of receiving the call.

What happened next is also in being disputed.  School administrators claim that once the male paramedic team arrived on the scene that they were granted access inside the facility immediately.  However other eyewitnesses assert that paramedics were prevented from entering the grounds for some time.  

Saudi Arabia adheres to very strict gender segregation laws, and men are not normally allowed on female only campuses.  It is believed that the paramedic crew was detained at the gate because of this, as well as the possibility of the victim and other females on campus not being properly veiled according to Islamic standards. 

Some students are in shock and have suffered trauma and stress due to the incident. 

Witnesses say that administrators barred the medics from entering the university despite the existence of a life and death emergency situation.  Instead they opted to ignore the welfare of a student, a decision which resulted in costing the student her life.  Amna died waiting for help two hours after her heart attack.

“We need management who can make quick decisions without thinking of what the family will say or what culture will say,” said Professor Aziza Youssef.

Despite administrators’ claims, two things seem abundantly clear.  Precious minutes elapsed before summoning help for the dying girl.  And even more time elapsed once the paramedics arrived at the university and were allowed to enter the premises to administer aid.  Precious minutes that could have possibly saved this poor girl’s life. 

How many more women must die before this lesson is learned?  What is more important – saving a life or preserving her modesty?  To most people around the world, the answer is clear.  And the world is watching. Unfortunately it is a hard lesson to learn for a culture obsessed with lesser important moral appearances and practices, especially when lives are at stake.  

There is an online petition called “Save my life - then my modesty– because every life matters and counts” in memory of Amna.  I don’t know that it will effect change, but it’s worth a try. 

Don't Miss It! Head Over Heels in Saudi Arabia

Dr. Maisah Sobaihi (photo: Vimeo)

"Head Over Heels in Saudi Arabia" is a one-woman comedy show written and performed by Dr. Maisah Sobaihi, exploring the lives and loves of Saudi women with humor and insight.  I had the pleasure of seeing this delightful show and writing about it several years ago in 2008.  For my review and synopsis of the play, please click HERE.  Since that time, Sobaihi has repeated her performance many times, and this week she is doing it again.

WHERE:  EFFAT UNIVERSITY AUDITORIUM in JEDDAH - GATE 13


WHEN:     MONDAY, FEB. 18 (in ENGLISH) and 
                  TUESDAY, FEB. 19 (in ARABIC)

TIME:       8:30 PM 

MEN AND WOMEN ARE WELCOME, BUT WITH SEPARATE SEATING
 
PRICE:     250 SR

BUY TICKETS AT 

Head Over Heels In Saudi Arabia - 3-Minute Promo Video from Maisah Sobaihi on Vimeo.

A Whole New Spin on "WALL-MART"

I really try my best to present a balanced view of Saudi Arabia, but there are certain times when some issues just drive me batty.  Gender segregation here is taken to such an extreme here that it tends to create many more problems than those they are trying to resolve - not to mention making Saudi Arabia look like an absurdly backward place where men are not held accountable for their actions, and the blame and punishment is usually aimed at women.  Weddings are segregated affairs, restaurants have separate entrances and dining areas for families and single men, even many private family gatherings I've attended have been segregated.

At a local mall event, notice how the men and women are mostly segregated, left and right.

The latest edict regarding gender segregation comes from the Minister of Labor Adel Faqieh, who has been seen in the past as a rather progressive guy because of his support of women in the workplace.  But now from the Saudi labor department there is a new order that requires the building of 1.6 meter high walls inside businesses to separate working men and women.  Yeah – you heard that right.  Now keep in mind that these working Saudi women are already completely draped in black cloaks, hair completely covered, and many also wear veils over their faces.  

Is this way of dress alone not enough of a barrier?

When I first moved to Saudi Arabia five years ago, there were no women working in sales positions in stores or malls - because they weren't allowed to.  In fact most women in the kingdom were restricted to working in female only educational facilities or in the medical field, where mostly foreign women have been permitted to work as nurses or lab techs side by side with men.   Saudi women in medicine generally are doctors or researchers.

Nowadays Saudi women work in lingerie shops.  Men can only enter these shops when accompanied by female family members.

It was bad enough – and downright creepy - that women here in Saudi Arabia were forced until recently to purchase their undies from men, when the women organized and demanded that women be put in these types of sales positions, including lingerie and cosmetics shops.   Their voices were heard and the King ordered that these salesmen be replaced with women.  It was a huge victory for women in Saudi Arabia.  This eventually led to women being employed in supermarkets, department stores, and women’s clothing shops. 

Saudi female cashiers in the supermarket chain HyperPanda here in Jeddah

Shopping here in Saudi Arabia - at grocery stores, malls, and even small shops - has always been mixed and has never been gender segregated.  As a friend of mine pointed out recently, this "problem" that exists now seems to stem from the fact that women are the ones earning the money instead of just spending it.   It was always okay here when men were the workers and women were the customers, but now that women are working in fields that were formerly dominated by men, the religious bigwigs are suddenly having tizzy fits.  

Why is it okay for this type of gender interaction, but not when the female is the one behind the counter?

In a group discussion about this new development to prevent gender mixing in the workplace, one participant said:  For a country with such high religiosity, it appears that the Saudi adult citizens cannot be trusted to behave with morals and manners in the most basic social and community settings.  I call this a RED FLAG ... Obviously something is desperately wrong. When people are raised with such strict religious laws, norms / values and the government's actions repeatedly imply that Saudi citizens lack basic self-control and are not capable of social interaction with the opposite sex for fear of combustible consensual sexual intercourse, molestation, or rape ... Where else in the world does such a problem exist? Seriously! What is taking place in Saudi society and its institutions that would cause the Saudi government to assume that its citizens' behaviors are so spiritually bankrupt?

Is it better for Saudi women to just beg instead of working a real job?

So exactly what has prompted this move from the Ministry of Labor?  Since women began working in other venues a few short years ago, I would ask - have there been incidents or problems with working women being harassed or complaints about men they work with?  None that I am aware of have been reported in the news, although one article I read vaguely hinted that there have been complaints, but nothing specific.  

Or does it perhaps have to do with the deadly threats from 200 members of the country’s religious police force causing a ruckus in late December 2012, whereby these “Men of God” told the Minister of Labor that if he didn’t do something to stop Saudi women from mixing with men in the workplace that they would pray that Faqieh gets cancer and dies?  Nice, huh?  Especially sweet coming from "Men of God."

 

I think I have a much better and easier solution.  Why not give the men in Saudi Arabia a chance to prove that they can behave themselves around women in the workplace?  And if they can’t manage to do that, then just FIRE THEIR ASSES!!!  

Child molester, torturer and murderer Sheikh Fayhan Al Ghamdi

I'm getting off topic here now, but what I really want to know is:  why aren’t these religious guys (who are so concerned with protecting morality and female virginity) focusing on more important things that pertain to women and children here?  For example, why aren’t they totally unhinged about the recent ruling in the case of the Islamic preacher, Sheikh Fayhan AlGhamdi?  Al Ghamdi brutally raped and tortured his own five year old daughter in December of 2011.  She remained in a coma in the hospital and finally succumbed to her horrendous injuries some 10 months later, in October 2012.  

The judge in the case has recently ruled that the few months Al Ghamdi spent in jail was enough and all he has to do now is pay the family of the victim “blood money.”  Here in Saudi Arabia, the so-called "justice system" in place is along the lines of “an eye for an eye” and provides for financial compensation paid to the heirs of the victim.  In this case, the girl’s family or heirs would include her own father who heinously killed her.  However, the paying of blood money should only apply when the killing was unintentional.  It was obvious that the injuries suffered by this poor girl were not an accident. 

So why isn’t the religious establishment here in Saudi Arabia demanding Al Ghamdi’s head on a platter instead of concerning themselves with such trivial matters as building barriers to separate men and women in the workplace?   I don’t get it.

For more reading on these subjects: 

From Al Arabiya News:  Saudi labor minister faces 'deadly prayers' from angry clerics

From Al Arabiya News:  "Wall-Mart?" Saudi shops to build sex segregation walls

From Sabria S. Jawhar:  A commentary on Saudi society and religious bullies

From Saudi Woman, Eman Al Nafjan:  Rest in peace, Lama

From Omaima Al Najjar:  Islamic preacher gets away with murder

Religious Bullies

Making the news this past week from Saudi Arabia was a report that some 200 Saudi religious clerics have united in a cause - applying pressure and threatening the Saudi Minister of Labor, Adel Fakieh.  Their beef with Mr. Fakieh lies in his promotion and support of Saudi women in the retail workplace, a new policy which was unheard of when I first moved to the Kingdom in 2007. 

It seems that these religious zealots fear that gender mixing will lead to unacceptable and sinful behavior between unmarried men and women.  It's one thing to be opposed to gender mixing.  It's quite another to threaten the Labor Minister with the wish for bodily harm to come to him - in the form of praying to Allah that he will be stricken with cancer and die, which is exactly what happened to Fakieh's predecessor.  To his credit, Mr. Fakieh defended his position and told his opponents to file a lawsuit and let the courts decide. 

I find this threat repulsive, disgusting, and totally against the ideologies that religion is supposed to stand for.  There is nothing in Islam that would prohibit women from working in retail jobs.  I personally have been thrilled to see more and more females working in lingerie, cosmetics, and dress shops and in grocery stores in the past couple of years.  I have gone out of my way to address these working women and their managers to express my unabashed delight in seeing females in these positions.  

Me with a female employee in one of my favorite shops

It was downright creepy, humiliating, and embarrassing for a woman in Saudi Arabia - who must be fully covered from head to toe when out in public - to go into a lingerie shop and have to deal with a salesman telling her that she should buy a B-cup instead of a C.  Yet this is exactly what Saudi women were forced to endure for many years in this country before they began a 3-year campaign against this practice, ending in a tumultuous victory when a law was passed and enforced - with the King's blessing - requiring saleswomen in these positions. 

Saudi female cashiers in grocery chain Hyper Panda

After all, what could be more confusing and contradictory than placing Saudi women in the uncomfortable position of having to purchase bras, panties, negligees, cosmetics, toiletries, and feminine hygiene products from men in a culture where gender mixing is banned?   I just don't see the difference between whether a woman is the customer dealing with a salesman, or a man is the customer dealing with a saleswoman.  Isn't there the same amount of "gender mixing" occurring either way? 

But what I would really love to know is: what kind of a hideous and sick interpretation of any religion would endorse praying for a person to be stricken with cancer?  This is such an offensive idea coming from so-called "religious" men.   I believe they are just bullies practicing religious voodoo who like to keep people in line through fear mongering. 

For more reading on this subject:

From Al Arabiya - Saudi Labor Minister faces "deadly prayers" from angry clerics

From Riyadh Bureau -Saudi Clerics To Labor Minister: Stop Women Employment Or You Will Get Cancer

From American Bedu - Saudi Arabia: They Do Not Deserve the Title of Cleric

Inside the Saudi Kingdom - A BBC Documentary

This hour long documentary gives outsiders an interesting look into the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Its main subject is Prince Saud bin Abdul Mohsen, one of the ruling family members of the country and the nephew of the King, and also touches on tribal customs, cultural traditions, religious influence, the legal system based on Shariah law, and the status of Saudi women. It's well worth watching if you are interested in Saudi Arabia today.

A New Dawn of Progress

One of the things that I have had a very difficult time with since moving to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been the extreme gender segregation that Saudis live by. Things like men and women working together or simply socializing at public functions - that are considered ordinary behavior in the West - have been forbidden because of the hard-hitting enforcement of this issue applied by KSA's religious police force. The ever-present religious police, which have the long official name of "The Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" (CPVPV), is also known as Haia. What I have personally seen and experienced of the gender segregation here has been so exaggerated, unnatural, and unnecessary - and I can only shake my head in disbelief.

In Islam, a man and a woman who are not married/blood-related to each other are not supposed to be “secluded” together - but in Saudi Arabia, this religious law has for years been taken a step further to include pretty much all normal open social contact between men and women, even in the most public of places and circumstances.

That's why I'm feeling encouraged by a recent action taken by The King of Saudi Arabia as he recently replaced the head of the religious police with a more moderate choice. Sheikh Abdullatif Al-Asheikh, who holds a degree in Islamic Studies, is the new minister of the Haia. He replaces Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al-Humayen, whose reign since his appointment in 2009 as the morality police chief, has been much criticized and plagued with controversy.

But not only has KSA’s beloved King appointed this fresh face to clean up the tarnished image of the CPVPV, he has also given the new appointee implicit instructions as to his expectations and desires, paving the way for what should be a kinder, gentler Saudi Arabia. Told to show leniency and respect to both Saudi citizens and foreigners, Sheikh Al-Sheikh said “King Abdullah stressed the tolerant and moderate nature of Islam” and asked him “to spread the correct understanding of Islam among people.”

In one of his first official acts as the new Minister of the CPVPV, Al-Sheikh dismissed the volunteer members of the Haia, who at times have garnered undesirable attention for their aggressiveness, misbehavior, and improper abuses of authority.

According to Arab News, “The sheikh is of the view that hardline approach in the issue of ikhtilat (mixing in public places or in the presence of others in a dignified manner) is unjustified.” The forward thinker is also against marriages of underage little girls and agrees that female salesclerks should be manning women’s lingerie shops, not men – issues that have caused controversy and have cropped up in the news for many years.

The implications of this new appointment appear to be ushering in a new dawn for the Saudi Arabian people. To some, it may not seem very significant, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s a major development and a very welcome and much-needed step in Saudi Arabia’s evolution toward social modernization in the 21st century.

For more information about this topic:

Arab News article “Abdullatif Al-Asheikh is new Haia chief”

Arab News article “King tells new Haia chief to be lenient with people”

Digital Journal article “Saudi King replaces head of morality police with moderate”

Al-Arab Online article "Sheikh Abdullatif seeks to reduce violations of Saudi religious police"

Saudi Gazette article “Hai’a no longer needs volunteers: Al-Sheikh”

Wikipedia article on KSA’s Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Saudi Arabia)

A Victory for Saudi Women

It was one of those head-scratching confusions about Saudi society that was impossible to wrap one's head around - a strictly religious and gender-segregated society forcing its black-cloaked women to purchase bras and panties and cosmetics from a men-only sales force. It was common for the salesmen to size up their customers, telling the women things like, "You need a 36C not a 34B." The whole situation was distasteful, undignified, embarrassing and shameful for a country that claims its women are not oppressed and are protected and insulated from the morally corrupt West.

Since the passage of a law in 2006 banning men from selling lingerie and cosmetics to women in Saudi Arabia, it was "business as usual" for the last five years as business owners chose to ignore the law in hopes that it would just be forgotten. But the women of the country would not allow it to just fade away.

What it finally took for the law to be enforced was a Royal Decree and threats of penalties and loss of business.

So finally, after years of protests, boycotting lingerie shops, and outcries about the absurdity of it all, a significant change has come to the holy land of Islam. One may not think that employing women in sales positions is a big deal, but in a place like Saudi Arabia, it presented major headaches and additional expenses for business owners. In typical Saudi fashion, it's much more complicated than it needs to be. The interior of female-only shops must not be visible to anyone from the outside. There must be a minimum of at least three women working each shift. Keeping men and women separated in a working environment, providing security for female employees, and other extra measures are required to employ women in sales positions.

I remember in 2010 as the Saudi religious police objected vehemently when Hyper Panda (a mega-supermaket chain in Saudi Arabia) hired female cashiers on the basis that the move was an effort to "westernize" Saudi society. And now, apparently, the religious police have done a complete about face, cooperating with the Labor Ministry to ensure the success of this new measure which champions women's rights.

This is indeed a huge victory for Saudi women, who increasingly seem to yearn for more rights and a more active role in their society despite opposition. While gaining every inch is a hard-fought uphill battle, Saudi women should be proud of this achievement.