Flash Mob, Saudi Style

This video was produced by a large supermarket chain in Saudi Arabia called HyperPanda in honor of Saudi National Day which is celebrated on September 23rd.  Enjoy!

"Grace" - by Omnia Hegazy

Omnia Hegazy is a singer-songwriter from New York City, but her music is influenced by her Middle Eastern heritage and her world views about women's rights and politics.

Grace

Cover your face
Before you poison all our souls
Cover your mouth
Before it tells us something we don’t know
Cover your body
For your skin incinerates
The will of weakened men who just might lose their faith


Our heads are full of color inside
Why is it that we should hide
Who ever gave you the right to step on our pride?

What if we stood up right now
And spoke out and sung out loud
What if we all danced with joy
For what we are, would it annoy?
What if we took back our place
In this dying human race
What if we stood side by side
And changed the world with all our grace?

Why don’t you stop yourself
And learn some self restraint
Why should you just be free
While I stay here to suffocate
I’m not an object, but a woman
Don’t you see
It would do you some good
To learn the way to talk to me

Our hearts are full of so many dreams
And so much more that we can achieve
Are you scared you might not be able to compete?

What if we stood up right now
And spoke out and sung out loud
What if we all danced with joy
For what we are, would it annoy?
What if we took back our place
In this dying human race
What if we stood side by side
And changed the world with all our grace?

You can keep on trying to hold us down
Keep us blind and dumb so we won’t figure out
All your sad attempts to take control
Of our bodies, minds, and of our souls

What if we stood up right now
And spoke out and sung out loud
What if we all danced with joy
For what we are, would it annoy?
What if we took back our place
In this dying human race
What if we stood side by side
And changed the world with all our grace?

Oud

Living in Saudi Arabia, I quickly learned that the scented oils everyone uses here are called “oud” (rhymes with “food”). But that’s not the kind of oud this post is about. Oud is also the name for a beautiful stringed instrument that is used in Middle Eastern and North African music.


We were out walking one evening when I spied this shop that sells oud stringed instruments. The shopkeeper told us that the cost of an oud starts at about SR200 (about $50 US) and goes up to about SR1000 (about $250 US).


The oud is a very distinctive looking instrument. The main body of the oud is made of wood, hollow and pear-shaped with a rounded back side. There are usually three sound holes which can be outlined with a painted design or mother of pearl. On a more expensive oud, the sound holes are often adorned with intricately carved bone or cut-out wood rosettes.








It also has no frets and a much shorter neck than a guitar. The neck of the oud has a big crick or bend in it as well. If you are familiar with what a lute looks like, the oud is its cousin.







Both the lute and the oud have been around for thousands of years. Because of its lack of frets like most other stringed instruments have, the oud is played with lots of sliding and lots of vibrato on its strings. Most oud instruments have eleven stings.







The oud also comes in an electrical format which does not have the rounded hollow pear shaped body. This is what the electrical oud looks like.


This short video features Oud Music by Ali Hassan:


To listen to a longer song of oud music, watch this YouTube video featuring Abdel Wahab on the oud:

Burka Woman!

Thanks to SaudiWoman for posting this first... it's hilarious! Enjoy!

Is There Halloween in Saudi Arabia?

For the vast majority of the country, the answer to that question would have to be NO! Halloween would be seen as having evil roots, the work of the devil, plus the fact that frivilous and fun activities seem to be forbidden or at least frowned upon here. Western holidays are not celebrated, and there are only two holidays recognized here at all - and both of them, not surprisingly, are religious. I haven't actually heard or read that Halloween is technically banned here though, not like Valentine's Day is - which I have written about before.

I'm sure there are Halloween parties and possibly even trick-or-treating within the confines of the residential compounds for foreign workers here. And until this year, I didn't think it was a holiday that was celebrated among Saudis. But it seems that through the wonders of the internet, some Saudis have learned about Halloween and want to dress up in costumes, celebrate, and have their own parties.

I was recently invited to tag along with H (one of my SIL's) to a party at her relative's house, but I had no idea it was going to be a costume party until H and her 6-year-old son got into our car and I saw that the boy was dressed up in a Sponge Bob costume. When we arrived at the party, the villa's gates were decorated with spider webs, witches, pumpkins, and big spiders, and inside there were balloons, bats, and ghosts and other elaborate orange and black Halloween decorations.

The party guests were mostly fun-loving teenage girls and a few were younger, about 30 in all. There were also maybe three little boys, under age 10. They were dressed up in costumes from princesses to punk rockers to puppies. One of my favorites was a girl of about 10 dressed up like a Saudi man in the white thobe and red and white checkered scarf - she had a black beard and moustache painted onto her face plus her eyebrows were heavily painted into a big unibrow. I thought she was adorable.

But the absolute best costume was worn by my hilarious SIL H. After we arrived, she went into the bathroom to change. She put on a loose pink housedress with big brown polka dots all over it and wrapped her head up in a white scarf. Then she put on these thick Coke bottle glasses with round black plastic frames, gnarly rotten fake teeth protruded from her mouth, and she had tucked large bulbous sprigs of some type of fragrant green herb into the arms of the eyeglasses which stuck out on each side of her head - apparently this is something traditional that old Yemenese women do to smell good, but it looks rather odd. As the finishing touch, she added a huge balloon under the skirt of her dress in the back - it was one of the funniest costumes I have ever seen.

There was a female DJ who played dance music ranging from Western hip hop to current Middle Eastern hits and the girls had a blast dancing in the large living room turned into a dance floor where the furniture had been mostly removed. The adult women spent most of the time upstairs chatting and laughing and smoking sheesha. I was asked about Halloween traditions so I told them everything I could think of. Next year I'm going to make them a Haunted House and have them bobbing for apples!

Zain Commercial: Window of Hope

Zain is a well-known mobile phone company here in Saudi Arabia, even though they are a relatively new company here, launching their operations within the Kingdom in August of 2008. This is the second outstanding television commercial they have produced that I am sharing with you on my blog (here is the link to the first Zain commercial I previously posted).

Whatever firm Zain hired to produce these exceptional commercials for them was a brilliant and inspirational move on their part. The one-minute commercial below is a tribute to the people of Gaza. It shows the deplorable conditions they are forced to live in, the war-torn rubble their children must play in, and the resilience, strength, and hope the people of Gaza continue to have despite their circumstances. The accompanying music is a shortened version of the beautiful and haunting song "Wonderful Life." Seeing these poor smiling children amidst their depressing and devastated surroundings while singing "It's a wonderful, wonderful life" is very moving.


Zain has partnered with UNRWA (United Nations Relief & Works Agency) in this worthwhile fund-raising campaign to provide relief aid for Palestinian refugees. Zain customers can make contributions by simply texting a message. Taken from their website: "The campaign’s main highlight was a 'reality' TVC that was shot in Bourj el-Barajneh, Lebanon, capturing true life moments of Palestinians living in the area. By allowing the camera to transmit reality, and by using actual Palestinian refugees as cast, Zain is hoping to open the world’s eyes to the cruel conditions endured by the Palestinians, and to give the refugee population a better future."

To view more of Zain's wonderful television commercials, here is the link to their website page listing them.

Awesome Arabic TV Commercial

Most commercials here in Saudi Arabia are lame and incredibly annoying (like many elsewhere in the world) but once in a while they get it right. The commercial below is for a phone company here called Zain. Every time this commercial comes on the TV here, I always stop whatever I'm doing to watch it. Zain named this commercial "Silent Beauty," which I believe is the name of the accompanying song. The graphics are colorfully creative and awesome, and the music is elegant and haunting. The version here has English subtitles, and I've also included the written lyrics below. I don't know who wrote the words of the poem/song, but poetry is a huge part of Arabic culture and history.



Did you see the sun lighting up the sky,
Nourishing life with its radiance and rising above?
I called out to it with the songs of my voice...
But it wouldn't speak.

Did you see the flowers bloom in spring?
Their beauty captivates the heart,
and quenches its thirst.
I reproached them for being away too long...
But they wouldn't speak.

And then in the distance I see
A beautiful girl playing with her dolls.
I asked her why she plays alone,
But she couldn't speak

Then I realized after all of this...
That we've become blind to the truth.
So much beauty is around us
But it cannot speak.
Beauty everywhere.

X-Treme Censorship

The other night I went to a music shop to purchase a few CDs for my son, Adam, AKA Captain Kabob, who just loves music. He comes by his love for music honestly. I have always loved to sing and I like all kinds of music. Listening to music brings me much joy. My hubby used to love music too. He used to love music back when I first met him, back when he says he was "stupid." Stupid for doing sinful things back when he was young and in college, like, among other things, loving music. In fact, he had quite an impressive record collection and could name a lot more of the artists than I could. But as Hubby grew older and "wiser" and got back in touch with his religious side, he realized how "stupid" he had been. So now he thinks that music is a worthless waste of time, and he tries to discourage Capt. Kabob from loving music so much. But the more Hubby puts down music, the more adamant Capt. Kabob is about loving it.


But this post isn't about the confusing issue of how some Muslims believe that music is haram (forbidden) and how other Muslims believe otherwise. This post deals with the censorship that is imposed on all residents of Saudi Arabia.

One of the CDs I got for Capt. Kabob is called "One of the Boys," by a female artist named Katy Perry. Ok, I have to admit here that 16 year old Capt. Kabob thinks Katy Perry is pretty hot, but he really likes her music too. When he opened up the CD, we were both astonished however. I hadn't noticed when I bought it, but the tightly sealed plastic wrap packaging had been removed and had been replaced with a clear plastic resealable envelope-type wrapper. The front cover of the little booklet tucked inside serves as the front of the CD cover. This little booklet insert has photos of the artist, a list of the songs and lyrics, as well as the artistic credits.

This is what the real cover of the CD should have looked like:


And here's what the actual CD cover that I purchased looks like:


Here's what a photo on the INSIDE of the CD booklet should have looked like:


And this is what that same photo actually looks like on the CD I bought:


The back cover had also been doctored as well. Here's what it should have looked like:


And here's what the back cover of the CD I purchased really looks like:


Now those of you who have purchased CDs know how much trouble it is to take that plastic wrap off. And then to remove the front insert and especially removing the back insert from the CD case without breaking the plastic case can be tricky. So what it all boils down to is that the Saudi government is actually paying religious police members of the Committee for the Protection of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (CVPVP) to remove the plastic wrap from these CDs, open up the CD cases, remove the front and back inserts, and carefully and painstakingly color in with a marker any photos baring exposed female flesh that is deemed objectionable. Hence, while the general public is protected from such vulgarity, the CVPVP members get to view photos with women's flesh abounding and then get to stroke on colored markers over the exposed women's skin. I wonder what they are thinking or how they feel as they stroke those markers onto the smooth female flesh in the photos. I wonder if it makes them feel good that they are shielding young teenage boys from such crude displays of the nubile female form.

But I also wonder if they are sometimes overcome with desire and cannot control their feelings or actions when they see such immoral things like this day in and day out. After all, they are only men and only human. Certainly seeing all that tempting erotic skin, and coloring in all those feminine body parts must have some kind of perverse effect on these men who have been entrusted with keeping the entire country out of harm's way. These poor men are charged with the monumental task of seeking out sexual connotations in every aspect of life here and turning innocence into filth. It's a dirty disgusting job but somebody has to do it. What supreme sacrifices these noble men make for the sake of their fellow Saudi man!

For further details about the extreme role that this controversial government agency takes in "protecting" the good citizens of Saudi Arabia, read my previous post about the CPVPV. You can read even more by clicking over to an in-depth blog post on the same topic by my fellow blogger Sand Gets in my Eyes, and a very recent accounting of a disturbing incident in Riyadh about how the CPVPV overstep their bounds by another fellow blogger, Saudi Woman.

Land of Contrasts & Contradictions

As a newcomer, I have observed that Saudi Arabia is a very interesting place - a land of stark contrasts and confusing contradictions.

For example, in an area of new and elegant walled villas in the city, the neighboring empty lot is, more often than not, filled with rubble and garbage. This doesn't seem to bother the residents because no one takes any steps to improve it. One can see sights like this all over Jeddah. My husband Adnan told me that when there is new construction, the debris is just hauled off the lot and dumped at the nearest empty lot. I wondered out loud about how unfair that is to the empty lot’s owner, but Adnan said that somehow, because everyone does this, it all evens out eventually. There are some of the most modern and amazing structures here that I have ever seen, and right next door might be a garbage and rubble-filled lot, or maybe a 500 year old crumbling and decaying building.

Or out in the country, there might a lavish walled villa in the middle of nowhere, and just a short walk away, people are living in tents in the desert. And even more interesting is that the tents may have TV antennas and cars parked outside. There is such an interesting - and sometimes odd - mix of the old and the new, the elegant and the decrepid, the haves and the have-nots.

There seems to be little in the way of planning and zoning or code enforcement. Parking lots - when you are lucky enough to go to a place that has them - have tight spaces, narrow lanes, and are very crowded. Parking here seems to be an after-thought. Cars are haphazardly parked wherever, and many times, cars are double or tripled parked, blocking traffic lanes. Every day I see cars driving the wrong way on one way streets or divided boulevards. The main reason for this happening is because there are so many one ways and divided streets with sometimes no way to make a u-turn or left turn for quite a distance, so everyone resorts to driving on the wrong side of the street.

The materials and designs used in construction are oftentimes obviously top of the line, elegant and intricately detailed, and rooms are decorated with gorgeous chandeliers and amazing ceilings that I have never seen the likes of anywhere. The outside walls of many buildings are completely tiled or are covered with beautiful stone or even marble. Even the sidewalks and entire courtyards are totally and beautifully tiled. However, the workmanship can be sloppy or unfinished. In our apartment, for example, I am still trying to get off splatters of paint, stain, grout, and "I-don’t-know-what-else" that are all over the floor tiles and baseboards. And there is this white paper that is glued all the way around a dark wood doorway molding that I am still trying to get off. Plus, I have had to take a razor to the wall tiles in the kitchen and all the bathrooms because the workmen didn’t clean off the grout properly as they were working.

Music is another subject that is really confusing in Arabia. But what makes it even more confusing is that music is a much disagreed upon subject here and this is because even Islamic scholars cannot agree among themselves. Consequently, some people in Arabia believe that music is “haram” or forbidden by Islam, and others feel that music is "halal" or allowed. There are confusing passages in the Koran that at one time seem to condemn music and then there are other passages that appear to condone it. Meanwhile, TV here has dozens of Middle Eastern music channels.

Even my husband confuses me about Islam's view of music. When we first met, Adnan absolutely loved music, collected many albums, could even name really obscure artists, and constantly listened to music. But now, he has made a 180 degree turnaround and even tries to discourage our 14 year old son's naturally inherited love of music, telling him that it is a waste of time. Adnan's mom and sister also both believe that music is haram (bad). One of our young adult neices even declined to attend a wedding because there was going to be music and dancing. It makes me wonder: why would there be music and dancing at a wedding anyway when it is supposed to be forbidden?

I have read that music is bad because certain types of music are sexy, alluring, or evil, among other things. Dancing is also considered inappropriate, yet the Middle East is where Belly Dancing originated. And still others believe that only certain musical instruments are acceptable. Many people here, like my husband, consider music as basically a waste of time. Yet verses from the Koran are always sung, and prayers are sung, and this is ok. To me, this is a form of music. To many Muslims, even beautiful classical music is bad. I can understand how they might consider rap music, heavy metal, or songs with vulgarity and wrong messages in them as bad...but beautiful classical music? I just cannot be convinced of this way of thinking. And I cannot help but feel badly for the people who have been convinced that all music is evil and wrong - because, being a lover of many kinds of music myself, I know what they are missing out on, and sadly, they don't.

Despite all of this, satellite TV here is loaded with dozens upon dozens of channels that are Middle Eastern music all the time. I am amused watching music videos of men singers dressed in their full traditional garb, swaying, winking, dancing, and moaning. And then, there's the heavily made up Middle Eastern women - who are supposed to be modest - making videos exposing their cleavage in snug fitting attire, batting their false eyelashes directly into the camera, tossing their hair and their hips around in very suggestive movements and overtones, wiggling and jiggling to the beat. Stores here are loaded with Middle Eastern music CDs and videos. If this type of stuff is plastered all over TV and in stores, then why do I and all the other women here have to wear the abaya out in public? I don't get this.

Here in Arabia, certain Western ideas have been readily embraced, while at the same time, they have fiercely held on to many traditional, and archaic, customs as well. They definitely pick and choose carefully what they wish to accept or reject. Technology and architecture are state of the art here. But Western influences, especially social and moral attitudes and behaviors, have been unquestionably rejected.

Another area of confusion for me is women wearing makeup. Women here are not supposed to attract the attention of other men, hence the abaya, the hair covering, etc. Yet out in public, many of the women, even those in veils, wear tons of eye makeup. Most women seen on TV here wear an obscene amount of makeup, so much so that many of them look plastic (think Tammy Faye!). I went to my first Saudi wedding (read all about it in a previous chapter) and most of the women wore lots of makeup. Adnan's mom Tata apparently told him to tell me to stop putting on makeup when we go out because I will attract too much attention from men and I should only wear makeup for other women, like at a wedding, or only for my husband. Proper women - good Muslim women - do not want to attract the attention of other men in public. I have noticed that men and women don’t really look at each other or make eye contact when they are out in public anyway. It is improper for a man to look at or speak to another man's wife. So, why then do so many women wear so much makeup if it is supposed to be unacceptable and other men aren't supposed to look at women anyway?

And, of course, there’s the clothing and hair covering thing that I also find contradictory. If the Koran says that both men and women should dress modestly, then why aren’t men required to cover up like the women? I even keep my hair covered whenever I am in the presence of any of my brothers-in-law, even though Adel saw my hair when he visited us in America, but now it’s not acceptable. I can remember seeing Moslem families at Disney World in Florida on a hot humid summer day, with the father comfortably dressed in a tank top and shorts, while the mother sweltered in her black abaya and headscarf. How is this even remotely fair or justifiable?

Most people here are extremely polite and courteous and mind their own business. But just get those men behind a wheel (remember women cannot drive here), and it is pure mayhem and aggression, constant horn honking, cutting other drivers off, and total disregard for normal driving rules. My husband tells me that women aren't allowed to drive here for several reasons. One reason is for their own safety. In the big cities here, driving is very stressful because of all the traffic, the lack of traffic enforcement (I haven't seen any tickets being given out, much less any drivers pulled over by the cops), and the fact that the drivers here do virtually anything they want with no regard for others. Another reason, Adnan says, is because the men drivers would find it too distracting to see women behind the wheel and it would cause more accidents. Another possible explanation is because women aren't really supposed to go places without their husbands, although this is not necessarily the way it really is here. In fact women aren't supposed to be in a vehicle without a male relative, yet taxi cabs do a flourishing business here because women aren't allowed to drive, and many families employ a full-time driver to take the lady of the house out wherever and whenever she wishes.

The people here in Arabia cherish their kids, but to date, I haven't ever seen one baby in a car seat (although I'm not saying that all parents here don't use them) or one child buckled up with a seat belt. Kids ride standing up, jumping around the car, hanging out the windows, or even driving on daddy's lap! Adnan says this is "freedom," even though it used to upset him if we saw something like that in the states. Of course adults don't buckle up here, hence they don't buckle up their kids. I feel like we may be the only people here who buckle up at all.

The Koran encourages Muslims to take care of and have respect for their bodies, and it forbids Muslims to indulge in things that are harmful to the body, like alcohol, illegal drugs, or smoking. But so many people smoke here, and from what I understand, there are people who do drugs here as well. To me, this is hypocritical by just picking and choosing what they want to follow from the Koran and discarding what they don't want to adhere to. Hmmm, I wonder how many of the religious police smoke?

And one last thing for now that I don't quite get: portraits of people (like family members) are not displayed at all around the home here. Soon after I got here, I was told by Tata not to hang any family portraits on the wall, and to not have them in frames on a table or displayed in any way. I could remember learning years ago from Adnan that Muslims do not wear likenesses of people or any creature that has eyes, like on a T-shirt or a hat. It is forbidden, partly having to do with idolotry and possibly having to do with "evil eyes" or such. Ok, I can understand that and accept it. But what I don't understand is: why is it ok then to have huge photos and likenesses of the King (and other high ranking members of the Royal Family) plastered everywhere, on buildings, inside buildings, on signs, on billboards, on advertisements, etc.? Isn't this some form of idolotry?

I could go on and on, but I think that's enough to ponder for now. It all just seems so confusing and contradictory. I just don't get it!