It's been about three months since I arrived to Saudi and I started sharing my experiences on this blog. One of the strongest experience we face here is obviously the strong gender segregation there is here in the Kingdom. However, this subject is one of the hardest for me to write about, since I can only observe and try to understand how the society works. This is way to complex for me to have a clear opinion, and then I am really no one to express a judgment on this topic. Instead, I can recommend you a highly interesting article on the condition of women in Saudi, by BBC News, under this link:
The article quotes a Saudi woman saying: "We Saudi women are privileged and pampered by our guardians". By guardians, they refer to their father / brother / husband who is responsible for them and must accompany them everywhere. For the outsider, it's hard to believe that they really think this way. I actually heard the same kind of position in several occasions. My arabic teacher for instance, as a fellow student was mentioning she wanted to go to Mecca, and that it was too long a distance for her husband to drive (Do I really need to recall you women cannot drive?), our young Saudi teacher answered: We are like queens here, our husbands drive us accross the country, and if they find it's too far to drive, then we go by plane!
just watched the video, wow we were talking about this las time on facebook you now work and driving to work!!
ReplyDeleteIt really is a very complex subject and you really do have to bend your mind around to try to grasp it. Talking of driving I have met several women who say they don't want to drive knowing that once they do everything would be left to her to do, shopping, school run etc!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHi Nicola! Well you probably have a much better understanding of the whole thing than I do! I'm sure you have very interesting insights on the topic!
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