Blue Abaya

Does Saudi-Arabia Need Sex Education?

2012-02-28T19:29:00.000+03:00

A while ago I wrote about Saudi men and the pressure some feel to perform in the bedroom. Check it out here: http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/09/saudi-men-and-pressure-to-perform.html

In the article you can read how some young Saudi men are not able to consummate their marriages due to performance anxiety. A study of newly married Saudi couples found the prevalence of so called "Honeymoon impotence" to be as high as 17%. The same study concluded that 63% of marriages were not consummated because of the severe anxiety of the woman leading to a condition called vaginismus. Other reasons were erectile dysfunction, not knowing coital technique and low sexual desire.
One of the underlying factors to the problem is lack of sex education for young girls and boys.
Most of these cases of unconsummated marriages could have been prevented if they had been educated and aware of their bodies and its functions.

There is an alarmingly high rate of divorces among newlyweds in the Kingdom. Most divorces occur within the first year of marriage. Unconsummated marriage is one of the top reasons for young couples to seek divorce. Proper sex education could significantly help to lower the divorce rate.

Because of the lack of sex education in Saudi-Arabia the young are left to find out for themselves. This can naturally result in some horribly wrong ideas and lead to unrealistic expectations and create extreme anxiety and fears. Girls and boys won't learn from their parents either since everything sexual is viewed as "a'eib" (forbidden and shameful). The best sources for the girls are other peers at school and the maids! Now how much do the uneducated maids really know and how much are superstitions coming from their cultures?

Why is there no sex ed in Saudi? Does Islam forbid talking about sex?
No. But like most things in Saudi, true Islamic teachings and what is actually done are two completely different things thanks to the interpretations of most of the religious scholars here. Islam does not frown upon talking about sex and educating young people. Sexual relations between married couples are seen as normal part of life and nothing to be ashamed about. However the strong influence these sheikhs have on public opinion is what makes Saudis cringe at the idea of their kids having sex education. All talk about sex is a taboo.

The message sent by these religious fanatics is that sex ed is bad and causes harm.Young men and especially women (gasp!) might get some perverted ideas in their heads! If you teach them about anatomy of the opposite sex and show how it's "done" they will become sex crazed and go and have premarital relations! Showing pics of male and female organs is a form of western conspiracy! Or talking about sex will make women promiscuous! Sometimes I wonder what sort of dirty minds come up with this BS anyways?

You would think that in this day and age the internet would provide at least some sort of info on the subject. The problem of self educating about marital relations is that many of the sites remain censored from Saudi and there is just all sorts of wrong information available. Also internet time for the youth (especially the girls!) will be restricted or they are not allowed to use the internet at all. This leads to young couples getting married without having a clue of basic anatomy of the other half and no knowledge of how babies are made.

So I will conclude by telling you a real life example of how badly sex education is needed here.
A newly married couple came to the infertility clinic for check up. They had been trying for over a year to conceive without any luck. The doctors ran some tests and everything came back normal. The couple was sent back home to keep trying and to pray for a child.
Another year went by and the couple started to get very frustrated and came back to the clinic. As the doctor discussed their options he thought of asking a few questions of their "technique" to rule out any issues there.

The man explained how they had marital relations always in the same position and how it was usually very painful for the wife. The doctor started to suspect there really was something wrong with their technique and showed him the anatomy of female sexual organs asking him to show where he thought the woman's vagina was. He very shyly pointed to the "back door".

Problem solved. The couple conceived shortly after the quick sex ed by the doctor.

So if this Saudi man was not able to locate the correct entrance for two years then I can't imagine what else is out there?

Check out this video. It's a Saudi cleric explaining how he thinks the Jeddah airport design resembles a penis and a vagina, and therefore must be a western conspiracy theory:
MEMRI: Saudi Cleric Warns of Western Conspiracy: Design of Jedda Airport Resembles a Penis and a Vagina
This video is a prime example of a multitude of problems in Saudi-Arabia:
-Lack of sex education which leads to a person concluding modern architecture and human anatomy look alike.
-Extreme gender segregation which results in sexually frustrated men who see vaginas and penises everywhere (it's amazing they didn't attack the design of some minarets yet).
-Religious clerics spreading idiotic ideas that have nothing to do with Islam and giving it a bad name in the process.
- Spreading the message that female and male organs are shameful and not to be discussed.
-Blaming everything on the west because all evil comes from the west.

So what do you think? Would Saudi-Arabia benefit from sex ed?

The Princess Souq

2012-02-22T17:03:00.003+03:00

The Princess Souq! Sounds like a souq for princesses right? Glamour, glitter and gorgeous gowns?
Not exactly.
This is actually a second hand souq located near to Batha the infamous "ghetto" of Riyadh.
It's like a huge open area marketplace, fleamarket, garage sale, whatever you call it, it's worth a visit!

At first visitors might be taken aback by the set up, looks like a shack village with all the ugly metal sheets, dirty carpets, and general uncleanliness of the area.
But this is a place where women (and why not some adventurous men!) can make incredible bargains and make some surprising finds.

The name of the souq comes from rumors that the clothing was donated there by royal family princesses. This might be partly true judging on some of the items that can be found there but the majority of the clothing is normal everyday brands (not saying real Princesses wouldn't wear such but..) also some of the evening gowns are just..so interesting. Take a look at the pics below and you will see what I mean. Would an Al-Saud Princess step out to a gala dinner in something like this for example:

I highly doubt it, although, you never know. Check out the dude in the right lower corner. I will tell you about him later.

Princess souq is open everyday but the best days to go are weekday mornings. Not too much of a crowd and you can actually see the clothes! Sometimes at night the whole area might be out of electricity and even if they do have it, the lamps are ridiculously bad quality! The shops start opening at 9-10 am and close at Dhuhr prayer sharp. Muttawa roam this area frequently so shopkeepers will promptly close their shops in fear of getting arrested. Next the shops open after Asr and then close after Isha'a prayer. On Fridays the souq is closed in the morning.

The Princess souq is also Haraj bin Gassem and most taxi drivers will know it by this name. If you want to venture out there on your own vehicle, be prepared to get lost a few times as the area can be confusing. Take the exit 22 ask for Haraj or carpet souq which is next to it and you will be pointed to the right direction.

When you get to the souq the amount of clothing will be overwhelming. It's good to ask the salesmen who are mostly Indian and Pakistani and speak some English to point out the best evening gowns for you, if that's what you're looking for. Many of the nicest gowns hang from the ceilings and might be hard to spot. But there are some stunning evening gowns out there! This is also an indication of how many parties Saudi women attend (gown can only be used once then thrown). The vast styles Saudi ladies wear to weddings and parties is really interesting. There are simple elegant ones and way over the top ones with the motto of "you cannot put too much lace, satin, bows, beading, crystals, ruffles and embroidery on one dress. It's amazing what women will actually wear! Reminds me of Christmas somehow..hmm..

Browsing the souq you will come across the weirdest things. Here some pretty raunchy panties hanging among other underwear. I will leave it to your imagination what else can be found there..

One of my favorite things to search for are children's clothing and little girls party dresses. They will go for as cheap as 5-10SAR a piece and the more you purchase the more discount you will get! I bring these back home to my nieces who love to dress up as little princesses. In Finland raw silk and handmade gowns like this would cost anywhere form 100 euros up, so getting them for a mere fraction of the price is totally worth the hassle.

^^Saudi Haute Couture anyone?

There he is again! The down side to shopping at Princess souq is the perverts. I also call this place Pervert Central. I would not advise women to go here alone but always in groups or preferably with husbands. If you absolutely must go alone then take a trusted driver to walk around with you. I have been groped here in full daylight by men walking past and just taking a go. Another tactic they use is lurking behind the clothing stands.

One of my friends actually caught a guy masturbating behind the racks. My tactic is to take their picture and shout at them. Sometimes they need serious actions! The above creepy creepers were following us around on different occasions. The first guy pretended to be purchasing something. I told him to take a hike and he started asking if we were Russians and wouldn't believe me, just continued his game.I finally shouted at him very loudly and he shouted back F**k you Russians! He left cursing us.
The perv #2 was just staring at us. I tried to take his pic but he kept turning around. So next I told the salesman about his behavior (they know these guys sometimes) and he just picked up and old shoe and threw it in his direction! Mr. Slimeball left.
So if you find yourself in these situations, make a big deal to expose him and do ask the salesmen for help, they are very friendly and polite.
For once the Hai'a who are strongly present in this area would come in handy but guess what? They only concentrate on shouting from their megaphones for women to cover and men to close shops for prayer and go pray, sometimes even beating people to go pray. That's the most ridiculous thing about this problem, how easily it could be solved if only muttawa would intervene.

So what about the prices? It's an absolute MUST to haggle here! Prices range according to the color of your face. No joke! Western women might get asked 100 SAR for something Indians or Filipinos might get for 10 SAR. I never paid more than 50SAR for an evening gown and that was only once! Usually they will go for 20-30 a piece, children starting from 10-20 a piece. Normal clothing is much cheaper, you can get three shirts or skirts for 10 SAR. If you find an expensive brand name don't mention it to the seller, sometimes they are not even aware. The above blue evening gown cost me 15SAR and it's flawless and looks stunning! If you are not getting results with your bargaining skills, simply WALK away. 90% of the time the seller will run after you and sell for the price you asked.

You will not want to buy anything with a stain on it, but sometimes some stains have slipped my attention. Some do come off in laundry but the salesmen will try to convince you everything comes off. I always take the evening gowns to the dry cleaners in Saudi because it's really cheap here and they will iron the gowns for you too. The rest of the clothes I just wash in the washing machine. It's always a good idea to check that the zippers are working.

You can find the most beautiful wedding gowns here as well. Most of them have been custom made. The above dress came down from 750 to 220 SAR. It has intricate lace and beading detail and is high quality silk, the veil is simply breath taking! Below one of the beautiful gowns more my style that I found for 20SAR:

So is it worth the dust, traffic, perverts, sometimes heat and all the hassle? In my opinion it's a definite YES! But I like little "adventures" and don't mind a few setbacks. This place is surely not for everyone. I took my mother and sister there when they were visiting Saudi and they really liked it.

Here are my little princess nieces fascinated by their new REAL Princess dresses :)

Mirror Mirror On The Wall..

2012-02-16T13:21:00.002+03:00

Who is the whitest of them all?

A fair complexion equals beauty in many cultures around the world. In Saudi-Arabia white is definitely the preferred skin tone for both men and women. But like most things in the world, the pressure of being fair is mainly placed upon the woman. Sadly, mothers and other female family members are the ones maintaining and contributing to this phenomenon.

The obsession of white skin tone starts when the baby is still in the mother's womb. Expecting mothers might be instructed to eat certain foods to help "make" their baby develop whiter skin. They say adding saffron to milk makes white babies. Pregnant women might be told to avoid coffee, iron tablets or dark chocolate. Such ignorance when everyone today should know it's up to your genes! If some women really think it has some effect, shouldn't they as Muslims avoid changing God's creation anyways?

Daughters will be kept inside the house and not allowed to play in the sun in fear of exposing the skin to the tanning effects of the sun. Never mind the health benefits such as obtaining vitamin D from the suns rays. The levels of vit. D of Saudi women are alarmingly low, one of the lowest in the world. Vitamin D deficiency causes multiple health problems to the mothers and the children. Complete veiling of the body would also have an effect on the low levels.

So the couped up girls spend their childhood mostly indoors while boys of course can do what they want and play outside all they like. Girls worry about their knees and elbows not becoming too dark from playing on the floor like their mothers warned them. It's very common to hear comments on children's skin tone here. People will even talk about their own kids to other people pointing out how this one is much whiter than that one. How this sister is so white and beautiful while the other is dark and ugly. I can't even imagine the damage this does to the girls self esteem.

When the Saudi girl starts menstruating their childhood is over and many will be forced by their families to suddenly veil their entire bodies. Check out how miserable blogger Omaima felt when she had to wear the abaya for the first time: http://omaimanajjar.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/how-i-felt-when-i-wore-an-abaya-for-the-first-time/
Reaching puberty will also further increase the pressure of a whiter skin tone and this is when many girls start trying different treatments.

When Saudi men start seeking for brides they inform their mothers who then start looking for potential wives at weddings and other social functions. Young women will come to show off to weddings for this very reason. The man will often have a few desires on his list of requirements of the woman's appearance. Most often than not, white skin tone is on the top of the list. Second in line would come straight hair, perhaps large boobs, small nose. Seriously, men say these things to their mothers! As if they are in search of cattle.
Under this immense pressure to have a white skin tone and keeping in mind how it might raise their chances of landing a good husband, the Saudi woman will go to great lengths to obtain a pale complex. Some mothers will be obsessed with the daughters skin tone from birth which continues this vicious cycle.

Most women will opt for whitening creams which are extremely popular around Asia and the ME. I personally never saw so many types and brands of whitening creams in my life. Most are marketed to give you a "healthy glow".

When I first moved to the Kingdom I remember searching for a TANNING cream at the pharmacy. I was in awe of all the whitening products and while browsing the aisle an Arab male pharmacist approached me. He took a jar from the shelf and asked me "I think this is what you're looking for ma'm". I looked at the product, wondering how on earth could this man telepathically know I was searching for a self tanner. But lo and behold what the pervert had just suggested! It was a whitening cream specifically for private parts! I other words your VJ!
I wanted to slap him right then and there but could not utter a word from my disgust and amazement. I just turned around and walked away.

After I recovered from my initial shock I was able to think about it. Why would a woman put something potentially harmful on her private parts just to please a man?Why would someone want to bleach their VJ for God's sake? Is this one of the requirements Saudi men have for their brides? Can you believe they have a website dedicated to whitening your tidbits?http://vaginalbleaching.org/

So there are all sorts of whitening creams out there. Also, all sorts of home-made whitening creams are available. They are the most sought after products because they contain ingredients that are banned from the market. Anything that has been banned for sale because of harmful ingredients should be avoided like the plague right? Nope.

Now this reminds me of a tragic story of one young bride to be.
A teenage Saudi girl was engaged and in preparations for her wedding, had obtained one of these whitening products available on the black market. A while after she had started using it she got an eye and skin infection. The infection did not improve with oral antibiotics and she was taken into the hospital for treatment.

After a while the infection was so bad it has reached her eyes and they had to remove her eyeballs. They could not control the infection. She lost both her eyes. She was in the hospital for weeks but doctors were not able to cure her. Finally the infection spread into her bloodstream and days after she passed away.

What an unnecessary, sad and maddening death! An innocent hopeful bride that just wanted to look more beautiful on her wedding day. Just because the society she lives in tells her she is not beautiful enough as she is, this tragedy had to happen. Just because of this sick twisted mentality of admiring white skin, a beautiful soul was lost.

Another strange way way of skin whitening is applying camel urine on the skin. yes, camel urine! It's true that camel urine has been proven to have whitening qualities. But who would want to rub it on their faces? Some women.

I had a patient whose family was into this camel urine and milk treatment. Don't get me wrong, camel's milk and urine have many proven health benefits, just check this article: http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2010/06/camels-milk-urine-potential-cure-for.html
But one of the daughters had taken it to the extreme. She seemed surprisingly white compared to the others. She told me her secret was applying camel urine on her skin everyday, and mentioned how it works for female area as well. What? Now that can't be healthy! Just another example of the extreme measures women will go through for whiter skin.

Funny how most women in the west like to get a tan and hate pale complexions. I have to admit I used to be the kind of girl that always went to the beach for tanning and in Saudi I spent all my days off at the hospital pool enjoying the sunshine. In the west some women take tanning to the extreme using spray tanning, tanning booths and so on resulting in a year round "healthy glow".
You won't find many tanning booths in Saudi though, just go to any beauty salon in Saudi and instead they actually have whitening booths! Salons will have a wide variety of skin whitening treatments available. One of the newest trends is using laser.

It's really sad to witness this phenomenon in Saudi and elsewhere in the world. My daughter has already been effected by it. It's always pointed out how white she is. I have been requested by my husbands family members not to take her out in the sun so she wouldn't get tanned. When we got back from our summer holiday in Finland, where we spent most of our time out in the sunshine my daughter had tanned quite a lot and I heard some pretty negative comments on her new color.

I love that my daughter has a darker complexion than mine, I think it's beautiful. In Finland she is "dark" but in Saudi she is "white". I wish people would stop looking at the surface and look deeper for beauty in the person. The outer color really does not matter.

P.S. If you liked this post or if you're just a really, really nice and beautiful person, with an extra 37 seconds to spare, then would you please pretty please click here :http://2012.bloggi.es/ to vote for Blue Abaya at the 12th Annual Weblog Awards! Few days left for voting and Blue Abaya is nominated as Best Asian Blog. THANK YOU!!

Why Do Saudis Spit On People?

2012-02-13T11:59:00.061+03:00

Believe it or not this is an actual question I get asked every once in a while.

Expat nurses often ask me about some strange habits Saudis have and odd stuff they saw patients doing. I guess being married to a Saudi gives me more insight into some things but don't get me wrong, I'm no Saudipedia. But I like to correct some common misconceptions whenever I can.

Often some of the questions I get asked are related to Islam. For example why do Saudi men constantly fiddle with the prayer beads, why do Saudi men chew on sticks or why do Saudi women splash water all over the bathroom floors? Others are more cultural such as why do some female patients keep their whole head covered with a cloth while the doc examines her "down under"? Why do Saudis throw all the trash on the hospital floors or why do Saudis cluck their tongues all the time?

I don't have an answer to everything, although sometimes I wish I understood.

Back to the question about the spitting on people. First of all I like to point out that although it does look and sound like the person is in fact spitting on the patient, he is by no means *spitting*. What is happening is actually praying. The person is reciting Quran and kind of "blowing" the words onto the patient. If anyone knows how to explain this better, feel free to leave a comment.

Muslims believe that reading the Quran on the sick person has healing abilities and this is why nurses will often witness this behavior with patients. I've known many nurses that have been disgusted by the practice because they honestly don't have a clue of why someone would spit on their sick relatives.

Well thankfully some of the confused nurses want to find out what is actually going on while others just like to remain ignorant and poke fun at the Saudis saying, they like to spit on people! I have to admit I've witnessed some pretty "enthusiastic" styles myself and saliva has certainly been seen flying around, especially with Bedouin patients. But this practice is only a sincere attempt to cure the patients :)

For more weird habits of Bedouin patients check this post: http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2010/06/bedouins-as-patients.html
Read about Saudi women who never remove their veils here: http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/06/eternal-veil.html

The Saudi Wedding Make-Up Masquerade

2012-02-09T06:25:00.005+03:00

My first experience from Saudi wedding make-up was when a colleague of mine showed me her wedding picture album. My jaw dropped! WHOA! Girl literally had painted rainbows on her eyelids and had some sort of crystals plastered around her eyebrows. Gigantic fake eyelashes, bright pink lips and her skin covered with foundation white as the snow. I could not even recognize her!

Strangely enough this girl never wore make-up to work and always seemed to be very modest behind her niqab. She is also a natural beauty. So putting all that paint on her face to me seemed like she was drowning her beauty. Her face looked almost frightening. The below makeup tutorial looks a bit similar but without all the added crystals on the brows:

Of course I told her she looked beautiful, but to this day I have never understood the need for some Saudi and Arab women to smother so much make-up on their faces. Less is more, anyone?

The first time I attended a Saudi wedding I was in shock of the fashion sense (or lack there of) and especially the make-up of some of the attending women. Think Batman, Boy George and Star Trek..Women just go all out and totally over the top. it's more like a carneval or a masquerade.

I usually don't wear a lot of make-up except for special occasions. Apparently my perception of "a lot" does not conform with the Saudis. I had applied extra dark eye shadow and eyeliner for this wedding. Nevertheless, some women came up to me to ask "Don't you have eyeliner and mascara on? Of course I had eyeliner and mascara, duh! But I hadn't smudged my entire eyes with it. Also, blue eyes just never appear as dark with make-up and my eyelashes are really light color. If you put too much make-up on a blonde woman she ends up looking like a working girl IMHO.

So I heard "Tsk, tsk tsk. Unacceptable, she has to put more make-up on!"

"Doesn't your husband want you to wear eyeliner?" was the next question. Ummm..I don't know? What does it have to do with me being here in a all female setting anyways?

There's a big wedding coming up so I've been searching online to check out some nice Arabic style make-ups to try blend in with the crowd more. And boy the stuff that's out there is just..I have no words. Take a look at some of the looks I found:

Poison Ivy-look. What is up with the eyebrows, how did they move to the middle of her forehead?? Inspired by Mr. Spock perhaps?

Herpes-look. Enough said.

Raccoon-look. What happened to her nose anyway?

Peacock-look. I wonder if it comes with feathers attached to your butt as well?

Dear Lord help me-look. Help me look into the mirror and realize I look like a drag queen before I leave the house.

Mix and match miss-matched colors-look. The more colors you are able to splash on your face, the better.

Boy George-look. Is he an Arab Idol?

The angry owl-look. Reminds me of this bird we have in Finland called huuhkaja:

Star Trek-look. Beads on your forehead make you look like an alien, period.

The 80's-look. Gotcha! Did you even notice this is not a woman, but in fact Boy George?

Hypnosis-look. Ok colored contacts can be nice if they're subtle, but this is creepy!..And don't get me started on the lip liner!

Spider-look. Everything about the look reminds me of spiders, spiderwebs and beehives and other creepy crawlers.

Face painting-look. Ya face paintings were fun when we were like 5 years old.

Measles-look. The only place where studs look good is on your bag. Or shoes. Maybe jeans. But for the love of God, don't put them on your face!

In case you are wondering how these masterpieces are created check out this tutorial:

Ok I think I will pass on the fabulousness. I'm just too modest for these looks :p

I will opt for a more simple look because I don't want to look too outrageously smashing and get the evil eye from jealous women.

I like the light pink lips with the smokey eyes-look. I might have to add color to the brows for a more Arab style.

I bet if I do something like this I will be just a wall flower and nobody will fell threatened by my presence.

What do you think? Which Arabic make-up look is your favorite?

P.S. I would like to add there are also very beautiful Arabic make-up styles, Noor has found some nice ones here: http://littlepinkstrawberries.blogspot.com/2010/12/arabic-makeup.html

P.P.S If you liked this post please pretty please vote for Blue Abaya for the Best Asian blog at the 12th Annual Weblog Awards here: http://2012.bloggi.es/ Voting closes Feb 19th. Thanks!

11 Cures For Sandbox Boredom

2012-02-07T21:56:00.001+03:00

There's so many events going on this February I thought of dedicating a post to it on its own in addition to the Events tab I regularly update. Too many things going on this month not to be missed! I was going to add my regular ten for Tuesday but added one as an extra bonus for ya'll.

This list is to help all the people out there effected by the dreaded "Sandbox Boredom- Syndrome".
People always complain how Riyadh is such a boring city with nothing to do, no social life or events.
Wrong!

1. The annual Cultural Heritage Festival Janadriyah is the main event and a MUST SEE for all expats at least once! Starting 8th Feb running through 24th Feb. Check more info on events section and for pics from last year go here: http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/04/janadriyah-2011.html

2. Reem International Circuit “Family Fun Day” onThur 9 Feb: 11 – 10pm. Safari animals, BBQ, Kids and adults activities,, campfire lunch and dinner provided. Email events@optimumchoice.com.sa or visit Good Ship Lollipop on Thalia St for tickets

3. Classical Music Concert at French Ambassador’s Residence Mon 13 Feb 8p.m. More info on events section.

4. Cosmo Beauty Fair 2012 11th -13th Feb at Four Seasons Hotel Ballroom check events section. Women only.

5. “Strike Out” Family Bowling Day Thur 16 Feb 2 – 4pm. Members SR 50. Non-members SR60. Inc. shoe rental and 2 games. Sign up by 13th Feb at http://www.acrsa.com/

6. Stand-up Comedy Show 16th Feb Riyadh, tickets available at Wayne's Coffee - Azizia Panda, Takassussi Branch. More info on events section.

7. Al Faisaliyah Hotel Globe Food Summit 13th -17th Feb. From educational cooking seminars to outstanding gala dinners, brunches and High Tea with Michelin Star awarded chefs. Reservations essential. Full schedule and timings here: http://www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/alfaisaliahhotel/i/downloads/Globe_Summit.pdf

8. Chocoflora Exhibition 2012 Nayyara Banquet Hall. From 18th-21st Feb 2012. Go to events section for more info. Women only.

9. "From Sea to Shining Sea” in the US Embassy Formal Gardens Thur 23 Feb: 7pm – Midnight. SR 250. Tickets at USERA Gift Shop sold from Sat Jan 28th to Sun Feb 19th 9.30-3.30 Sat-Wed. Closed Feb 18th.

10. Barney and Friends come to KSA! Reem International Race Circuit 22-24th Feb several shows during the day. Barney, Pingu, Thomas The Train, Bob the Builder and others perform for the whole family. Tickets, schedules and F.A.Q here: http://www.tlbcksa.com/

11.“Carnevale 2012” by OasItalia Cultural Center A cultural festival in the Italian Embassy Thur 1 Mar: 7.30 – midnight Tickets on sale Feb 2nd 10 – 12am (OasItalia members only) and Feb 3rd 4.30 – 7.30pm Nonmembers. Info at oasitalia@gmail.com

Go out and enjoy the lovely February weather and take a cultural bath this month!

Saudi Road Trip Part One: Riyadh-Abha

2012-02-06T02:39:00.005+03:00

My mother recently visited us in Saudi and we wanted to show her as much as we could of the country so we decided to go on a road trip around Southern Saudi-Arabia. What an awesome way to explore the Kingdom! I love the fact that you can stop wherever and whenever you like to check out the surroundings. The highways are mostly in excellent condition and well, gasoline is basically free. Or at least it's cheaper than water.

There are affordable car rentals everywhere and we had our eye on a nice GMC Suburban but the agency screwed it up last minute. So we ended up having to take whatever was left so last minute: a crappy Land Cruiser. Sitting in the back seat of this so called vehicle reminded me of the times I road on the buses in the Ecuador mountains. Fun times.

Lucky for me, I got used to the constant rocking, bouncing, grinding and swirling motions of the car and we were on our way! Mind you two hours delayed because we had to clean the car after the previous users. Apparently that's not included in the service.That is Saudi customer service as its best to you!

It was Eid Al-Adha time and my husband got almost two whole weeks off work. We planned to have the following itinerary: Riyadh-Kharj-Layla-Wadi Al Dawasir-Khamis Mushayt-Abha-Jizan-Farasan...and back. But we ended up improvising and changed plans on the way, which makes road trips all the more fun!

My little girl was only 7 months old at the time and she is just such a little trooper. Sat in her car seat for hours without any complaints. We read books, played, watched the scenery and slept in the back seat while mom was the head navigator in the front.

Our journey was so long and I took literally over a thousand pictures so I decided to divide it into three posts.

All in all it was an amazing, surprising and enjoyable experience. The occasional setbacks and all the hours spent in the car were well worth it! Special mention goes to my husband the designated driver who always stayed up those long hours while the rest of us slept just to get us there on time :)

On our way out of Riyadh we saw many trucks carrying full loads of sheep on their way to Saudi dinner tables. During Eid it's custom that Saudi families slaughter sheep for the special occasion .

In Kharj we stopped to meet my husband's great grandmother, my daughter's great great grandmother! Her eyesight and hearing is a bit impaired and she didn't expect us but nevertheless welcomed us into her house with such warmth and hospitality.
Births were not registered in Saudi back in the day so she did not now her age but estimated it to be near 90. She had 14 children that lived to adulthood and over 100 grandchildren. Imagine how many great great grandchildren that means!

While we were served tea and fruits by this sweet old lady, she told my husband how she had scolded some family members for not accepting his choice of wife because I was not Saudi. She said the most important thing is who she is and told him that she liked me and my mother. It felt so good to hear this. As the eldest family member, her opinion will have powerful influence in the extended family.

We were shown all around her house and she would not let us leave, insisting we stay for lunch. She was amazed to hear we were intending to drive all the way to Abha that day. So we thanked her profusely and continued on our journey. This was one of the highlights of our trip.

The area around Kharj is dotted with green farmlands and date palm trees. My husband's family has a farm in the town of Hotah there and we stopped by to take a look. It was like a small oasis! Huge palm trees, obese lemons and pomegranates. Nearby were some ruins of an old mud village.

In case you wondered, this is what an obese (raw) lemon looks like:

The road between Hotah and Wadi Al Dawasir was (according to the map) supposed to pass by a town called Layla. But we never found it! It remains a mystery. There was supposed to be some amazing caves near Layla, a town named after the tragic love story of Layla and Majnoon, the Arab equivalent to Romeo and Juliet.

This ^ is camel herding for the modern (r very lazy) Bedouin.
Not much to see for about the next 500km. Read our near death experience from the trip here:http://www.blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/12/lessons-learned-on-saudi-roads.html

We reached Wadi Al-Dawasir and it seemed to be such a hillbilly town. The atmosphere was pretty laid back, men were sitting on couches at the gas station. Strangely there were no women in sight on the streets. Then we spotted a child driving a car, which is really not such an uncommon sight in the Kingdom. Women are not allowed to drive so the boy was most likely taking his mother around town for some shopping.

Finally we reached Khamis Mushayt, a small city next to Abha. It was very late so we only stopped at McDonald's for a quick fix of ice cream. I was standing in line at the family section when a Bedouin man cut me in line. He started asking for a menu and didn't understand the stuff was all up on the board. I cracked up when he started asking for "gambaari" He wasn't asking for a drink but SHRIMPS! He kept repeating gambaari, gambaari, jib gambaari! Dude haven't you been to McDonald's before? Mafi gambaari.

We reached Abha in the middle of the night, I recall it being almost 2 am. My husband went to the reception of the hotel we had booked. We wanted a family room with two bedrooms. They had an issue with this. They questioned him about my mother! Who is this lady and would not believe it's his MIL despite the same surname. The staff told us to go to the police station and get a clearance that we were related!

I was pretty pissed off at this because a) It's 2 am for God's sake! We are checking into a family room with an infant, just let us go to sleep. b) if this is not my mother than who the heck is it? c) if it's an unrelated random female why would she be travelling with us? c) if it were our Indonesian maid you would have no issues with her staying with us and d) are you implying that we are up to something haram in your hotel?
yet another example of customer "service" or should I say disservice.

Needless to say, we changed hotels. But not to this "I'm Hotel" duh we can see that you're a hotel!
This was the only hotel that asked for proof during our whole trip.

Abha turned out to be a very green and colorful city surrounded by lush mountains. Unfortunately very few traditional houses are left in the city. Most had been torn down. We headed out to the Asir National park, such a beautiful place! Check out more images here: http://imagesofsaudi.blogspot.com/search/label/Abha

Asir National park is famous for its baboons. Some of them were behaving aggressively toward the baby, showing their teeth and making weird noises. They seemed to be accustomed to tourists giving them food which I saw one man doing in order to get better pics!

We bought some delicious honey form this man. The honey as from Yemen and the man from Tahamah.

Unfortunately it was considered off season because Saudis find it too cold beyond October to visit the mountainous areas of Saudi and many of the tourist destinations were closed. As we wandered around the national park my mother and I surprisingly encountered some odd and even hostile behavior from Saudi men and women. I found this strange because I had heard people of Abha are friendly and welcoming. They shouted at us insults in Arabic, thinking we were Americans. I hate it when some people think you don't understand when they say right next to you "ameriki". You don't have to be Einstein to figure that one out.

The three men in this picture were pretty rude and aggressive toward us. Still don't understand why. My husband was walking further away from us with the baby so he couldn't do anything. Later a group of young women followed us pointing and giggling. I guess we just look so amusing!

We found a perfect picnic spot! Or so we thought. Funny how Saudis are usually really private people and don't like people intruding on their privacy. Our picnic spot had lots of traffic and many "invaders" walked and talked loudly in their mobiles right next to us. Some Saudi women took their sweet time and the one in this pic was stumbling around in high heels, peeking from underneath her scarf which she had thrown over her whole face. It was so weird I could only watch in amazement.

Look at this mess! Clean up after yourselves people! Would you throw this garbage on your mother? No? Then why do you throw it on your motherland!?

Mom and the little bear watching the sunset.

What is this? A stranded cruise ship?

Nope. It's the Green Mountain. On top a restaurant and viewing platforms with magnificent views of the city.

On the green mountain we found what I would call the best souvenir shop in Saudi-Arabia! Loved these miniatures of the traditional houses of the region. They make pretty lanterns too.

When we were leaving Abha we managed to get lost a few times. Actually it was kind of my fault. I was acting as the navigator in the front seat and was reading the map. Opened the window in high speed and whooosh! The map flew out of the window before I could say oops. That is what happens when you're born blonde people. But hey we accidentally found this village of traditional houses so it didn't really matter much. Or at least that's how I like to see it.

Our journey continued to Jizan. The road from Abha to Jizan is very scenic and we stopped many times to take in the scenery or to get some snacks. Here a man selling corn on the cob.

Like I mentioned before in this post pink houses are very popular in this region! This one's pretty lonely out there.

The baboons are a menace! They roam in large packs and jump around the roads all the time. Many had ended up as roadkill.

The winding roads in the mountains had occasionally only "suggested" speeds. Actually it doesn't really matter what they tell you the speed limit is. Speed limit by Saudi terms means the limit is how fast you are physically able to drive under the specific circumstances. In these roads that would be about 140km/h. The only time you will see a Saudi man driving 40km/h is when he is checking women out. So much for the suggestion.

Stay tuned for the next part of the road trip: Abha-Farasan Islands!

12th Annual Weblog Awards Nomination

2012-02-03T04:07:00.001+03:00

I'm still sort of shocked about this! Almost choked on my chai when blogging buddy Susie of Arabia told me about it.

Blue Abaya has been chosen as one of the five finalists for the best Asian weblog (including Middle Eastern) category in the 12th Annual Weblog Awards, the Bloggies!!

"In the vast universe of blogs, only a select few can be named the best. And that decision is now up to you. The original Weblog Awards are now in their twelfth year, and it's time to decide who is Bloggie-winning material. Who will your vote go to?"

Answer: Blue Abaya of course ;)

OMG people! Awesome!! I can't believe someone actually likes my scribblings this much! I mean I'm just an amateur blogger with nothing much interesting to say! I just rant a lot! I guess that's good?

Wow I'm really honored to be among the finalists. Checked out the other blogs nominated for the same category and they were really cool.
My competition is tough. Some had been writing for over 6 years! One had published a book! One is a professional journalist! One was chosen as one of the "world's most influential Arabs" in 2010". What the heck am I doing in the same category again?

I stand no chance without you guys! You gots to please help me win this thing because I'm a really competitive person by nature! Plus if the miracle happens that I win, I promise to...umm...do something really radical!

Ya'll can vote for me here: http://2012.bloggi.es/

So what you need to do is just scroll down to the Best Asian, click on Blue Abaya and then scroll all the way down to enter your email. You have to then go to your email and click on the link to confirm your vote.

There are tons of great blogs on the list so you can vote for as many ballots as you want, but it's enough to just click one if you don't have time to go through them all.

I found some pretty funny and interesting blogs there like Dogs on drugs, Cake Wrecks, The Featured Creature and The Pioneer Woman.

Please vote for Blue Abaya!

Thank you!

10 Ways To Stop The Madness

2012-01-31T23:58:00.009+03:00

Last week I wrote about the lack of green values in Saudi-Arabia you can read the post here:http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2012/01/recycling-saudi-values.html
I promised to post some tips on how to easily make your life in Saudi more environmentally friendly. Some of these problems are universal, some are specific to the region or even to Saudi only.
It's time to start thinking, and stop the madness!

1. Reduce usage of plastic bags
The single most efficient thing everyone in the Kingdom can do while shopping. People prefer to have their purchases placed separately in tons of plastic bags. WHY?? This is madness!

Do you really need all those 10 plastic bags to carry the 11 items you bought? In fact did you know you can fit 11 items into ONE bag with no trouble at all?

The problem is baggers in Saudi grocery stores will by default place only one or two items per bag. This can easily add up to 40-60 plastic bags per average family per grocery shop visit.
Say the family grocery shops once a week plus all the additional visits to get few things, adding 20 or so more bags to the total of approximately 80 bags a week. 400 bags a month, 4800 bags a year. Multiply that by how many Saudi and expat families there are who don't care..MILLIONS of plastic bags wasted! For nothing!

The baggers do it simply because they have been taught not to place for example a deodorant, a bread loaf or a milk bottle in the same bag. WHY?? This is madness!

My advice is: Next time advise the bagger to place as many items as possible in one bag. Tell him you don't mind, you will not get upset with him. Remember to explain why you are requesting this and most importantly, if he does a good job give him an extra riyal or two and thank him profusely. Sometimes despite the advice baggers don't either understand or want to listen. That is when you can help him pack the items and show him what you want.
Some grocery stores like Carrefour sell large fabric bags you can use for your grocery shopping. Most baggers will not know how to "use" them and might even place the items first in tons of plastic bags, then place inside the fabric bag. Again, you might need to show them how you want it done.

At home re-use the plastic bags, use them as garbage bags and for storage. For more tips check this list of 99 ways to reuse plastic bags: http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/reuses-plastic-bags2.htm

2. Recycle water bottles
Most people in Saudi drink bottled water. Some prefer to always purchase hoards of small bottles. WHY?? This is madness!

Buy the large recyclable water bottles from companies like Nestle that offer home delivery and save money and the nature and your back! You can place an order online here: http://www.nestle-family.com/pure-life/english/
If you must use smaller water bottles sometimes, refill them and use a few times before throwing them away.

3. Use water sparingly
Many Saudi families will have more than one car. It's usually the driver's duty to wash the cars, and the maids are the ones who clean the outside areas from dust. And how do they do it? By spraying running water from the hose! WHY?? This is madness!

Don't have your car washed with running water from the hose. Ask the driver or whoever is cleaning the car to use a bucket and cloth instead. Ask the maid to SWEEP the yard instead of pouring hundreds of liters of water around. Don't run the water the whole time while showering or brushing teeth and avoid taking excessive baths.

4. Reuse or return hangers from laundry places
Most Saudi families take their thobes, abayas and ghutra to be professionally cleaned. Every neighborhood has a laundry place or two. When they are picked up the clothes will be each placed separately on hangers and inside plastic bags. And what do most people do? Throw them away! WHY?? This is madness!

Don't throw these hangers away! If you don't want to reuse them RETURN them to the cleaners! Also, request to have multiple thobes placed inside one bag, no need for ten separate plastic wrappings.

5. Turn off lights, air-conditioning and unplug appliances when not home.
I've noticed many people leave all their air-conditioning and lights on when they leave the house. WHY?? This is madness!

Teach yourself and your kids a new habit of switching them off every time you leave and you will save a lot of money on your electricity bill too. When going on vacation, switch off your appliances too.

6. Use phone charge cards wisely
Many people use prepaid mobile numbers and charge their phones with plastic phone cards. These cards come in various amounts, ranging from 10 SAR to 100SAR. They are all covered in a plastic sheath. A fellow blogger Veeds of Arabia conducted an experiment of collecting all of the plastic cards he could find on the ground for few days. He found that "Essentially 10 and 20 SR cards comprised 87% of the pre-paid cards left on the ground." http://jveeds.blogspot.com/2010/12/its-all-in-cards.html
WHY?? This is madness!

The best way to charge your prepaid phone is by asking the vendor for a voucher with the charge number on it instead. If using the plastic cards, use as high amount as possible to avoid wasting excessive plastic. And please, throw the card in the trash when you're done!

7. Cut back on use of tissues.
Saudis don't usually use toilet paper (they use water from showers) but boy do they know how to waste tissues! I have never seen so many different tissue brands in my life! I only knew Kleenex before I entered the tissue wonderland. Tissues even come scented ones and there are specific ornamental tissue boxes to place tissues in! Saudis use tissue (mandeel) for basically anything everything! They can be found in all rooms and in their cars. WHY?? This is madness!

This pointless extravagance is just mind-boggling to me. Cutting back on tissues is not hard. First think do you REALLY need to use them so much? Try using water and towels for a change or wipe or dry surfaces with washable kitchen cloths. And for the love of God, don't get scented tissues!

8. Avoid Styrofoam packaging
Many people like go for take-away foods once in a while. These places often use Styrofoam packaging which are extremely harmful to the environment and also for your health. Did you know that these packages and cups will still be sitting in the nature after 500 years without decomposing? Again the same mentality of placing one item in one container prevails. WHY?? This is madness!

It's perfectly fine to place the burger, the fries and the salad in the same container!
Request to have everything packed in the same or preferably in a carton container.
Also, grocery stores often pack fruits, cheeses, pastries etc. in styrofoam. Ask to have them just wrapped in plastic which is really all you need!

9. Buy local produce avoid imported goods.
There is plenty of good quality local produce available, yet many families go for the imported, american stuff. People will pay 50 dollars for imported ice cream WHY?? This is madness!

Always try to favor locally produced goods, whether it be bread, fruits, ice cream or meat you are buying! Imported goods are often overpriced, have gotten damaged in the shipping process or have bad expiration dates.

10. Don't throw trash on the streets, beaches, oceans or deserts!!
Well this is self clear for most people living in western countries, but in Saudi it is the NORM to carelessly throw waste around. The attitude is "someone else will pick it up for me" or "I'm not a maid/ street cleaner". Indeed, there are yellow-clad street cleaners around every corner cleaning up after the Saudis. They work for a mere 300SAR (60euro) a month in slave like conditions but it seems they cannot keep up with all the trash lying around.
Beaches around Jeddah, Farasan Islands and Gizan for example have been RUINED with litter.
WHY?? THIS IS MADNESS!!

Spread the message! Please share this post with your friends and help STOP the madness.

Thank you,

Search And You Will Find..Perverts!

2012-01-28T04:45:00.007+03:00

Sometimes I like to check which Google searches bring people to my blog. The all time most searched have been (after blog name) jalabiya, muttawa, camels and desert rocks. Interesting.
But once in a full moon a sorry loser ends up on this blog while desperately searching for something completely different..

Sorry to disappoint all the pathetic Google searchers out there who were looking for:

abaya breast show- what? Freakshow! Get a life.

naked under abaya- no luck there either you creep. Although in this post I mention how some women DO go naked under the abaya, but no pics here you dimwit. And how would you even know if she's naked anyway?

hot arab women abaya- hmmm, sorry wrong site douchebag! And why do you want to see hot women in abaya anyways, dude it's gonna cover everything, duh!

hot abaya girl sexs with guy inside room dubai- what is up with
this hot abaya obsession? Abaya is modest dress that covers the curves you twat!

hot arab guy long hair- you talking about my husband? Take a long hike.

morocco women beautiful marriage- if you're looking to purchase a second wife online read my post on Moroccan Magic first. And then be very ashamed of yourself and go to your wife you sneaky slime ball.

finland sauna nude- yes in Finland people go to sauna naked, no biggie. Or were you looking for pics? Pervert!

touch me please- say what? You better Google someone punch me please next time!

hot saudi girl bb pin- Ya good luck with that you loser. Why don't you try this technique:

Although I have no idea what sane girl or woman would actually respond to it.

and a special mention goes to

we had so much fun in outer space- ya I know every time I go there we have like sooo much fun! OMG have you been to Ur-anus before?

For all you creepy crawlers out there why don't you do this Pathetic Pervert Test: http://www.okcupid.com/tests/the-pathetic-pervert-test

Love,

Recycling The Saudi Values

2012-01-26T05:49:00.004+03:00

Recycling, preserving the environment, conservation and green thinking are all mostly alien terms in Saudi-Arabia.

Wasting, exploiting the environment, littering and materialism are the way of life in the Kingdom.

"The GCC has the world's highest levels of domestic waste, after the USA, generating more than 22 million tonnes of household waste in 2009. More than half of the waste, 58 per cent was generated in Saudi Arabia. Apart from domestic waste, additional refuse comes from littering parks, gardens and from the waste dumped in the seas and on beaches." http://recycle-saudi.com/home.htm

This is really a huge disgrace for the Kingdom as a Muslim nation. Islam teaches people to preserve nature, not to use anything excessively and to conserve the environment. Humans were entrusted by God with the responsibility of taking care of the earth.

"Now, behold! Your Lord said to the angels: I am placing upon the earth a human successor to steward it" (Al Baqarah 2:30)

“Rampant corruption and disorder have appeared in the land and in the sea because of what people keep doing. He will let them taste some of their doings, so that they might return to the Right Path.”(30:41)

"The Prophet Mohammed told his companion, Saad, that he was using an excessive amount of water to make ablution, (wudu) saying do not waste (water). Saad then asked if there could ever be wastage if water was used for the purpose of wudu. The Prophet's reply was, Yes. Even if you are by a flowing river."

Have Saudis totally forgotten about this responsibility? Are people just ignorant of these teachings? Are Saudis too proud to clean up after themselves or to recycle? What causes this atrocious negligence and irresponsible behavior?

And it's not just the Saudis who pollute this lovely country, but some expats participate in it too. Mostly from the third world countries, these uneducated poor people who have no concept of what it is to recycle or to conserve are often the ones engaging in the littering and remorseless wasting of resources.

There have been numerous grass roots efforts to change public opinion on recycling. Most campaigns are met with resistance and even ridicule. People simply do not take it seriously.

This past week was "Saudi Green Revolution Week" a campaign to promote environmental awareness in the Kingdom launched by Naqa'a Environmental Enterprise http://naqaaenterprise.wordpress.com/
Naqa'a was founded by a group of bold women from Jeddah who stepped forward to introduce revolutionary environmental practices across organizations in the Kingdom. http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=20111011110345

"The Saudi Green Revolution Week is a social initiative by Naqa’a Environmental Enterprise. It is a revolutionary movement of young people united to elevate the public’s awareness about the much neglected issues of the environment in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Green Revolution Week is a campaign of awakenings, new beginnings and hope for a healthier and cleaner Saudi Arabia. The campaign maybe for a week, but the Green Revolution is an ongoing movement towards an eco-friendly society; and ultimately a Greener planet."

Jeddah is one of the most polluted cities in the world. Its beaches and parks are ruined with rotting litter. There are ongoing campaigns and efforts by locals to clean up the beaches and the Corniche, but it looks like a never ending battle against the trash masses. After the clean-up, more trash appears. http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article538206.ece

The attitude seems to be "The dude in the yellow overall will pick it up anyway" "I'm not a cleaner or a maid, I don't pick up trash" "Recycling is for freaks and weirdos, not cool people like me" or "I just don't give a damn".

What can be done to change the attitudes and spread awareness in Saudi? How to instill these green values on the youth without them making a mockery of it?

Perhaps one way of waking people up is by making them realize that the plastic bag they have just tossed on the beach/street/park/desert will some day come back to them. What goes around, comes around. The plastic will dissolve and animals will eat it. The chemicals will go up the food chain, until it reaches their mouth..their stomach..their bloodstream..

Stay tuned for a list of ten tips on how to live a more environmentally friendly life in Saudi-Arabia.

The Princess And The Pimple

2012-01-20T04:10:00.006+03:00

Believe it or not, based on a true story..

Once upon a time in the Magic Kingdom lived a young Princess called "Abeer". She lived in a huge palace with her parents and had a Pink Hummer driven by her private chauffeur.

One morning Princess Abeer woke up and upon looking in the mirror screamed: "Noooo! Yaaa Allah this can't be happening to me! Tomorrow is Fatima's wedding party!"

A gigantic red pimple stared back at her form the mirror. Worse yet it was in the middle of her forehead. "I look like a freak! Yaa maamaa!" she shouted in panic as she ran downstairs into the palace courtyard to find her mother.

"Mother what shall I do now, look at me I am so ugly! Tomorrow I must look my best because Prince Mishaal's mother will be at the wedding to check me out! He won't propose if I look like a three-eyed monster!"

"Yaa Rabb, poor girl. Don't worry dear Beero, we will go to the hospital and tell them to give you some medicine for the pimple."

So the Princesses left to the emergency room with their maids in tow. In the car Princess Abeer instructed the driver "Yalla ya Munir I am in great pain! Drive faster! Remember to use the royal entrance to the hospital so we don't have to queue!"

On arrival at the ER the poor Princess was so weak she needed a wheelchair. The driver fetched the chair for her and they rushed her into the VIP section of the ER. A nurse and a royal officer immediately attended to the Princess and she was whisked past the overcrowded side of the ER full of the ordinary patients.

The Princesses had both thrown the black scarves over their heads so that their true identity (and the protruding pimple) would remain hidden. The nurse apologized and told the them to wait because she was busy with a very ill baby in the other room. The Princess got extremely upset.

"Sister don't you know who I am?! I am Princess Abeer bint so and so bin so and so bin so and so bin AbdulAziz Al Saud. You must attend to me first!"
"But your Highness, the baby might die!"
"I don't care! This is an emergency situation! she exclaimed, sister get me the doctor NOW!"

The nurse ran off to fetch the doctor, she knew not to mess with the royal family members after some of her colleagues had been "dismissed" and sent on the next flight home after criticizing the VIP status of some patients. A Saudi male doctor specializing in royal medicine arrived to examine the royal patient and asked her to remove the veil. The Princess whimpered in pain and exhaustion as she lay on the bed and finally removed her scarf.

Her mother with a stern voice advised the doctor: "Doctor we have imboortant event tomorrow and Abeer needs to be a beerfect condition. Blease doctor we need a medicine." "And I'm in pain!" the Princess added.

The doctor looked at the pimple for a moment and then gave his orders to the nurse: "Take her vitals, do blood tests, insert IV line and start her on intravenous Ceftriaxone. Give Pethidine 100 mg I.V. Apply Bacitracin ointment on the pimple Q.I.D.
"Don't worry your Highness we have it under control. The antibiotics will take care of the infection in no time and you will receive a pain killer now."
"Thank you doctor! Now sister, call the kitchen we want to order some food!"

The nurse went off to follow the doctors orders shaking her head in disbelief of such vanity and the unnecessary medical interventions. The VIP kitchen staff arrived at bedside to take their order. "Freshly squeezed orange juice, chicken burgers, fries..oh and cupcakes and kahwa please! Yalla besurah!" the young princess instructed.

The nurse returned to insert the I.V. line and the Princess shuddered. "Please sister I want the cream first!"
"But it's only for children your Highness and it won't hurt really, I will be very quick." "No, mama I want the cream!" "Sister, blease ze cream now." the mother Princess confirmed nodding her head.

The nurse applied the numbing cream to the princesses hand. "Sister blease, put ebra here so tomorrow mafi mushkila at wedding" the mother demanded. "But your Highness, placing the cannula high on her arm on the inner side will cause her great pain and it is not per policy either." "What is zis bolicy sister? Yalla but ebra now sister!" the mother Princess looked annoyed so the nurse forgot about reasoning and proceeded.

Despite the cream she screamed in pain from the injection. "Shweia shweia sister, shweia shweia!" The mother disapprovingly clucked her tongue. The nurse then proceeded to apply the antibiotic cream on the pimple. "Shweia shweia sister!" Cluck cluck cluck.

Finally the antibiotics were hooked and the Princess dozed off from her narcotic painkiller. She and mother princess spend the night in the ER on I.V fluids watching movies from the flat screen TV and calling the nurse to run different errands for her throughout the night. The maids massaged their feet.

In the morning the doctor came to check the patient. "Your highness the infection is improving. We can discharge you but continue your antibiotics at home for a week and keep applying the cream."

The pimple had indeed disappeared over night. "Thank you doctor! Sister, we want leave now so remove ze ebra and give us a medicine, besurah besurah!"
Upon leaving the hospital the mother Princess made a complaint of the nurses rude behavior to the Patient Relations Officer.

The Princesses returned to the castle and all was well in the Magic Kingdom.

And the Princess lived happily ever after, without the pimple.

Read more about how VIP patients get treated in Saudi hospitals:

http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2010/10/saudi-arabia-and-vip-patients.html

Vocabulary
Ebra= Needle
Besurah=hurry
Mafi mushkila=no problem
Sister=what all Saudi patients call nurses
Shweia=little, carefully
Pethidine=Extremely addictive narcotic painkiller
bint/bin=daughter/son of
Rabb=Lord

I See Pink, People

2012-01-19T04:41:00.002+03:00

Pink houses, pink villas.
Pink trousers on fellas.

Pink in the bathroom pink in the garage.
Pink at the mosque, is this a mirage?

Pink at the gas station!
Is this a pink nation?
Men with pink shoes, shirts and jeans,
can you tell me what all this means?

Is there pink in masses,
or is it just my rose colored glasses?

Pinkness seems to be everywhere in the Magic Kingdom. Surprisingly enough it doesn't look like Saudi men have any problems living in pink houses, wearing pink clothing, going to pink mosques, pumping gas at pink gas stations or even driving in pink cars. Coming from a culture like mine where men are too "macho" to even glance at pink stuff, this strikes me as odd to say the least.

Call me weird, but I find this fascinating. The more I have started to think about it, the more I've begun seeing pink stuff! Everywhere. Maybe I'm just a nutter and this whole pink fixation is in my head. Or then it's those rose colored glasses on my head?

I don't mean to say ALL Saudi men dress in pink clothes but it's not totally uncommon to spot pink items on men. Unlike in the west, it seems to be socially perfectly acceptable here.

Also, pink houses and buildings are everywhere. I started paying more attention to it on our road trip to southern Saudi. Special mentions go to Abha, Kahmis Mushayt and Gizan for men living in pink accommodation. What's up with that? Did Saudi-Arabia just get an enormous amount of pink paint for free? Do the wives love pink so much they insist on it?

This got me thinking, what might be the reasons behind the use of color pink in so many places? I mean I have never seen men so comfortable with pinkness anywhere in the world before or so much pink being used on buildings.
For example a man driving around in a baby pink car in Finland would get VERY long stares, perhaps disbelief and laughter from women and in worst cases even land him in a fight.

Paint your house bright pink and people will think dude also sees flying pink elephants. Or alternatively, that he is a mere doormat and the wife obviously made the final decision of the paint color.
Showing up at an ice hockey game in tight pink jeans and pink tennis shoes would be almost suicidal.

So, are men in my country and in the west in general just so insecure that they are terrified of using the color pink in fear of it somehow diminishing their manhood?
Are Saudi men more secure in their manhood?
Is it a cultural thing? Is pink just perceived as a gender neutral color in Saudi-Arabia?
Why so much pink but not for example red, another "feminine" color?
Is it only in the west that pink is perceived as a women/girls only color?

This pink mystery reminds me of a true story that happened to my american friend who lives in Riyadh. She was in a shopping mall with her 1,5yr old son. His hair is a little longer which is unusual in Saudi but many parents in the U.S. find cute.

A Saudi woman with a baby stroller stopped to talk to her asking, is this your daughter? My friend said no it's a boy. So this Saudi lady dramatically threw her hands in the air looking toward the sky and began praying: "Oh Allah guide this woman to the straight path!" "Guide her to cut the sons hair!" "He looks like a girl, guide this poor woman!"

She told my friend she MUST cut his hair because he looked like a girl.

My friend was appalled at the woman's behavior. Nevertheless she tried to be polite and said pointing to the woman's baby dressed up in an all-pink outfit "What a beautiful girl you have mashallah".
The woman replied:
"It's a boy."
My friend asked why is he dressed up in PINK?

She replied: "Oh, I don't believe in colors being gender specific."

So long hair on boys=big problem, haram, makes boys look like girls=haram.
Pink outfits on boys=no problems, doesn't make boy look like a girl at all.

Maybe Saudi men are dressed in pink as babies and get used to the color as being part of their wardrobe?

So what do you think? Have you noticed this phenomenon? Why do you think pink is so popular?

P.S please note this post is labeled under humor and not to be taken overly seriously :)

Top Ten Restaurants in Riyadh

2012-01-17T23:14:00.006+03:00

This Tuesday (ok it's already past midnight but oh well) here are my top ten restaurants in Riyadh. There are so many good restaurants it's not easy to pick only ten!
I am always amazed to see restaurant reviews on sites like Tripadvisor or http://www.riyadheats.com/. They have stuff like McDonalds, Burger Boutique, Chilis and TGI Fridays and various average pizza places on their top lists.
I would not place those places in my top 100. I would not even call McDonalds a restaurant!

Maybe the reviewers are not accustomed to what makes a great restaurant? Maybe Saudis just want to eat burgers and fries and pizza? It's not only the food, but the atmosphere, decor and service is very important. Good or even decent service is HARD to find in Saudi.
I also dislike restaurants that are ridiculously overpriced. Restaurants like the Globe in Faisaliyah tower and Spazio's in Kingdom tower are charging way too much for the view and I didn't want to include them.

These are not in an particular order.

1. Il Terrazo Brazilian restaurant in Faisaliyah hotel. Situated on a terrace overlooking the Globe and the Faisaliyah courtyard fountains, this is a buffet restaurant serving a multitude of meats barbecued on the open grill. Good music, relaxed atmosphere, heavenly food, excellent "champagne", no gender segregation. http://www.rosewoodhotels.com/en/alfaisaliahhotel/dining/il_terrazzo/

2. Tao Lounge on Tahlia street. The ultimate hip hangout for the trendy complete with high ceilings, comfy sofas, unbeatable ambiance and excellent international cuisine. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tao-Lounge/206282889416259?v=info

3. Lenôtre restaurant in Centria Mall. The famous French restaurant chain's best branch in Riyadh can be found on the third floor of the mall. They have a wonderful outside terrace overlooking both Faisaliyah and Kingdom towers. Delicious food and heavenly desserts! Owned by a Princess, it is one of the few places in Riyadh where women can dine outside. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Len%C3%B4tre-Saudi-Arabia/141459685875370?v=info

4. Najd Village Restaurant next to Prince Sultan university. This is THE place to go for expats in Riyadh and also popular with locals. The restaurant is built in a traditional Saudi house and serves original Saudi cuisine. An experience not be missed. Read more here: http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/p/riyadh-restaurant-reviews.html

5. Furosato/ Lecluse on Tahlia street. For sushi lovers this is a great restaurant with secluded atmosphere and romantic decor. The restaurant combines French and Japanese cuisine. http://furusatorestaurant.com/en/

6. Set Al Sham on Thalateen street. This large stylish restaurant offers an excellent buffet of Arabic foods. You can dine in the privacy of your own dining room and enjoy the amazing Middle-Eastern decor and cuisine. http://www.setalsham.com/

7. Maya Chocolaterie on Tahlia street. A chocolate lover's paradise. This restaurant is all about chocolate, they even have liquid chocolate flowing in pipes! Indulge in heavenly fondue, rich aromas of the desserts, exquisite chocolate delicacies and get on a sugar high! http://www.maya-la-chocolaterie.com

8. Trader Vics Panorama Mall. Enjoy a non-alcoholic Mai Tai (invented by Trader Vic's) at the only bar in town! The decor is exotic and inspired by the South Pacific Islands and the theme continues in the international menu as well. Excellent service, amazing food and drinks. http://www.tradervics.com/experience/experience.html

9. Mondo at Intercontinental hotel. Very stylish Italian restaurant for a romantic evening out. As a bonus ladies can take abayas off and you can sit by the poolside. Food is presented in fabulous ways and this place has high international standards.

10. Elements in Four Seasons Kingdom Center. A new restaurant with an exiting concept of four different interactive open kitchen stations. Very impressive modern decor and relaxed atmosphere. For families they have brunch with kids corner on Fridays. http://riyadh.fourseasons.com/2011/10/elements-adding-another-dimension-to-multisensory-dining/

What is your favorite restaurant in Riyadh?

The Saudi Son-In-Laws Guide To Surviving The Sauna Test

2012-01-16T06:02:00.000+03:00

The Finnish father-in-laws (FIL) can be tough on their daughter's choice of spouse. The son-in-laws have to deal with at least some sort of 'testing" from the FIL's side before approval is given.

If you are a Saudi man married to a Finnish woman, be prepared for the ultimate acid test when you land on Finnish soil. The FIL will have their fingers itching to get you into the sauna to test your manhood and compatibility with your Finnish spouse.

Do not panic! Here is a step by step guide to survive your first sauna ordeal. By following these instructions you will prove yourself worthy of his Finnish daughter.

In Finland you will immediately be taken to the summer cottage for survival camp.
Be warned that there will be no running water, plumbing or even electricity in some cases.

Upon arrival act calm and ask where the outhouse is (you might need this information sooner than later).
Remember to make polite remarks on how the yard looks so well groomed and how the cottage seems so inviting (even if you feel like running back into the car and heading to the nearest hotel).

Most likely next you will be asked to heat up the sauna. You must understand that sauna is a sacred place to Finns. Finns used to give birth in sauna. DO NOT at any point, under any circumstances attempt to make fun of the sauna traditions. That will be your last joke.

To heat the sauna, you will need wood. Go and chop some up, carry it inside and place into a neat pile.

This would not be the best moment to be lighting a fire for the first time. You will need to know at least the basics on how to get the fire going without getting smoke into the sauna. There is something called a smoke sauna, but that is too hardcore for you.

After you have got the fire going in the stove (kiuas)without burning up the whole sauna, you must fetch the water. Take the buckets and fill some with rain water and others with lake/sea water. Put rain water only in the "löyly" bowl to prevent the stove stones from going bad.

Remember to keep checking the temperature of the sauna, you are aiming for 80-90C, not 150C. It will NOT impress your FIL. You will need to add wood every half hour.

Next you will assemble the vihta.This is a whisk made or birch tree branches that's used to beat yourself with inside the sauna. You need to gather branches from a certain kind of birch and tie it up. If you are lucky your FIL might assist you in this. Sometimes families have ready-made dried ones you just need to soak in water to use.

You might be asked would you like a men's sauna or a family sauna. Men's sauna means you bathe with the men of the family, naked. Family sauna means you bathe with your wife and children, also naked. Don't freak out about the nudity, it's a perfectly natural thing and Finns won't look "there". Easiest for you would be family sauna, but it depends on your wife's mood as well. Choose wisely.

In the sauna you will start by throwing water on the stove (kiuas). The steam this creates is called "löyly". It is considered polite to praise the sauna and the excellence of the löyly. Try to stand the heat for at least 5 minutes then go cool off. The Finns will be throwing lots of löyly so be prepared not to chicken out too soon.

If you are next to a water source, you will need to go for a swim (even if the water is only 15c). That is seen as manly and give you high points in the eyes of your FIL (and maybe your wife). Extra points come from a spectacular jump accompanied by a magnificent roar.

If you don't at least dip yourself in, you will fail the sauna test. Thank your lucky stars you didn't come in the winter time when you would be required to roll around in the snow or dip into the frozen lake!

After the cold shock some people like to hang around outside chatting, having a drink and enjoying the scenery. Then the sauna bathing continues like this in cycles of hot and cold. Do at least three cycles to prove your stamina.

Don't forget to use the vihta! Beat your legs, back and arms with it. You will be surprised how nice it feels. Do not use it like a camel whip! That will cause the leaves to fly all around the sauna.

Don't worry if everyone sits quiet as a mouse on the benches. Mostly Finns will just sit quietly without feeling awkward. Sauna is not a place for debates or lively conversation, but rather self reflecting and silence. The children in Finland are taught "In the sauna you must be as quiet as in the church". Finns don't know how to small talk either.

When you're finished wash yourself and mix hot and cold water in your washing basin. Rinse off with rain water.

After the sauna cool off with a drink and eat some delicious sausage (makkara) cooked on the sauna stove served with hot mustard. Remember to once more praise the löyly to your hosts!

Hopefully your FIL will approve your sauna performance and you will be accepted into the family! Good luck!

What's A Wasta?

2012-01-13T02:28:00.001+03:00

Have you heard the word wasta before and wondered what the heck it is? Have you noticed people talking about vitamin W but were too shy to ask in fear of exposing your lack of nutritional knowledge? Are you new in Saudi and have been asked the question ayndak wasta but didn't know what to respond?

Wasta translates roughly to "connections" or "influence" and the Arabic origin means "intermediate". Basically a wasta (also known as vitamin W) is a very influential person with good connections who can get things rolling for you. The wasta can be a relative, a friend, a business acquaintance or in some cases even a stranger.

With good wasta a person can get practically anything done. Wasta can be more valuable than money. Having wasta makes life in Saudi much easier for the person with it, but for those without it or those impacted by their actions, it does the opposite. Wasta could be described also as the root of corruption.

A wasta is sort of like a genie in a bottle, but better. Instead of three wishes you can get as many as you wish!

Watch this educational and funny video to find out exactly what is meant by the power of vitamin W...

Blogging Saudi Wives

2012-01-10T23:21:00.011+03:00

Many of the blogs on Saudi you will find authored by western wives of Saudi men. I guess we have a lot to share about multicultural marriages and raising kids in a foreign country so different from our own. Keeping a blog can also be sort of outlet to rant out negative feelings. Sharing ones experiences can help in processing and coping with the sometimes stressful life situations a foreign wife to a Saudi can find herself in. Or blogging might just be something she enjoys doing to fight the Saudi boredom!

For anyone interested in Saudi-Arabia, multicultural marriages and parenting or expat life, these blogs are worth looking into. Here is a list of ten blogs maintained by western women married to Saudis in alphabetical order:

American Bedu http://americanbedu.com/
The veteran of "Saudi wife" blogs, American Bedu is a former CIA agent that married a Saudi, now widowed and fighting her own cancer battle back in the U.S. Lots of info on everything about Saudi, lively discussions, posts everyday.

Arabia Saudyjska http://arabiasaudyjska.blogspot.com/
A Polish woman that maintains an interesting blog about Saudi-Arabia written in Polish language, but you can always use google translate to read it. At the moment she is taking a blogging break.

The Camel and the Kangaroo http://thecamelandthekangaroo.wordpress.com/
The newest addition to the list comes from down under, she is an Australian woman newly married to a Saudi.
Looking forward to reading more from her!

Future Husbands and Wives of Saudis http://taraummomar.blogspot.com/
An excellent blog maintained by Tara Umm Omar gives information and advice on attaining the Saudi marriage permission. Lots of interesting articles, interviews and personal stories.

Little Pink Strawberries http://littlepinkstrawberries.blogspot.com/
Noor is a talented graphic designer and her blog Little Pink Strawberries has lots of cool freebies and she keeps and Etsy Shop too. She actually has two blogs, her other cooking blog which is full of delicious recipes is called Ya Salam Cooking and can be found here: http://www.yasalamcooking.com/

Nzinghas Soapbox http://nzinghas.blogspot.com/
This blog has been inactive for a while, but nevertheless it's worth reading because it's funny, the author is very witty and according to her own words "too bold for most".

Ramblings of a Saudi wife http://lostinriyadh.blogspot.com/
This blog by a lovely Canadian woman is fun to read and contains lots of hilarious parenting humor among other things from Saudi life.

Saudi Birth Story http://saudibirthstory.blogspot.com/
A blog by Aisha Al-Hajjar, a Bradley Method birthing teacher, writer and founder of AMANI birth center. She has a passion for natural childbirth. Her blog has lots of info about birthing and also includes the birth stories of her own 8! children.

Susie's Big Adventure http://susiesbigadventure.blogspot.com/
Susie is an american woman who moved to Jeddah with her Saudi husband, her blog tells of her journey in the Kingdom, also contains lots of news, links and other info on Saudi.

Under the Abaya http://undertheabaya.wordpress.com
Written by "American Girl", this blog is her touching personal journey of relocating to Saudi-Arabia to raise her daughter despite a failing marriage to her Saudi husband.

Enjoy!

Runaway Employees

2012-01-07T04:57:00.002+03:00

You've probably heard about the runaway employees in Saudi-Arabia. Most of these workers are Asian so called cheap labor that work as maids or drivers. They are a huge problem in the Kingdom. To bring in a maid or a driver the employer must pay fees and visa charges from 5000-10,000 SAR. If the employee "escapes" they will get no compensation and the runaway worker will be deported, if caught.
http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article549098.ece

A lesser known and much less common but real phenomenon are the western runaway employees. I have witnessed several such cases where employees made a disappearing act on their employer. All cases were western medical staff, men and women.

The hospital pays even more to recruit the highly sought after western employees, around 20,000 SAR each. It is naturally in their best interest to keep the employees satisfied and working within the company for at least their one year contract which is the most common for nurses to sign on for.

So what happens, why do the employees run away? And where to?

Unlike the Asian runaways that always stay in the country working in the blackmarket, their western partners in crime run back to their home countries.

The reasons are numerous, but most commonly it's the easiest way out for the employee to just disappear if they are not liking life in Saudi-Arabia. Resigning and the final exit process takes months and many stressful hours of going from one office to another, gathering signatures, stamps and all sorts of paperwork before the employee is allowed to leave the Kingdom. By completeing the final exit process the employee recieves their annual or end of contract bonus as well.
Leaving without a trace might be easier for the employee, but morally I would say it is WRONG.

Like I mentioned, the employer pays and does a great deal of work to recruit a western worker. The process of the final exit is there for a reason, although it could be done more swiftly without all the bureaucratic nonsense, the employee has still signed a contract and running away is breaking that contract. I don't see these very people violating their employment contacts in their home countries, so where does this disrespect stem from?

Personally I never understood why those people chose to escape, rather than to just honestly resign and leave the Kingdom with dignity and not as a refugee of some sort. In most cases the employee had only a few months to go after the contact would have ended in any case. So why not just hang in there for a little but longer? I'm such a tough cookie myself that I would say you can even stand on your head for two months, rather than make a fool out of yourself or to be dishonest.

Most of the runaways I knew hated life and work in the Kingdom, or could not cope at all and one got engaged and ran away to get married. The employees left for their annual leave with an exit re-entry visa and never returned. They packed up as much of their stuff as they could and in fear of getting caught did not tell anyone of their plans until they were outside the Kingdom. Once home they called the employer and their friends that they will never return. This leaves the employer in trouble and also the friends in a situation where they might feel betrayed and also forced to pack the rest of the belongings and send it over to the escapee.
Needless to say the runaway would have a hard time trying to find employment again in Saudi-Arabia, but I doubt it has a big impact on their future employment in their home countries.

What do you think of these runaway employees? Are they doing the right thing? Is it ok to break the contract in a country they will most likely never return to? Is it acceptable for them to leave without notifying the employer if they feel very stressed out?

The Commission of Ex-Thieves and Drug Addicts Should Be Abolished

2012-01-05T02:22:00.001+03:00

I found this interesting and surprising article, it's an interview with a prominent Saudi Sheikh who criticizes the Saudi religious police, aka muttawa, check it out:

Report by Sattam al-Ruwayli, from Riyadh:

“Saudi Cleric: The Past of Some Members of the Commission Is thieving and Addiction”

"Well-Known Saudi Islamic cleric Abd-al-Muhsin al-Obaikan has stressed, in a sensational interview with Saudi local station Radio UFM, that some members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice were either drug addicts, thieves, or something similar in their past. Al-Obaikan adds that after they abandon their past, they come under the influence of a strong religious sentiment, and adhere to the teachings of religion, and to the prevention of vice.

Al-Obaikan, who is an adviser to the Saudi Royal Court, explains: “Some people want to remove vices in the way they themselves want, and not by the shari`ah way, which was drawn up for us by the Prophet, God`s prayer and peace be upon him.”

Al-Obaikan stresses: “There is a difference between the exposure of sin, and spying on people by arresting the culprit. God Almighty says, `And spy not on each other [Sura Al-Hujurat, from Verse 12],` and He does not exempt anyone from this order. The Prophet, God`s prayer and peace be upon him, said: `Negotiate the punishments among yourselves, because if the issue comes to me, the punishment is mandatory.`”

Al-Obaikan criticizes severely the members of the commission who stop the car driver to ask him of what proves that the woman with him is his wife; he describes this behaviour as “contradicting the shari`ah texts.”

Al-Obaikan, who is the only licensed mufti outside the official religious institution in

Saudi Arabia

, adds that there is a hadith saying: “Help those who err to stand up after they stumbled, because the person who is not a professional criminal, if he commits a sin and hides, we ought to shelter him before his issue reaches the Sultan.”

The General Chairmanship of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is considered an independent government organization affiliated to the Saudi Council of Ministers, and some media organs call it, the “religious police”.

In his interview, Al-Obaikan praises this “great organization,” as he describes it. He says that the leaders in the kingdom have not established this organization for any reason other than the acquiescence to the order of God and the Order of the Prophet, and out of commitment to the implementation of the shari`ah rulings on all affairs. Al-Obaikan describes the dysfunction in this organization as similar to any dysfunction in other government organizations, and says that it ought to be rectified.

Al-Obaikan explains that the solution lies in intensive training courses before the individual undertakes field work, so that it would be explained to him through the Shari`ah texts how to deal with vices. Al-Obaikan points out that some individuals start field work before they join the training courses.

Al-Obaikan says: “Once, I was in a market, and some enthusiasts went to advise an individual. The adviser was raising his voice, and I said to him: Brother, take the man aside and talk to him, but to raise your voice, and embarrass him in front of the people, this is unacceptable, and your advice in this way is unacceptable.” Al-Obaikan continues: “The system of promotion of virtue and prevention of vice does not endorse some practices.”

Al-Obaikan adds: “There are many people who aim for what is good, but do not reach their target. Therefore, we ought to draw up strong boundaries so that these people do not deviate from the organized shari`ah boundaries in field work.”

Call to abolishment of commission

Within the context of his talk about the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, Shaykh Al-Obaikan proposes that the commission should be abolished and replaced by “Al-Hisbah [guarding against religious infringements] Ministry,” which should be delegated to perform other duties, such as collecting alms, and monitoring the prices.

Al-Obaikan justifies this by saying: “The commission should not be called with this name, because the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice is not the exclusive duty of one person and not the other.” He continues: “God Almighty says: `Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah [Sura Al Imran, from Verse 110].` Therefore, this is the duty of every Muslim according to his ability, capability, and guardianship, and is not at all the exclusive duty of an organization.”

Al-Obaikan stresses that this ministry should not be restricted to alerting people to perform prayers, or to improvising and hunting down some criminals; he says: “I would like them to undertake at least some of the missions mentioned by the scholars, such as monitoring the markets, because the work of these members is field work.”

Al-Obaikan says: “Their name is long (the General Chairmanship of the Ye are the best of peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah), and the plaque is not sufficient. We ought to say: `this is Muhtasib` and the organization should be called Hisbah, because if you say `member of the commission`, there are many commissions.”

Al-Obaikan adds: “I propose that we change the name to become the name known in the books of the scholars and to turn this organization into a ministry to be calls `Ministry of Al-Hisbah.` If we want to make it a ministry, then its statutes ought to be revised, and it should be given powers and duties including collecting alms, and monitoring the prices.”

Al-Obaikan stresses that correcting the vice by hand is up to “those authorized who have been given the power by the guardian.” He says that describing the members as “Muhtasibs” is more correct, because they are working for the sake of God, and every Muslim is supposed to promote virtue and prohibit vice according to his abilities.

With regard to his proposal of a Ministry of Al-Hisbah, Al-Obaikan adds that he would like to participate in drawing up the Al-Hisbah system with the jurists and scholars of the promotion of virtue and prohibition of vice; moreover the organization ought to be consolidated by qualified employees so that the ministry can perform its duties at the required level.

It is well known that the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is an official Saudi organization commissioned to implement the Al-Hisbah system, which is inspired by Islamic shari`ah, according to the Saudi religious viewpoint.

Abd-al-Muhsin al-Obaikan is well known for issuing fatwas that aroused a great deal of controversy in the Saudi society, especially with other ulema, such as allowing a woman to travel without a Mahrem [unmarriageable companion], allowing insurance, and other issues that have been considered to be axiomatic to some Saudi clerics."

Source: Elaph website, London, in Arabic 26 Aug 11

For once I agree wholeheartedly with a Saudi Sheikh. Change the name CPVPV and their job description! Train the muttawa before you let them on the loose to terrorize people and monitor them, especially the criminals!

Ten Amazing Places to Visit in Saudi-Arabia

2012-01-03T22:52:00.004+03:00

My top ten places to visit in Saudi-Arabia:

1. Madain Saleh
If you visit only one place in Saudi-Arabia, let it be Madain Saleh. The other-worldly scenery, breath taking nature, and rich history make it a destination worth exploring for many days. Madain Saleh is not only the tombs of the ancient Nabatean people, but it offers much more for the tourist to explore. The Hejazy railway built by Lawrence of Arabia runs through it. Nearby the town of Al-Ula boasts a beautiful oasis, museums, an old mud village and ruins and tombs of Khuraibah. More from Madain Saleh here: http://imagesofsaudi.blogspot.com/search/label/Madain%20Saleh

2. Najran
The colorful city of Najran on the Yemeni border offers an unforgettable experience for travelers. Its unique history, architecture and culture blends in with the neighboring Yemen. Najran is the most tourist friendly destination in Saudi-Arabia that pleases even the most experienced traveler. http://imagesofsaudi.blogspot.com/search/label/Najran

3. Farasan Islands
A favorite diving destination of Jacques Cousteau, Farasan Islands have more than just private beaches and sand for every visitor to enjoy. The Islands are a bird watchers paradise and also have mangroves and endemic Gazelle species in addition to the numerous historical sites on the main island. For images of Farasan Islands go here: http://imagesofsaudi.blogspot.com/search/label/Farasan

4. Empty Quarter
It is not empty, it is full of beauty, silence, wildlife and tranquility.

5. Al Soudah
The Asir National Park and the Al-Soudah area near Abha are a lush, breezy paradise best visited in the hot summer months. The park offers trekking, camping sites, cable cars, and plenty of other outdoor activities in addition to interesting architecture and friendly people. More pictures here: http://imagesofsaudi.blogspot.com/search/label/Abha

6. Wabha Crater
This volcanic crater lies 700km form Riyadh towards Taif. It has amazing scenery including lava fields, an oasis and salt pans and can easily be explored by foot. The site makes for an unforgettable camp out experience.

7. Al Lith
Al Lith is a small town about 275 km south of Jeddah. It is the port of departure for diving the Farasan Banks eco system.This is Saudi-Arabia's best diving destination, with incredibly clear waters, amazing wrecks and abundant marine life.

8. Edge of the World
One of the most spectacular views in Saudi-Arabia can be experienced from the Edge of the World which is part of the 800km long Jebel Tuwaiq Escarpment. When looking to the horizon from the edge it appears as if the plains continue endlessly.

9. Taif
The mountain city of Taif is famous for its roses and rosewater. In the spring the flowers and the whole area are in full bloom. Taif is an excellent area for trekking and mountain climbing as well.

10. Qassim
The northern towns of Buraidah and Unaizah in the Qassim region offer rich cultural heritage and history. Unaizah has ancient farmlands, beautiful unique mosques, historical sites and an excellent traditional marketplace. More pics here: http://imagesofsaudi.blogspot.com/search/label/Qassim

Blue Abaya in 2011

2012-01-02T04:40:00.000+03:00

Happy New Year to all my readers! May this year bring you peace and happiness!

So 2011 was certainly an eventful year in my life and in the whole Middle-East. I gathered some of the top posts and most important events of 2011 in case you missed some..

The Finnish minister of Education Henna Virkkunen visited Riyadh in January and met with Saudi officials who were interested to learn what the secret is behind Finland's education system's success. Here is my take on the Finnish education system and what Saudi-Arabia could learn from it:
http://www.blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/02/saudis-take-lessons-from-finnish.html

In March the supposed "Day of Rage" turned out to be just a day of rage from the skies and raging muttawa in Riyadh:
http://www.blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/03/day-of-rage-from-skies.html

This year we were very blessed and lucky to get the Saudi marriage permission approved, in the nick of time before I was due to give birth to our daughter. Here is the story:
http://www.blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/03/saudi-marriage-permission-success.html

And then we went to the judge when I was 9 months pregnant and wobbling like a penguin in the over the head abaya trying to conceal the pregnancy!
http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-saudi-wedding-ceremony.html

Shortly after our princess was born and I became so overwhelmed with her that the blog was pretty quiet for some while. My mother was also diagnosed with cancer during this stressful time. http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/04/our-princess-was-born.html

And what would the year in Saudi be without running into the infamous CPVPV, Saudi religious police? Probably the most hilarious incident happened during Ramadan the muttawa had a problem with my husband's shorts and my uncovered face: http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/08/muttawa-holidays.html

One of the most heated discussions was on the post about the Magical Moroccan Maids and how Saudi women fear they will cast a spell on their husbands: http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/09/magical-moroccan-maids.html

2011 was a big year in regards to Saudi women's rights. Women started to work in some grocery stores around the country as cashiers, King Abdullah announced Saudi women were granted right to vote, run as candidates, become members in Shoura ,http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/09/king-abdullah-starts-new-era-for-saudi.html
The lingerie stores were given the deadline until Jan 2012 to change to all female staff, http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/09/women-to-finally-sell-lingerie-in-saudi.html
The women driving movement got lots of publicity with Manal Al-Sherif's and other women's cases and the planned protest day of June 17th. In case you missed it I wrote an article about the announcement of women's voting rights and a lashing sentence for driving the next which was featured as the Editor's choice on MidEastPosts. http://mideastposts.com/2011/09/28/saudi-schizophrenia-votes-for-women-one-day-lashes-for-driving-the-next/

I was thrilled and honored to be interviewed by the Arab News: http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/09/blue-abaya-interviewed-by-arab-news.html

The most comments came to the post from our trip to Incredible Istanbul, check out the pictures here: http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/10/incredible-istanbul.html

This year my whole family came from Finland to visit us in Saudi and we also traveled to Dubai and Jeddah with them. My mother stayed with us in Riyadh for two months. We had a blast on our Saudi road trip to Abha, Gizan, Farasan Islands, Najran and Empty Quarter. I started to do a regular Tuesday posting "Tuesday Ten" and here are some pictures from the road trip:http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/11/tuesday-ten-from-saudi_15.html
I promise to blog about the whole trip very soon!

Lastly but most importantly, I wanted to thank everyone for reading, commenting and supporting me! I was touched by all the positive feedback I got to the post "Missing Mom and Motivation": http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/12/missing-mom-and-motivation.html

Lets see what 2012 will bring along..I am hoping and praying for health for all my family members that got diagnosed with cancer this year, for my daughter to stay safe and healthy and to remain that most happy, radiant and smiling baby on the planet, I am hoping to find a decent workplace this year and or course to visit some new countries as well!

On a more general level I am hoping to see women start driving this year and for the CPVPV members to get a new job description altogether and to leave women alone once and for all. Well at least I can dream of such a miracle.

I'm bad at New Year's resolutions but I promise to try my best to keep the blog going and hopefully you will enjoy :)

Greetings from Lapland

2011-12-27T23:47:00.004+03:00

This past week I've been having a blast with my family, it's holiday time here and we went to Lapland to enjoy the christmas time. Lapland is truly a wonderful place and I wanted to share with you 10 pictures I took there. You will notice there is not much sunshine and the images are blue, that is because the sun does not come up from the horizon for many hours during this time of the year near the arctic circle. It makes the place even more magical to me.

Here we are going for a walk, my niece is pulling my daughter behind her in the sleigh.

This is what the locals traditionally wear, a reindeer coat and the typical lapland style hat.

I love to look at all the different kind of shapes small trees take when they get covered with snow. This one is pretty clear to me, but what do you see sitting on the top?

The place we went to also has a ski resort but this time we didn't have much time for skiing.

Icicles on the edge of the cabin roof.

We went for a husky sleigh ride, it was fun and all the kids sat in the sleigh! My daughter was not scared at all even though the dogs were barking really loud. That's my girl!

A snow lantern I built outside the cabin, I put an electrical candle inside to prevent it from melting.

We saw lots of reindeer, these were on a farm and were quite tame but still very shy.

Christmas lights on a log cabin.

And finally, in this picture you will see how tough it is to push baby strollers in the snow, but nevertheless we Finns LOVE to walk outside and we always take the babies with us. They sleep so much better outside in the fresh air!

White Lies, Black Lies and Big Fat Liars

2011-12-23T00:40:00.002+03:00

One thing I will never understand about Arab culture is telling lies. It's just so common in the Arab world for men to lie to their womenfolk. Men lie to their wives, to their mothers, sisters, and kids. Women are almost always the targets of these lies. The Arab man is the master of all types of lies.

I come from a culture of a respect for absolute honesty. Finns are the most honest people you will find on earth. We always top the corruption studies as the number one least corrupt country. Finns can leave their doors open and always return lost wallets, some with all the money in there. Even out politicians are honest (well ok not ALL)!

So the lying Arab male to me is like a red flag in front of my eyes and seeing this phenomenon makes smoke come out of my ears and nostrils!

What could be behind all this lying?

An Arab man is brought surrounded by liars. He will grow up seeing how his father lies to his own mother on a continuous basis without any consequences. Maybe his father took more wives and was dishonest with the first wife, and of course the second one. Nobody will know the truth except the men.

The boy adapts this seriously screwed-up model in his own life and applies to his wife and own children. Men are basically honest with each other, but with women for some reason they are not able to be truthful 100% of the time. Some not even 2% of the time it seems.

The Arab man will tell white lies to his wife all the time. Some are "innocent"and with no bad intentions, but lies nevertheless. But even if the man supposedly sincerely (only an Arab man can lie sincerely) means good with his lie, it doesn't mean it is not going to hurt the recipient. White lies can also hurt the most.

Sometimes he will make black, ugly-ass lies to get himself out of trouble. We have a saying in Finland that is very fitting for the description "kuin koira veräjästä" meaning he will take the easy way out, or literally "escape like a dog from the back door".

The sad thing is that being a big fat liar is a perfectly normal status for him. The Arab man does not even feel ashamed of lying. You will never find him apologizing or begging on his knees for the wife to forgive his idiotic actions even though that would be the right thing to do.

He thinks it's his birthright to lie to women.

Especially if it is to "protect" the woman.

A typical Arab guy will never tell his womenfolk the absolute truth about his financial situation. Arab men are experts at hiding assets and keeping purchases, loans or bankruptcy from the women of the family. Is it because they think women are too emotional to handle anything deemed serious? Do they view women as stupid and incapable of handling finances? Do they think telling women about finances will cause the poor women to faint or start ululating and pulling their hair out in shock of how lousily he has dealt with money?

Are Arab men really so dumb to think women don't have a clue?

Well I have a newsflash for those dumb-asses out there: You are probably the one with only clues. Your wife most likely is the one with more sense and when it comes to money-issues if given a chance would excel you in them.

Men like this are simply weak and afraid of women. Afraid that they will be better and take control.

The Arab man has to always be in control. His pride is too high for anything else. By lying he thinks takes control. But of course, he is wrong. This is the only conclusion I can make from this idiotic habit of compulsive lying. Or then they are just cowards. Too scared of the truth and rather hide behind ridiculous stories.

How does this happen, seriously I just don't get the mentality behind it. How does a man come to think it's better to lie to the wife than tell the truth? He will get caught someday anyways, so why not be honest from the beginning? Why take the extra drama and hurt feelings? Wouldn't it actually be easier on him to come forth with the truth right from the start?

So what if the woman gets hurt or upset from what he has to say? She will get a MILLION times more upset about the lie AND the action. If she were to know beforehand, she might get upset at first but at least being honest with her would lessen the hurt.

Why is it so common for Arab men to lie to women? Withholding the truth is just another form of lying! Also, how do women come to accept this, because it wouldn't be so common if more women viewed as unacceptable right?

P.S. please do not make a comment that not ALL Arab men are big fat liars because nowhere did I state that ok? Thank you.
P.P.S. I realize men lie all over the world, even Finnish men. No need to remind me of that, but the post is about this specific phenomenon.

Good Sides to Life in Saudi-Arabia

2011-12-20T23:23:00.097+03:00

So it's time for Tuesday Ten again and I'm writing from Finland this time. The baby and I flew here for the holidays to spend some time with my family.
In Finland this time of year (and for a very long time) it gets really dark, murky and gloomy. I haven't even seen the sun for four days and I'm already feeling depressed and out of energy. Everything is so expensive and has a tax on it! Just travelling around the country to other cities costs me almost as much as international airfare. Trains, buses and gasoline are ridiculously expensive. I went for coffee and paid 24 euros (117SAR) for a sandwich, coffee and water!
I've only been here for few days but have started to appreciate some things we take for granted in Saudi-Arabia. So I thought I'd compile a list of ten things I like about living in Saudi.

1. The sun!
The sun shines by default everyday of the year. It's easy to be in a cheerful mood and to keep energy levels up with so much sunshine. No need for me or the baby to take vit D supplements since we can have it naturally from the sunlight, which is much better anyways! Another thing I enjoy is sunbathing!

2. Inexpensive food
Groceries are so much cheaper in Saudi than for example in Finland or most western countries. Everything except the imported stuff is affordable and good quality. There are countless restaurants to choose from and most are very reasonably priced and eating out won't make a huge cut in your budget.

3. The desert
I just love going to the desert and to experience the absolute silence that falls upon you out there. That is where your soul rests. There's always something interesting out there to find and explore and it's so easily accessible.

4. Mosques and athan
Every neighborhood has a mosque or two and they are all look different. It creates a peaceful atmosphere hearing the athan (call for prayer) throughout the day, even inside shops and at the hospital.

5. Tax-free income
This is definitely a big plus too with obvious benefits!

6. Untouched places
There are not many places left in the world where tourists can find themselves the only people around. Saudi has plenty of historic sites, nature reserves and other places around the country that remain unspoiled. Elsewhere in the world tourists pay $$$ to find such places.

7. Women Only
Sometimes it works for your advantage, especially at the airport! Enables faster security checks, passing men in queues and so on. Ladies branches of banks are a breeze and it's nice to go to the gym or swimming pool and know for sure there's no slimy men lurking around! Also I've noticed as a woman it's perfectly fine to jump the line if there's no female section, nobody will dare protest a woman walking straight up to the counter.

8. Cheap Travel
Travel around Saudi and around the Middle-East is affordable. In the Kingdom the roads are mostly in very good condition and the petrol is almost free making driving around the country easy. Domestic flights and flights to neighboring countries are cheap.

9. Red Sea
I don't live on the coast, but just being so close to the Red Sea and being able to go to the beach or diving so easily makes for one of life's little luxuries. The Saudi side of the coast is still mostly untouched by mass dive tourism and reefs remain healthy and rich in marine life unlike the neighboring Egypt side.

10. Lack of negative western influences
Not all western influence is negative but some I'm glad we don't have to deal with in Saudi! Nightclubs, casinos and bars, what good do they really do for society anyway? They only cause trouble, fights, loss of income, even divorces and one night stands among other things! At least in Saudi you don't have to worry about your spouse going to the nightclub, having a second living room in the pub or gambling all the family savings ;)

Also, seeing how some teenage schoolgirls here in Finland were dressed today totally shocked me. They were coming from school, dressed in miniskirts and skimpy outfits (I swear one did not have pants on, just sheer leggings and a T-shirt) in full make-up and false eyelashes. They looked more like working girls than young innocent 13-year olds to me. This makes me feel glad that my daughter won't be exposed to a culture that views this as acceptable and objectifies young girls in this manner.

Lessons Learned on the Saudi Roads

2011-12-14T09:59:00.002+03:00

Let me tell you a story and a valuable learning experience from our Saudi Road trip.

So we were cruising on the highway in the rented SUV somewhere between Kharj and Wadi Al-Dawasir surrounded by literally NOTHING else than rocks. The scenery out there is just flat. Not even the random camels you often see roaming in the desert could be seen, let alone a twig. Just flatness. And rocks.

This sign indicates there would in fact be camels around but I think they just put it there for looks.

This was the most interesting scenery and the only pic I took for about 500km.

So back to the story, I was sitting in the backseat next to the baby who was playing with her toys in her car seat (or so I thought). I was pumping milk and had the lights off because in case some over enthusiastic idiot drove too close and got all excited from a glimpse of that glamorous sight (let me tell you there is nothing glamorous or exciting about pumping milk, but with Saudi guys, you never know). So in order to save time I figured I could just pump the milk and give it to her in a bottle instead of having to make another stop.

My mom and husband were listening to some weird radio program that sounded like it was being broadcast from outer space. It was the only channel available in English out there. I think it was the news but I could be wrong because like I said it sounded like it was coming from light years away. But anyways they had the volume so high I could not even hear the breast pump make the yatouhuuyatouhuuyatouhuu -sound.

Suddenly I realized the baby was making a gagging sound. Ok I was not so alarmed at first because my baby has some sort of obsession of sticking fingers in her mouth so far that it makes her gag. And she thinks it's funny! This baby does not have a sense of humor! I mean who does that anyways? And please don't tell me there's something called baby-bulimia because there's not. It's just her thing ok.

So I told her to stop (as if it helps) but it just got worse. I flipped the light on and saw she was really gagging on something this time. From this point on the story becomes a bit blurry in my mind.

I shouted to my husband to stop the car because the baby was choking and he braked so hard the car almost flipped. We stopped on the side of the highway where maniacs are speeding by at 200km/h. My husband and mom ran out of the car to her side and took her out of the car seat. Did I mention I was still attached to the breast pump? Oh and that mom was not wearing her abaya.

It was so dark they couldn't see clearly if there was anything in her mouth. I had taught my husband basic CPR skills in cases of emergency and stressed the importance of the "no blind sweeping" rule. I was so proud that he remembered it when he was forbidding mom from doing it! I saw the baby become increasingly red from gagging from her face at this point. Which could be seen as a good sign because at least there's still oxygen in her system.

The only thing I could think of was to get to her. So I just threw the bottles on the floor and got out of the car with my ta-tas peeking out of the abaya (which I only realized later).

I took the baby and automatically started doing what I had been practicing many times with a dummy in Life Support classes. Somehow time stopped and things slowed down like in the Matrix movies except that thankfully I didn't have to dodge any bullets. I was thinking to myself this is not happening. I am not going to let her choke here, in the middle of the desert! There is no time for an ambulance or even helicopter to reach us(and where the hell are we anyways, next to rock number 76,945,412?) I was determined to get the thing out of her.

Looking back I cannot believe how calm I was. I kept hitting her in the back to hope something would fly out but without avail. The baby was starting to get limp and blue and stopped gagging. So I decided to look once more in her mouth by shining the iPhone light in there. And lo and behold there it was. A piece of clear plastic stuck down her throat.

I managed to get it out and THANK GOD she started breathing normally again. The sneaky little bugger had reached out to a small plastic wrapper and started chewing on it. Despite the 100 toys I had given her to play with in the car seat. I mean who does that?

So what lessons can we learn from this story?
-Learn basic life support skills, and teach your partner and other family members too.
-While pumping breast milk in car in Saudi-Arabia, remember to close your abaya when finishing and getting out of the car
-That said don't pump milk in a car in Saudi-Arabia.
-Or rent a car with tinted back windows
-Always keep your iPhone charged
-Babies like to chew on plastic bags
-Babies like to play with anything ELSE than their own toys
-Always keep your baby in a car seat

-The scenery between Kharj and Wadi-Al-Dawasir is most likely the most BORING you will ever see.
-Saudi radio stations suck

Learn CPR:
http://globalcrisis.info/cpr.html#baby
Why you shouldn't blindly stick your fingers in your babies mouth:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1342520/pdf/jaccidem00006-0058.pdf

Ten Amazing Things from Finland

2011-12-13T04:54:00.007+03:00

For Tuesday Ten here are 10 great things that come from tiny Finland with population of 5.3 million.

1. Sauna
All Finns love sauna! We have over 2 million saunas in Finland, that's on average one per household.
Health benefits of the sauna include: lowers blood pressure, increases blood circulation, cleanses skin from toxins and impurities and blemishes, aids weight loss, relaxes muscles, decreases swelling and reduces stress.
Back in the day, Finnish women gave birth in the sauna!
http://finland.fi/public/default.aspx?contentid=160067&seeking

2. Nokia
Did you know that there is a town in Finland called Nokia and the mobile phone company started out as a woodmill in the 19th century? Nokia also produces raincoats, tyres and rubber boots!
http://www.about-nokia.com/history/pictures.php
Why Nokia is better than the iPhone: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57332148-1/why-i-dont-want-an-iphone-anymore/

3. Xylitol
The amazing health discovery for dental health is a sweetener derived from the Finnish Birch trees.
Xylitol's health-promoting effects on teeth have been proven in many scientific studies. Xylitol cuts off acid attacks, prevents cavities, reduces the amount of plaque and prevents mothers infecting their children with caries. Xylitol also reduces children's ear infections."
http://www.foodforlife.fi/english/finnish-innovations/xylitol-combats-cavities

4. Angrybirds
Finnish invention Angrybirds are popular worldwide. But in Finland we even have Angrybirds evening gowns!
http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/article/TMG8943600/Wife-of-Rovio-chief-wears-Angry-Birds-dress-to-the-Finnish-Palace.html

5. Education System
Not an innovation per se, but something to be very proud of! Countries all around the world (including very recently Saudi-Arabia) are trying to find out the secret to the success of Finland's education system which consistently tops OECD charts. Learn more from my previous post here:http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/2011/02/saudis-take-lessons-from-finnish.html
Interesting reads from other media:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/justin-snider/keys-to-finnish-education_b_836802.html
http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3749880

6. SMS
Well we have all loved and sometimes hated sending and receiving SMS. The Finnish man that invented it never earned a penny for his invention! This might give him something to be happy about: http://www.dfid.gov.uk/stories/case-studies/2010/last-night-an-sms-saved-my-lived/

7. Benecol
The miracle margarine that lowers your cholesterol is sold everywhere and recommended by physicians worldwide. Also available in Saudi-Arabia!
http://www.benecolphysicians.com/prodinfo/page.jhtml?id=benecolphysicians/faqs/faqs.inc

8. Santa Claus
The REAL Santa and his elves live in the arctic circle in Finland. The Santa Claus Village has a post office which receives millions of letters from all around the world. Each one will be replied to. It's not only children who write to Santa, sometimes he gets letters from adults seeking for advice in difficult life situations. Santa Claus could be called the world's most famous Goodwill Ambassador!
http://www.santaclausvillage.info/santa-claus/santa-claus-main-post-office/
http://www.santaclauslive.com/
http://www.santapark.com/

9. Ice Skates
Apparently us Finns have already been ice skating for about 5000 years! No wonder Finns have the best Ice Hockey Team in the world! World Champions 2011!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080104-first-skates.html

10. Salmiakki
Only Finns will agree: Salmiakki, also known as salty licorice is Finland's gift to the world! Check out this HILARIOUS blog called Salmiyuck! Adventures in Salmiakki, reviews of the endless world of wonderful salmiakki products. It is certainly an acquired taste ;)
http://www.salmiyuck.com/

Saudi-Arabia and Human Rights Violations

2011-12-10T23:55:00.007+03:00

Today is the birthday of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights!
The President of the Human Rights Commission of Saudi-Arabia, Dr. Bandar bin Mohammed Al-Aiban said in a statement today: "On the occasion of the World's Human Rights Day, the Kingdom continues to promote and protect the values and principles of human rights at all levels".
http://www.alriyadh.com/2011/12/10/article690376.html

That is a pretty bold statement coming from the representative of a country that basically violates the majority of the articles in the UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/index.shtml#a23
There are 30 articles on the declaration, adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10th December 1948. Here are the articles and some examples I added from recent news how human rights are violated in modern day Saudi-Arabia. Notice majority are concerning women.

Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Men and women are not born with equal rights in Saudi-Arabia. The woman's rights will mostly be dependent on her male relatives decisions.

Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.Race, colour, sex, language, religion, political opinion, national and social origin, property, and birth are all factors that determine the rights an individual has or does not have in Saudi-Arabia

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Although slavery is officially abolished, some low wage workers and maids still live in slavery-like circumstances. http://www.migrant-rights.org/2010/11/19/indonesian-maid-tortured-in-saudi-arabia-another-beaten-to-death/

Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Most sites revealing horror stories of torture in Saudi jails have been blocked from Saudi-Arabia (wonder why?). A British man tells of his torture experience from Saudi prison: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/may/10/alqaida.saudiarabia while an Indonesian maid was found to have 24 nails in her body: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11094968

Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination. The Indonesian maid tortured by her employers received 670$ for damages while her Saudi employers were freed of all charges. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7415290.stm

Article 9.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. Citizens are frequently arrested and detained for objectionable reasons. The latest case was the men arrested for filming a youtube video exposing poverty in Saudi-Arabia: http://saudijeans.org/2011/10/18/are-we-fine-two-saudi-men-arrested-over-youtube-video/

Article 10.

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. Women that protested peacefully outside the Ministry of Interior for demanding fair trials for their relatives were detained: http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/saudi-arabia-detains-women-protesters-2011-07-04

Article 11.

Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence. Earlier this year a Sri Lankan maid was sentenced to death by beheading after an arbitrary and unfair trial, she was not provided a translator or lawyers in court. http://www.humanrights.asia/news/alrc-news/human-rights-council/hrc16/ALRC-CWS-16-14-2011

Article 12.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks. The Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice repeatedly violates this clause, the latest news of Hai'a members humiliating and falsely accusing a female neurologist of illegitimate relations at her workplace emerged yesterday: http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article543932.ece Saudi religious police have known to physically assault citizens, even women. This woman was dragged out of the car, her veil ripped off by five members of Hai'a http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=20111011110339

Article 13.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state. Women are not allowed to drive and hence move freely.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country. Women cannot leave the country without permission from their male guardian (mahram).

Article 15.

(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality. Children born from Saudi women married to foreigners are not automatically granted nationality.

Article 16.

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution. Saudi women cannot marry without permission from their guardians. There are cases of "adhl" where the male guardian refuses to give permission for the female relative to marry: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40407940/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/saudi-women-sue-male-guardians-who-stop-marriage/#.TuOx-GPhdt Saudis are not allowed to marry foreign nationals without permission from Ministry of interior.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses. Child brides don't have much say in the matter: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/08/saudi-arabia-child-brides-marriage?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

Article 18.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. The only acceptable religion in the Kingdom is Islam, any form of practicing other religions is seen proselytizing and punishable by law. Some critics of the strict Wahabi version of Islam have been accused and sentenced to jail for "insulting Islam":http://www.hrw.org/news/2008/05/12/saudi-arabia-stop-trials-insulting-islam

Article 19.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. A Saudi man named Khaled Aljuhainy went missing after he talked to the press on the planned "Day of Rage", he was the only person to show up and speak out. http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/1677/where-is-khaled-the-story-of-a-disappeared-critic

Article 20.

(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. Any kind of public gatherings and assemblies are forbidden by law.

Article 21.

(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives. Saudi Arabia being an absolute monarchy, this is impossible. Most of the high ranking positions and ministries are occupied by royal family members.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country. Women are not allowed to enter governmental offices, some have women's sections with very limited services.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures. The Only elections currently held in the Kingdom are the municipal elections which have been accused of being only cosmetic and not with real political influence.http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=45819 Women will be allowed to participate in the next round 2015.

Article 23.

(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment. Women cannot work without permission from their male guardians and even if they have permission their employment options are limited to a few fields.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. Employees are paid according to their passport. For the same work an American will get paid 20,000 while an Asian colleague gets a mere 5000 for the exact same job.

Article 24.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay. Foreign domestic workers like maids and drivers have no set working hours, days off or holidays, it is up to the employer to decide. There is no law to ensure workers are treated fairly.

Article 25.

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. Saudi women cannot access medical services without the consent of their male guardians.

Article 26.

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit. Saudi women need the permission from their guardians to study.

That adds up to a whopping 20/30 violations.

The President concluded that "the Kingdom will go ahead in the promotion and protection of human rights in accordance with the rules of Islamic Sharia and by continuing to make regulations and laws that contribute to the achievement of justice, equality and the protection and preservation of human rights."

All of the articles of the declaration for human rights are in accordance with Islam.
How come Saudi-Arabia's Sharia law is not??

Because it's the culture, not the religion that is violating these rights!

Mom's Saudi Experience

2011-12-06T23:58:00.045+03:00

So this Tuesday Ten I thought of posting ten things about my mother's stay in Saudi-Arabia. She was with us for about two months and we did so many things,visited so many places and met so many people! Here are some highlights of her visit...

Mom had her own bedroom in our house. She liked it a lot and it's bigger than her own bedroom back home. It seems so empty now.

On our roadtrip around Saudi mom and her granddaughter are watching the sunset at Abha mountains. The green scenery there amazed her.

This is from our last weekend in Saudi when it had rained and we found a small lake in the middle of the desert. Another strange experience for her.

From her first Hash walk in the desert, she climbed the red sand dune just like all her younger counterparts.

In Abha region we stopped to buy honey from this local salesman. She ended up buying huge canister of that honey which was from Yemen.

A souvenir shop we found on our roadtrip. Mom bought replicas of houses of the Najran region. She was delighted to find the exact same ones to add to her collection that she bought on our trip to Yemen.

On Farasan Islands mom was in her element. She swam whenever she got the chance. The water was warm and lovely and there was no one else around.
We spent one night sleeping in the desert on Farasan Island. It was amazing.

We had so much fun at the women's souq in Najran. Here mom is trying on Bedouin niqabs.

The magnificent Empty Quarter, Rub al-Khali was simply breath taking and we agreed to return there one day.

Miss you, mom!

Saudi Hospitality

2011-12-05T21:00:00.000+03:00

I experienced hands on the generous side of the Saudi people by having the chance to interact with many families through my work. At the hospital a patient would have their own private rooms and the average length of stay would be 8 days. A nurse typically works around 12 hours a day, on average 4-5 days a week. Also the system in Saudi is that a certain nurse is assigned to specific patients only (usually 2-4/shift) and the nurse therefore get lots of one on one time with their designated patients.

At first it was a strange system for me as a western nurse used to having the responsibility of up to 35 patients at a given shift. Then I saw the good side to it, getting to really know your patients and following their progress and treatment. This way their outcome will be better because the nurses can observe the patients closely and report changes to the doctors (who usually didn't listen..)

So having this close contact with the Saudi families gave me the chance to experience this amazing side to their culture which is hospitality and kindness to strangers.

I know some nurses who worked in Saudi or even the very same ward would not agree with me and might say Saudis are rude and arrogant. I think this has to do with personality and attitude. My approach is always open-minded and I would greet patients with a smile and "salaam aleikum". Even though I was not a Muslim at first, I thought it was polite and respectful to their culture and always generated a positive response.

We have a saying in Finland:
"Niin metsä vastaa kuin sinne huudetaan"
Which translates to something like "the forest will answer you in the same way as you shout into it" meaning basically that if you speak nicely you will spoken back to nicely, or on the other hand if you speak to someone with disrespect, you can't expect them to treat you with respect. Some expat nurses would always complain about how the Saudis are so rude. Perhaps a look into the mirror could solve this problem!

So that saying is what I like to go by. I think learning Arabic made a huge difference in communicating with the patients as well. They realized how much I respected them by making an effort to learn their language in order to be able to communicate better.

I would say in general, every patient of mine would offer something during their course of stay. Regardless of their background. The poorest sometimes were the most generous. It was touching how they would offer me from what little they had. I would of course refuse but they would literally stuff things in my pockets!

Typically people would give me chocolates, sweets or pastries they had in the room brought in by relatives or friends. On night shifts I would often be asked to join for some Arabic coffee, tea and dates. Some patients would give me juices, laban or water bottles. Basically anything they had to offer, they would give it. I would even be offered a plate of the food they were eating "to go" when I apologized I did not have time for dinner with them.

Many families would ask if I knew about Islam or wanted to learn about it. I would say I was interested and next time I saw them they would have a package ready for me full of booklets, small Qurans, prayer beads and the sorts. The best Quran I have was given to me by one of my favorite patients, an old Bedouin couple.It has both Arabic and English side by side, no distracting brackets and a brief explanation of the historical background of the events.

On occasions I received more elaborate gifts like jewelry, perfumes, bags and watches. A princess once bought me the same evening dress I saw her daughter wearing in her room during Eid time. I had admired how beautiful it was and she had sent someone to pick one up from the designer. Needles to say I was overwhelmed!

Generosity was extended to invitations as well, I have been invited to weddings and once to a royal wedding (sadly I couldn't attend because I was abroad at the time) to family dinners, farms and coffee shops. I only had a chance to go to a few but it was well worth it and the hospitality was abundant.

I think the most amazing act of generosity happened once with another princess patient. She asked me if I needed more books on Islam in my own language. I said I had never really found any books in Finnish but would love to have some. She had me write down what my language was and said would see what she could do. The next time I came to work, must have been the day after, she gave me a whole bagful of books about Islam in Finnish! There was eight different books and of each five copies so I could give to friends and family. To this day I don't get how she was able to obtain books in Finnish language in such a short time, in Saudi-Arabia!

Missing Mom and Motivation

2011-12-03T23:02:00.014+03:00

We took mom to the airport today and the house has been feeling really empty. We all miss her already! Two months flew by so quick.. We kept ourselves busy and met many of my friends here in Riyadh. It was also my mother's last weekend in Saudi-Arabia so we wanted to do something special. Thursday we visited the old town of Raghba northwest of Riyadh.

We walked around the ruins of the city and we climbed the watch tower which was a lot of fun, but also a claustrophobic experience! I had to literally squeeze myself through the last part. I have no idea how an adult man could have fit in there! Maybe they used a kid, or a midget :) It's unfortunate that many historical sites have been ruined by graffiti.

If you look carefully you can see mom waiving from one of the holes. This is where she turned back because she wasn't able to move in there anymore!

I was determined to reach the top. A mild panic ensued when I couldn't move at one point and there was absolutely no light coming into the staircase from the tiny windows. I was starting to envision in my head the fire squad being called to free the crazy lady that got stuck in the watch tower.

When people saw me up there they started honking their horns and some cars gathered to watch. I guess they don't see ladies at the top too often. The visibility was perfect, no dust or hazyness after the rains.

Afterwards we drove around the desert looking for water after the rains, and managed to find a beautiful spot in the midst of the and dunes.

On friday we joined an expat gathering in the desert, the occasion, christmas celebrations! Mom said it was the strangest christmas party she ever went to.

A chorus of "angels" sang some christmas carols under a huge acacia tree. The songs echoed beautifully from the mountain.

The highlights of the evening were the fireworks and the bonfire. Lanterns were lit on the side of the mountain.

I'm glad we went because mom got to experience something so different and special on her last day. She also got a chance to do some off-road driving and we had so much fun we noticed only on the high-way that she had forgotten her abaya in the desert! Oh well, she doesn't need it anymore, at least for a while. She liked it here so much she wants to come back in April.

Another thing I have been missing lately is motivation. I think it might have started from this really nasty comment I got from a Muslim girl with a case of "holier than thou" attitude. Interestingly she has a blog about reviewing make-up and false eyelashes. This person had huge issues with what kind of Muslim I am and accused me of spreading fitna and being negative among other things. I was planning to just go ahead and publish it to expose her ignorance, but then I hesitated. I didn't publish her comment because it was a personal attack against me and I state clearly in the comment rules that such personal attacks will not be tolerated.

So that kind of took me into a slump and I didn't feel like posting anything lately. I felt like my blog is of no interest or benefit to anyone and nobody even reads it or comments because the posts are so dull and negative. I know might sound silly, but I do get those days when I truly think like this.

So after this depressive mood I was thrilled to meet a fan of my blog in person at this very desert gathering. It was a Canadian girl that had recently moved to Riyadh for work at the same hospital I used to work at. She had asked my Finnish friend if she knew who the author of Blue Abaya was and then my friend introduced us to each other.

Wow I was so flattered by her words, I still can't believe it! She said my blog helped her so much and she had been reading it for some while now. She thanked me for keeping it and encouraged me to write more. She was so sweet! She even said she told all her friends there's this amazing lady who keeps a blog about Saudi you have to read it!

So I want to personally thank you, dear fan in the desert for your encouraging words! Thank you for the inspiration! I wish you have an amazing time in Saudi-Arabia and make the best out of everything here :) If you need anything I will always be available to help out. Please don't hesitate to ask!

I also want to thank all my readers and "fans" out there for reading and commenting. I love comments! Please write more comments :) It really means a lot to me.

Blue Abaya is soon reaching 200 followers and I want to thank my readers by organizing a giveaway! I know my blog has a broad audience and it's hard to figure out what would be the best thing for the giveaway, any suggestions? Perhaps something specifically from Saudi? Lots of readers are coming for the first time to Saudi and need abayas so I was thinking a beautiful abaya might be one of the items, but what about those already in Saudi, or the male readers..hmm..

Stay tuned for more info!

Tuesday Ten From Saudi-Charities and Rain

2011-11-29T23:28:00.065+03:00

What a busy week it's been! I really don't understand how the time flies like this. I thought I just posted the previous Tuesday Ten yesterday! I didn't even manage to post this on time but better late than never..
Mom is leaving in a few days and we've been running around Riyadh trying to get as many things done as possible.

Last Wednesday we went to Intercontinental hotel for lunch by the pool, the weather was perfect! The pool rules say "women are not allowed to sit around the pool". That means we could still swim, right? Notice the UFO in the background.

The SHOP&DROP winter campaign is ongoing at Harvey Nichols until Dec 4th. You can donate winter clothes and they distribute them to the needy families around Riyadh. Our clothes were put in the container by some really sweet volunteering Saudi girls. And yes there are that poor people in Saudi so if you're in Riyadh or Jeddah go participate! The campaign is run by Sawa'ed Atheeb check their site here: http://www.atheebsd.org/english/biography.php?p=4&f=_3

This is actually the old baby swing from my childhood. My daughter loved it so much last the summer, we brought it to Saudi because they don't sell anything like this here. The kitten enjoys it too!

We went to Ha'ir and Riyadh river area to walk around. Such lovely green scenery and flowers everywhere. Birds singing and just the sound of the water flowing and the wind softly blowing in the trees makes my mind at peace.

The Riyadh river flows through Wadi Hanifa.

Lots of pink stuff on sale at the Walk For Cure breast cancer awareness event. I got the hair clips and a small bracelet, mom bought a medicine box and some ribbons for her sisters, who have been diagnosed recently with breast cancer.

We had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner at our friends house!

Mom is trying to purchase all her souvenirs this week. Here we are testing out some bokhoor. It's pieces of special kind of dried wood that smell really good when you burn it slowly. This piece cost around 1500 SAR.

An evening walk around the neighborhood, we found some villas for sale open for people to walk in for viewing. Mom's thoughts were it being as living in a jail with those high walls, bars on windows and such a small harsh yard.

We found this flower on sale at IKEA in Finnish it's called a Christmas Star! The vase is from a trip to Jordan.

And finally this Tuesday, schools in Saudi were closed because it rained. From this picture you can maybe guess why.

The Walk For Cure-Saudi Style

2011-11-25T06:13:00.000+03:00

The Walk for Cure-a walkathon for Breast Cancer Awareness was arranged this Thursday in Riyadh at the Kingdom school. The concept of a walkathon for supporting breast cancer awareness comes from the U.S where numerous such walks have been organized.

I was really looking forward to this event as I'm always eager to promote women's rights and issues and curious to see how it had been arranged by the group of local women. I was anticipating a pleasant and relaxing afternoon and getting some high quality pics to share with the world but it turned out something totally different.

When I arrived at the event with my mom the honest, obsessive-compulsively rule-following inner-Finn in me whispered into in my ears, "you should ask permission" "you must obey the rules". I tried to fight saying chillax, it's Saudi, honesty and going by the rules don't always go down like that. But the inner-Finn won the battle and I approached the people involved in arranging the event. BIG MISTAKE, huge.

Naturally I'm aware of how some Saudi women feel about photos, especially in women only events. However, having attended many such events, I knew women often took pictures with their iPhones and small compact cameras without any disturbance from on-lookers. I always thought Saudis thought images taken with anything other than a so called professional camera were in fact, not images at all.

I told the women involved in organizing the event that I would like to take some pics to promote the event and spread the message. I underlined the fact that I would just shoot places and things, not women. I mentioned I work with an agency that sells photos to various international media about interesting events in the Middle-East, and this would be a great chance to promote their event.

The woman I talked to started the blah blah blah of how Saudi women feel about photography. I stressed I would not shoot women.
I was told they already have volunteer photographers there and they could send me the pics.
So photography is going on at the event. Wait, didn't you just say the women were so bothered by it? She wondered why they hadn't confiscated my camera at the door.

I told this person I obviously can't send other peoples pics to the agency as my own.
I think I'm a pretty decent photographer, so I asked can I be one of those volunteers and share all my pics with them?
Again, no. We already have seven.

Really, seven? So you have photographers in every corner taking pictures here, why can't I do it too? Because of how some women feel, apparently. Well I'm sorry but those women just need to get over themselves. I am not going to shoot you in your pink jumpsuit or show your heavily make-uped faces and huge hairdos. As if I have no respect and dignity. I'm here for the important cause and wish to promote it. Not to violate faces.

I mentioned to this person how I wanted to at least just shoot the floating lanterns. No, it's not allowed.
Come on it's LANTERNS not women. Geez. I had envisioned an image of hands simultaneously lifting the floating Chinese lanterns into the sky, maybe having a slow shutter speed to make it look a little hazy to capture the movement. But I should have known better.

It's just beyond me why the organizers didn't want to promote their event and the cause as much as possible worldwide. This indifference is the typical Saudi attitude for anything remotely interesting, it seems.

I bet it would do a lot of good for foreigners to see that such events do go on in Saudi, and best yet, the event is arranged by Saudi women. So it would spread a positive picture of Saudi women as doers and makers and also of Saudi in general, in addition to the actual event.

No but let's just keep to the bleak, joyless, confined image of Saudi women's life the rest of the world has. Why show anything positive?

I was pretty annoyed at this point. I tried to stay positive anyway and enjoy the event.

So we went in the hall where they had a few booths selling some pink items and then other educational ones teaching women about breast cancer. We bought some things and took brochures. The best booth by far was the U.S embassy health services booth. They had some rubber breasts you could palpate and try to detect the tumors.

I had already noticed Saudis and women of various other nationalities snapping away with all sorts of capturing devices that don't produce real images. Oh look it's me and the flower arrangement. Snap. Or look I bought this pink hairband! Snap. No one seemed to care. My annoyance grew but I kept my camera confined because the uber-honest inner-Finn still had the power over me.

Here is an example of a non-image. You can't actually see it, because it's been taken with an iPhone, but I swear I uploaded it and its right below this text. It shows the ambassadors wife wearing a really cool knitted pink scarf. "Photo" credit goes to Zaki Safar, founder of Saudi Men for Women Driving, whose sister actually made that lovely scarf. Thanks for letting me use the non-image!Check out his excellent blog on Saudi women's rights http://zakisafar.com/

At the U.S embassy booth my irritation levels topped off when I saw a large group of women start taking group pictures. Saudi women were around. Again, nobody really cared, or at least said anything. I kept my camera in my bag but my fingers were burning to take it out.

After a few minutes the U.S ambassador's wife came to join them and the joyful photo shoot session continued. My irritation grew to the point I felt if I was a teapot my lid would fly in the air because of the steam in my head. Mom was pretty annoyed by all this too. She knew that I was missing a great job opportunity as well as the this whole no photos thing was turning out to be a complete joke.

We spent a few minutes talking to the embassy people, they were so nice and professional. Then something just clicked (not my camera, but perhaps the honest inner-Finn fainted from all the rule breaking going on) and I thought to myself why not just shoot a few photos here? So I asked the women and they agreed. The photo is not even that great because I was scared to use a flash in fear of being exposed and then jumped on by Saudi anti-camera activists, plus I had my wide angle lens on which distorted the photo a bit.

Luckily, no assaults occurred and my confidence grew a bit. I had stopped hearing my inner-Finn ranting about obeying rules and had started to feel more Saudi. So we went outside to sit on the nice chairs there and I walked to the end where there was no people. Like a criminal, I crept behind the chairs taking some pics of the flowers. I felt ridiculous. Seriously, people like I was committing the biggest crime. Those pics turned out acceptable.

Mom was too tired and freezing (unacceptable for a Finnish woman used to swimming in frozen lakes without sauna) to take the actual walk so we stayed behind as the women left. Again, I had envisioned how I would portray the actual walk without face violations. I wanted to capture the feet of a large group of the women walking, again capturing the motion and the different colors of shoes. But that was just wishful thinking.

I did have one picture opportunity of the walk as I watched the women far away pass a "Think Pink" sign. I focused with my mega zoom onto the sign and the women walking past behind the fence remained unrecognizable blurry figures. My heart was pounding. I felt like a sniper.

Since most women were walking I took my chance to go back in and took a few pics of the items on sale with my iPhone. I won't post them on here because you would not be able to see them anyways.

I came back to the table to find this scene: One annoyed and freezing mother, pink flowers and women walking in the background. So I thought it's time to take a break.

We went home which was in the neighborhood to breastfeed my baby, the plan being to return at 7 for the much awaited event, the launching of the Chinese floating lanterns. I had been looking forward to it the whole week so I was pretty excited.

I had set my goal to take that awesome lantern pic I had dreamed of. Nothing was going to stop me. Not even that enormous black clad security ninja. I knew everyone was going to want to capture that moment anyway with their non-camera capturing devices. But here's a pic of the clouds turning pink as if someone from above is sending a sign of support :)

We returned a little before seven, in accordance to what the woman responsible for the event programme had told us, only to realize the whole event was already finished. WTH? I wanted to take my STC freebie stress ball out and squeeze the life out of it. I felt temped to confront this "expert". I could not believe they had told us the wrong time. How unprofessional and above all annoying, which went well with the theme of the day.

No floating lanterns for us. I bet it was beautiful though.

Note to self: Next time mute the honest inner-Finn and act more Saudi.

Tuesday Ten From Saudi-Edge of the World and more

2011-11-22T23:04:00.002+03:00

I cannot believe how fast this past week went! Actually where did it go? I realized we only have two weeks left with mom staying with us in Riyadh. Times passes too fast when you're having fun!

This week I met up with some ladies and their kids in Riyadh, all non-Saudis married to Saudis. Among them were some fellow bloggers so it was extra interesting and what a lovely evening it was! I met Tara Umm Omar, the owner of Future Husbands and Wives of Saudis, American Girl from Undertheabaya blog and Umm Lujain author of Ramblings of a Saudi wife, all amazing, beautiful women I was so impressed! Check out their blogs too!

Last weekend we went to a place called the Edge of the World which is located about 70km outside Riyadh. It's a beautiful place I've gone to many times but this time was to show the place to my mom and she was really impressed.On the way we stopped to take pics of some camels.

This is the escarpment which is about 500miles long. The "Edge" is the cliff seen here in the far left.

It takes effort to reach it but the views are worth it. Despite the really hazy sky and a sandstorm blowing in the area, the view was stunning.

We were taking a walk in the DQ and I always thought this building looked like a spaceship and wanted to take a pic, but the guards would always forbid photographing it. This time the security officer laughed and just said ok, but please quickly so police won't see you!

We had some Arab guests over and we served them some Finnish foods. Typical Finnish desserts are these blueberry-raspberry pie and cinnamon rolls called "pulla". I had pearl sugar and rye flour from Finland to make them as original as possible.

We also served the guests Saudi "wine" called JEW.

Mom and my baby are relaxing at the lounge of Yibreen spa we went to have pedicures at.

At the mall we saw these arabic style dresses which my mom likes, but to me these look more Cruella Deville-style.

It rained this morning and this is the evidence. Note that the amount of dust on the balcony table came from one day, which is typical to Riyadh. The lanterns are actually lamps from IKEA which never worked so I just removed the lightbulbs and put a candle in there.Looks pretty nice :)

So this week my daughter has been doing well with her potty training. Here she is reading a ducky-book while sitting on her ducky-potty while one of our cats is supervising. Kind of cute I thought.

Sharing Husbands is Caring!

2011-11-19T07:48:00.002+03:00

Polygamy, the topic that always sparks up a heated discussion. Most non-Muslim women will find the idea of multiple wives appalling and unfair among millions of other things. Some Muslim ladies might feel somewhat the same, or would never want it for themselves and rather have a divorce. There are those who remain neutral and hope their husbands will not marry another, but won't ask for a divorce if they do. And on the other hand we have women who are defenders and spokes-persons for polygamy.

This might come as a surprise for many. I certainly never thought I would come across a Muslim woman who speaks FOR polygamy. I imagined all women would kind of stick to defending women's rights and not men's rights. But I was wrong. Sadly there's always women who think of men's feelings and needs as superior to women's.

These polygamy-activists make co-wifery sound like a walk in the park. A pleasant, calm and enjoyable experience. But how come all of the polygamous marriages I heard/know about are nothing like that? I would rather describe them as roller-coaster rides or even as life on a deserted island. In most cases, polygamy makes the lives of the women and children miserable. The husband is the one walking in the different parks.

Personally I don't understand women who think they must advertise polygamy. Sure, Islam allows it under certain conditions, but that does not mean it encourages it. Some very few women might of course want to be in a polygamous marriage even going as far as suggesting it to the husband or helping to find the second, third or fourth wife. Voluntary polygamous marriages where all parties live happily do exist, but they are extremely rare.

Polygamy is not for all couples and not every Muslim woman has to accept it as part of their own lives. The fact of the matter is polygamy breaks most marriages and traumatizes children affected by it. Defending men's rights to take second wives on a whim or for sexual pleasure and saying women should just suffer for the sake of Allah and pray they become better wives is just strange and even offensive coming from a woman's mouth.

It's not a Muslim woman's duty to accept being a co-wife. Women are different. Most cannot handle being a co-wife, and that's perfectly normal and human. I think acknowledging that is important. Thinking this way should not be made a shameful thing. That is one of the issues I have with pro-polygamists. They tend to think women who deny their husbands polygamy are MAJOR SINNERS.

Polygamy fanatics like to raise themselves above other Muslim sisters by saying things like "how dare she have the audacity to deny her husband his God given rights". They say stuff like "Allah gave men a much stronger drive than women and to help keep him from committing sins He gave him the right to more than one spouse" or best yet "none of us truly believes until we want for our sisters what we want for ourselves, and that includes sharing a good husband with someone who has not yet found one".

Seriously? If you TRULY believe, the only way to show it is to share your husband, especially the good ones.

Sharing is caring!

The way polygamy is practiced in Saudi-Arabia today is just light years away from what it was back in the times of the Prophet Mohammed. The justification of sexual pleasure is not mentioned anywhere in the Quran, yet it remains one of the most repeated slogans from pro-polygamists. When speaking of polygamy, it should be considered how, where and why the verse was actually revealed.

The verse in the Quran was revealed after the battle of Uhud which left hundreds of orphans and widows behind "If you fear that you will not be just/equitable to the orphans, then marry as permissible for you, women, two, three or four. But if you fear you will not be just/equitable, then one or to whom you are committed to by oath. That is better so that you do not deviate from the right course". 4:3

To me considering the background, this reads: If you're a man and there happens to be a situation where there are much more women than men following massive loss from battles resulting in many orphans in need of a providing parent, then to solve this problem, and in this case only, you are allowed to marry up to four women from the mothers of those orphans in order to help them, but you must be financially, physically and emotionally equipped to treat them equally, and in order to be just to all, you must ask the first wife's permission to do so, otherwise stick to just one wife which is better for you.

How can a man be just in his treatment anyway if he doesn't get approval from the first wife? If she is against the idea, he is not treating her justly. Marrying another wife against her wishes results in one wife feeling betrayal and anger and thus getting unfair and unequal treatment. So from the start a man that marries behind the wife's back or contrary to her wishes has gone against what the verse states as a clear condition to plural marriage.

Speaking about fairness and justice, I think this verse from the Quran "You will never be able to do perfect justice between wives even if it is your ardent desire,.. 4:129 sort of hits the nail on the coffin for pro-polygamy speeches.

If according to the Quran, no man will EVER be able to do perfect justice with his wives, in addition to just treatment being the condition to taking multiple wives, then to me that either implies polygamy is HIGHLY discouraged (but still permissible) or downright not to be messed with.

Despite these facts, polygamy activists have a mind of their own. They like to pull out the "sex drive"-card. Those poor men have such strong urges, they NEED more than one wife to get satisfied and not to go searching for prostitutes. And the first wife MUST accept and understand this. To me this is just disgusting. First of all, is that what the consequent wives are for, only to act as sex toys to the poor husbands? Is this how highly some women think of other women?

What about those poor women that have much stronger sex drives than their husbands? What is their solution? Why do some women condescend to viewing men as some sort of sexual predators that only think of sex? As if men are not capable of controlling themselves whatsoever. What about women? How can they control their desires? As if women don't have any desires whatsoever.

Another excuse I hear from polygamy defenders in Saudi is that there's just so much more women than men here, it makes taking more wives in fact, charity. It is simply a noble act. Just think of all those unmarried women out there! Anxiously waiting at home, twiddling their thumbs and dreaming of becoming third wives to 60-year old men with 25 kids.

To those people I would like to show these latest statistics.
CIA fact book from Saudi-Arabia:
0-14 years: 29.4% (male 3,939,377/female 3,754,020)

15-64 years: 67.6% (male 9,980,253/female 7,685,328)

65 years and over: 3% (male 404,269/female 368,456) (2011 est).

So in fact, there are 2,294,925 MILLION more men than women of "marriageable" age in Saudi-Arabia.

Wait, doesn't this, according to that same reasoning mean that Saudis should start practicing polyandry instead of polygyny?Hmm..What about all those poor mister spinsters, who will marry them??

"One of His signs is that He created for you spouses like your selves so that you may live with them with affection and mercy - there are signs in this for people who reflect". (Qur'an 30:21)

I wish some women would reflect and stop speaking for men's rights over women's. It's a woman's right to choose whether or not they want to be in a polygamous marriage.
It's a mans world already, don't make it worse.

Tuesday Ten From Saudi-Road Trip

2011-11-15T14:29:00.002+03:00

Last week I skipped posting a Tuesday Ten because I was on a week long road trip around Saudi-Arabia. Our journey was awesome, surprising and eventful. Promise to post about it very soon with pictures from the most amazing places I never thought existed in the Magic Kingdom.

So here is ten things from Saudi from the past week..

En route on our road trip my daughter met her great-great grandmother in this small village south of Riyadh.

It was Eid time in Saudi and we saw LOTS of sheep on their way to Saudi families dinner tables..

We bought five jars of delicious honey in the Abha mountains.

Pink houses are very popular in Abha and Gizan, I really don't understand why. I think it's funny so many Saudi men actually live in "princess pink" houses :)

I LOVE seashells! Another thing I collect from around the world.

Most of the beaches on main Island of Farasan are ruined with trash, even the one of the Coral resort was ridden with litter! Huge change from last visit in 2008 and big disappointment.

These women were giggling and pointing at me following me around and acting really immature and rude. They started taking my picture, which I don't have a problem with per se, but I do when people are openly making fun of me. So I whopped out my camera and started taking their picture, they turned around and got upset.

At Dirah souq they were selling these huge rings with a container on them, for what we asked? Apparently drugs like hashis LOL

This is the first all blue abaya I have found on sale in Riyadh!

My baby has been under the weather this week and that's another reason I haven't had time to post. She felt a little better and we took a walk around the Diplomatic Quarter parks. She loves to look at the fountains there and it seemed to cheer her up.

Children Are Treasures Not Airbags!

2011-11-03T05:30:00.000+03:00

Dear parents in Saudi-Arabia,

I've noticed that many of you don't care too much about the safety of your children in the cars.

I have always wondered how you can have this nonchalant attitude whilst driving among the most insane, irresponsible, reckless ~~maniacs~~ drivers in the world?

You love and cherish your children so dearly, yet you place them under such danger by not securing them in seat belts and car seats!
Don't you wish to keep them safe in the crazy traffic of Saudi-Arabia? Did you know that Saudi Arabia's roads are the world's most dangerous ones? A person is killed on them every 90 minutes. A fifth of them are children under 12 years old.
The next one could be your child. Think about it.

Would you let your child run around on a highway, or play in a busy parking lot? I didn't think so.
So why do you let your child jump around in your speeding car? Don't you think its dangerous to let him hang out of the windows? How about having him sit between yourself and the steering wheel? Some people make fun of your careless attitude and say you are using your baby as an Airbag.

Fathers, do you think because you are such great drivers nothing will ever happen to you? Think again.
Do you realize how many children are out there actually driving the cars?

Have you thought about how many road hooligans there are in the streets chasing women and causing accidents?
There is nothing your excellent driving skills can do to prevent accidents caused by other peoples reckless driving habits.

You might think you don't need a car seat or seat belts because Allah will protect your family. It's time to re-think this.
Children are treasures given to you by the grace of God. He has put them under your care. It is your responsibility to protect your child from any harm that you possibly can. God trusts you, are you worth His trust? Parents will be held accountable for this trust on the Day of Judgement.

You wouldn't let your child go in a lions cage at the zoo and just think Allah will protect your child. That would be careless and irresponsible. Just like having your child in your lap while driving. Or allowing her to stand out of the sunroof while speeding on the highway. Equally irresponsible and dumb as placing your child in that cage. Think about it.

Did you know that car seats and seat belts save lives? According to various studies they can cut the risk of infant fatalities by up to 80%. The tools to help parents protect their child the best way possible are out there. Fulfill your parental responsibility and secure your child into them!

You probably heard the Hadith about the Bedouin that left his camel untied. The Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) said to him: "Be wise [first] and tie your camel, then trust in Allah."

Wouldn't this same golden advice also apply to the most valuable of possessions, your child?

Be wise and tie up your baby in a car seat!

The rest is up to Allah.

Tips on what kind of car seat to get, instructions how to use them and statistics on child car safety:
http://www.carseatsite.com/FAQ.htm
http://www.safekids.org/safety-basics/babies/on-the-way/carseat-safety-for-babies.html
http://autocollisionsspecialist.homestead.com/untitled2.html
http://www.cdc.gov/features/passengersafety/

Tuesday Ten From Saudi-Mom's First Week in Saudi

2011-11-01T23:49:00.003+03:00

I saw this idea on Noor's blog Little Pink Strawberries and I thought I must give it a try too!
So here are ten random things from my life in the Magic Kingdom this week..

This is the scenery from the Hash which my mom refers to as the International Sports Activity Days. It's basically a day of sporty activities out in the desert with a group of expats.

A man was walking with these funny shoes that reminded me of my dad who uses them in Finland. Not sure if he tested them in the snow yet.

We went shopping to IKEA and saw these clowns going around and people were taking their pictures. I think the other one (or both?) looked a bit drugged up. I'm scared of clowns, theyre creepy!

I have some sort of a "obsession" of collecting sand from all over the world. I found some sand I had collected from my last trip to Farasan Islands and put it in this Iittala vase from Finland. The scented candles are Lily of the Valley, my favorite!

Speaking of Sand, this is the view from top of the sand dune I climbed. It was really tough! It seems as if every time you take a step up you slide two down, progress is SO slow. Kind of like Saudi-Arabia.

Going to meet the in-laws, we had some souvenirs from Finland. Blueberry chocolates and dried Cloud-berry-Strawberry-Blueberry powder which can be used to make tea.

We were offered some Arabic foods, coffee and tea to taste and my mom liked them all except that she thought the coffee was tea because of the color and strange taste :)

The Jasmine flowers on our balcony smell so nice right now!

October was Breast Cancer Awareness month and the Kingdom tower was pink the whole month to show support to the cause. I wish it was always this color, it's much nicer than the usual yellow.

Can you spot the third cat in this picture? This week my daughter learned to play peekaboo with the cats. One is hiding under the sheet. The black kitten is called Haisuliina, she was born on the exact same day as my baby.

Seeking for Decent Bride, Fair and Lovely, No Demands.

2011-10-31T23:59:00.002+03:00

It's not only the Saudis that are having arranged marriages in the Kingdom. There are large communities of Muslim expats permanently settled in the country who also prefer arranged marriages. Those Muslims often find it easier to seek for suitable brides and grooms online or on newspapers.

For example there are hundreds of matrimonial sites for Indians and Pakistanis alone. Then there's specific sites for the expats living in Saudi to which they turn to when the son or daughter is ready to get married. Using media for finding a bride/grooom is seen as perfectly normal and efficient way to find a spouse. Many arranged marriages do succeed, but I guess at least an equal amount do not.

In the west on the other hand, people are more used to using internet and other media for dating purposes and getting to know the person they are interested in. Men and women do also search for life companions but not with the type of adds than you might see in a Saudi newspaper. In the west people would typically go to great lengths to describe their character and personalities, views on life and future hopes rather than family backgrounds or skin color preference.

A short add in a European newspaper stating a man is urgently looking to marry any young, good-looking, non-demanding woman of certain height and skin color that is a good cook would be seen as a bad joke or even racist and chauvinistic.

For those not used to arranged marriages seeing these kinds of straight-forward marriage proposals comes across as really odd. Sometimes it seems as if the most important qualities mentioned in these adds are racial origin, skin color, height and age of the woman. Additional mentions go to cooking, home making skills and degrees. It's also strange to see parents placing the adds for their children.

I stumbled upon some pretty interesting (and some funny) adds on an expat website..

SEEKING DECENT BRIDGE
A Pakistan National 47 years old man working in Saudi Arabia from 20 years seeking Pakistani decent Bridge under 35 years old, having strong financial position with family status. Reason for having another marry is lack of son. Interested families may be contacted at the following an email with full detail and photo, SYED -SUNNI & BUKHARI family is preferred.
bridge_required@yahoo.com

Looking for a Bride
Sunni muslim indian hyderabadi parents searching a bride for my younger brother and who's profile
Age: 27 yrs
Height: 5.10 inch
Color: wheatish
Education: gradute (Bachelor of Commerce)
Position : Sales Coordinator
Settled in ksa

Girl shoude be atleast
Age : 20 to 26 yrs
Height: 5.3 and above
Color : fair
Educaton: any
homely responly house duty religious minded
No demands
If these breif detail mates your requirement please forward the pic and details from your side to...

Urgent need a cute wife for my self (your all condistions will be accepted)
i am from saudiarab bassiclay from peshawar age 32, belongs to pathan family, working as an electrical supervisor, having cool financialy background, have 2 lak Saudi riayal bank balance here in ksa and having 90 lak rupees property in pakistan. i am independant need a lifepartner age 17-20 from any cast. i will supourt financailly. work visa will be given to her brother. if any one interested pls contact

Looking for 2nd wife
am looking for blonde girl .North American or European .from age 26 to 35.
height from 5,2 to 5,6 ft
.beautiful
take care of her body and health ...honest
Iam work as ER doctor in Gov hospital
and my first wife still in Egypt not here in KSA
i have all equp to get married in month or may be less

Seeking for second wife
I am from hyderabad, PG, working in Jeddah, 6000 SR/month with family status ofcourse, goodlooking, religious, physically and financially strong alhamdulillah, already with wife and small kids eldest dgtr is 4 yrs,
looking for religious, god fearing, niqab observing,fair, sincere family oriented, atleast graduate girl, age not more than 32 years, (divorcees with children excuse please).
If someone finds this suitable please contact me through the email
Ma'assalam

and the same guy amended the add to this the next day..

Seeking for second wife
I am from Pakistan City Faisalabad, B.Tech (Electrical) from Preston University, working in Jeddah, 5000 SR/month with family status of course, good looking, religious, physically and financially strong alhamdulillah, already married and going for seperation soon as we are not understanding totally to each other.
looking for religious, god fearing, observing,fair, sincere family oriented, atleast graduate girl, age not more than 25 years, (divorcees with children excuse please).
If someone finds this suitable please contact me through the email
Ma'assalam

Looking for second wife
I am Saudi man working in health sector, looking for a bride in Jeddah as second wife. She will have a full respected treatment as Islam's state on.
Preferred: good looking, whitish, Arabic, social, separated woman with/without kids. Of-course, fearing Allah, from decent family, well educated, open minded ...etc.
I am 37yrs old, open minded, practical, fearing Allah ...bla bla, financially capable to open 2nd house.

Seeking bride for our son
We are seeking a bride for our son, Electrical Engineer, age 26 years, slim and smart, raised & educated in Saudi Arabia, currently employed in a well reputed company. We are a Sunni Muslim Awan family belong to Punjab - Pakistan .

Bride should be simple, polite, beautiful, well educated and family oriented with Islamic cultured, enough to know the difference between a house and a home, age between 20 to 23 years,
Interested parents / guardians are kindly requested to forward the bride bio-data in detail through email. You all are very respectable for us and we assured you, that your all information's will be treated as confidential.
Best Regards
Groom Parents

Proposal
We are looking proposal for younger brother, who is 27 years old, Fair, Good Looking, 6.1" Tall, B.com, M.com, working in Hyderabad,
Bride should be very good in look, Slim, Beautiful with Sharp features & religious, very soft in nature, well-mannered, strictly practicing hijaab (veil and wimple) and knows all domestic responsibilities.
Interested parents are kindly requested to forward detailed bio-data along with very recent picture of the bride

Reading all these and there are hundreds like them out there, left me with a feeling of sadness..what is a woman's value these days? Isn't there anyone out there looking for a woman as a companion and an equal partner nowadays? Are all these men/parents just searching for a white-skinned beautiful maid/cook/bedroom entertainment center/baby producing machine? And all these men looking for second wives..ugh.

But then I saw these two adds and I thought, there is some HOPE.

Looking for beauty with brains
Well travelled, educated egyptain doctor (46) is looking for a companion marriage. Someone used to travelling, has a mind of her own - not a yes-woman. Overall must be an interesting personality.

Seeking Bride
I am Filipino Nationals and i am looking for divorced or widowed saudi or egyptian lady with kids.
The lady should be educated and studied outside the Kingdom, speaks english fluently, open minded, caring and loving. No age limit required as long as she is willing to be my life time partner.

Well I hope all the persons eventually find what they are looking for..Ok maybe not the men looking for second wives haha ;)

Haram Halloween in Saudi-Arabia

2011-10-27T06:51:00.002+03:00

It's surprising how many people in Saudi-Arabia are planning to have Halloween parties this weekend. Officially the country does not celebrate other than the religious holidays and Saudi National Day. Holidays like Christmas, Valentine's and Halloween are considered as pagan holidays and are striclty forbidden from the Kingdom.

According to Islamic teachings Muslims are not supposed to celebrate other occasions than Eid-al Fitr which is the celebration when Ramadan is over and Eid al Adha which will be very soon after Hajj ends.
Many Saudi families don't even celebrate their children's birthdays let alone Mother's Day (although Islam highly values mothers) because they think it's all haram (forbidden).

Year by year Halloween celebrations are growing in popularity in the Kingdom,
Most of the Halloween celebrations in Saudi are hidden from public view at kids private parties and expat gatherings on compounds and embassies. Halloween decorations are extremely hard to find in stores, although I did find many western chains like H&M, Mothercare and Pottery Barn selling Halloween costumes for children.

The CPVPV also known as muttawa are notorious for hating all things western or pagan and are currently going around shopping malls looking for any items resembling Halloween festiveness to confiscate.
Read this post if you want to learn more about muttawa raiding shopping malls.

I'm guessing pumpkins will be banned from grocery stores this week just like red roses are forbidden around Valentine's Day.

Most western compounds and the U.S embassy will host very popular Halloween parties for expats. I've seen people showing up in traditional Saudi clothing. Men would have thobes and ghutra and women abaya and niqab(face veil) or sometimes only the niqab but combined with something like a sexy minidress.

I don't think its smart to dress in traditional Saudi clothing for a Halloween party in Saudi and get pissed drunk in the process. That's like mocking and ridiculing the very culture you live in. Also, it's making fun of other people's religious beliefs.

This Halloween there's this campaign called "We're a culture not a costume" launched by students from the Ohio University. Check out the pictures here: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/26/living/halloween-ethnic-costumes/index.html# They call for sensitivity when it comes to dressing up in another cultures traditional attire. They campaign against stereotypes and racism that culturally insensitive costumes create.

The campaign has a picture of a white guy wearing ghutra and thobe with bombs attached to his chest. I think that's definitely crossing the line. Here is a link to their site "Students Teaching about Racism in Society".http://www.ohio.edu/orgs/stars/Home.html

I have to say I totally agree with this campaign even though I'm not some religous fanatic or uptight person. I don't consider my own culture as superior to others. I once dressed up as a "typical Finnish man" making a joke of my own culture's stereotypes.

I consider myself a pretty relaxed person with sometimes a very sarcastic sense of humor but sometimes there's a limit to what's funny and what's simply tasteless.

Many expats in Saudi of course miss Halloween celebrations from home. People have fond memories of Halloween as a kid and they want to celebrate it even though they are in Saudi. I don't see anything wrong in that as long as people don't start sneering at their Saudi hosts and Islam.

I remember as a kid in the States we used to go Trick or Treating around the neighborhood and it was fun to get all that candy (and eat it until we felt sick)! Trick-or treating would probably not go down too well in Saudi-Arabia though..

Sans Abaya in Saudi

2011-10-26T03:15:00.002+03:00

I've been extremely busy the past few weeks! My family from Finland were visiting us in Saudi and we had a tight schedule including a trip to Jeddah and Dubai. It was an amazing holiday and we all enjoyed it very much.

One of the most unsettling aspects of traveling to Saudi for women including my mother and sister are of course the abayas. This was already their second time visiting KSA so they had some previous experience on wearing abaya. The abaya always seems to make women wearing it for the first time feel insecure and very self-conscious.

I noticed from my mom and sisters behavior how they became constantly aware of their looks and very self conscious stressing about their abayas being on correclty or not. Every time someone would stare my mom and sis felt maybe they did something wrong. They would ask questions like what is allowed to wear underneath, is it ok if the lowest button is open or will wearing high heels with it get them into trouble.

Keeping this in mind I tried to include as many activities in our programme as possible that would enable them to be without abayas and relieve some of that stress.

Here's a list of things to do and places to go in Saudi that do not necessarily require wearing of abayas:

Desert
Naturally any place far off in the desert will be safe for women to take their abayas off.
This time we went to Rawdhat Khuraim and the girls made long walks around the huge area without abayas, there was literally no one else there. Also good for some female driving ;) Read more about the place here:http://blueabaya.blogspot.com/p/desert-treks.html
Thumamah park is a beautiful nature reserve outside Riyadh, we went there for a picnic with no one else in sight.

Diriyah
The historical area which has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site is virtually empty from visitors on weekdays. We enjoyed a short walk on a farm and later a picnic in Wadi Hanifa.

Faisaliah tower
Women can take their abayas off at the top of the tower in the "Globe" restaurant, the Cigar club and the viewing platform.

Ladies only Kingdom
For first timers in Saudi it's always interesting to see how Saudi women really look like behind their veils. Third floor in Kingdom shopping center women shop and work in normal clothing

Quadbiking
There are few areas around Riyadh for quadbiking but the most scenic ones are Red Sands and Thumamah. During the weekdays its very quiet and women can drive around without being disturbed especially in the mornings. I would not recommend going to these places alone or without males on weekend peak hours though. Guaranteed unwanted attention from the hundreds of male drivers.

Diving
Women can take their abayas off as soon as they pass the checkpoint at Jeddah harbour.
In Farasan Islands women can explore the hundreds of deserted islands in peace.

Diplomatic Quarters
The DQ in Riyadh is the area where most of the embassies are located. The huge area has some amazing parks worth visiting. The area is safe for women to walk around in western attire.

Compounds
Some compounds even BAN abayas inside. Romaizan compound in Riyadh has a lovely restaurant by the pool open to non-Saudis only.
KFSH Cavepark inside the hospital compound has some lovely fountains and places for bbqs.

Golf clubs
Dirab and Riyadh golf clubs out of the city allow women to golf sans abaya.

Horseback riding
Dirab stables, the stables in DQ and the Riyadh Equestrian club are abaya free zones.

Istiraha and other rentals
An istiraha is a place sort of like a vacation rental outside the city where people go on weekends to relax. A family can rent out their own istiraha complete with private swimming pools, yards and housing equipped with living rooms, bedrooms and kitchens.
Another option is to rent a Bedouin style tent which will come with a private area where its perfectly fine for women to remove their abayas. Some nice tent rentals can be found in Thumamah park.

Private beaches
Women swim in "normal" swim gear in the numerous private beaches in Jeddah and AlKhobar.

Do you know of any other places worth mentioning?