Perverts, Beware.

Sometimes I get royally pissed off. Today was one such day.

I was feeling grumpy like the Grumpy cat pictured above.
Let me tell you why.
It started out The Perfect day, lovely weather, clear skies, let's walk to the park. Everything seemed promising.  Until the day was ruined by the World's Most Perverted Perverts.

I normally try to ignore the pervert creep-o's around here and just walk past them. I pretend what they're doing doesn't affect me while in reality inside I'm about to explode from rage. In my head I'm screaming "STOP STARING AT ME YOU FREAKTARDS! You're acting like wild animals and you're in Saudi-Arabia for fugs sake BEHAVE!"
Sometimes, enough is enough. We all have our limits. So this day, my bag of creeper-crap became full. So full the shiz really spilled out and hit a tornado.

Ok so I go to the park a lot here in the Diplomatic Quarters. You can check out why here.
DQ is an abaya free area so I usually take advantage of this and opt for normal clothing because the black abaya does become really hot to walk in direct sunlight. That doesn't mean I'm walking around in a miniskirt and tank top though (although some women here do). I would normally wear loose fitting and over all modest clothing and my hair covered. So in other words, everyone would know this most likely is a Muslim woman coming along. But does this stop the perverts from oggling?

No.

So as I was walking this time to a park further away, we passed by lots of construction workers mostly from Asian countries. They work in the DQ daily and should be accustomed to seeing women. With or without abaya. Does this change their behavior though?

No.

Most of these men are Muslims. They should be aware of the aya in the Quran which addresses FIRST men to lower their gaze and observe hijab, THEN it advises women to dress modestly. Does this have any effect on these men?

No.

Sometimes I walk around in my abaya past these creeps. Does that stop them from staring at me and send a message I don't want to be looked at?

No.

In fact, if I were to walk BUTT NAKED on the streets in Finland, people would stare at me less than these men do here despite the full covering. I have never been stared at like this anywhere in the world. I mean there have been bad places, lots of harassment and other things happening but it's NOTHING compared to the scale it's happening in Saudi Arabia.

These guys are something else. Only a woman who has lived here and experienced this can truly grasp the feeling of being somehow violated by their actions. I would even call it a form of sexual harassment.
Walking past these kind of men is infuriating, stressful and tormenting to say the least. They could really use a pair of:

LOWER YOUR GAZE-GOGGLES

I must point out that by far the most well behaved men I've seen around the Diplomatic Quarter areas are the Saudis. Most will lower their gaze and not look at me or other women at all regardless what they're wearing. But then once in a while you run into an idiot like the one on this particular day.

A friend and I were passing by a bank where a Saudi man was standing in the parking lot. He took one look at us then started waving and asking to come to his car. He obviously thought we were prostitutes. Rumor has it there's a secret brothel somewhere in the D.Q. Maybe he thought we're employees, with two babies in tow? We ignored and he started shouting out offensive suggestions to us. Do these a-holes have ANY brain activity?

No.

So there I am, one baby strapped onto me and the other in the stroller, and all I want to do is go and PUNCH HIM IN THE FACE. Now I'm not a violent person, people, don't get me wrong. But some men just need a good ol' punch in the face to lighten up.

But we moved on. Next we passed by a mosque and it was prayer time. Three workers of some sort (well I didn't see much WORK being done) sat on a bench opposite to it. They noticed us from far and started ogling at us wide-eyed like some sort of owls.

Hoo-hoo, Oggle-Ollies. Is anybody home? Watch out that your eyes don't pop out of their sockets.

I was taking a pic of the mosque and decided to point the phone at them and experiment if that would stop them from ogling. You would think they'd feel ashamed for being exposed and turn away right?

No.

WTH. At this point I was already annoyed BIG TIME. As we walked past them I said in a loud voice "stop staring!" I turned around to see if they had lowered their gaze only to see they had just turned their heads and their eyes were now the size of golf balls.

Watch out you don't break your neck.

 
 You b**tards.

Next we passed by some more workers, all busy doing something really important like moving stones around. Not anymore. See women are coming! Hey lets stop everything and stare at them like mindless idiots.

Check out this dude. He needed to lean on the truck thingy so he can concentrate all of his brain cells onto the two females in his visual field because standing without support while gawking would be too complicated. Again as we had passed I made a surprise attack with my iPhone to check if they were still looking:

Ha! Busted!
So the leaner-creeper is still staring and didn't turn his face around even when noticed me taking the pic but the other guy at least felt some sort of shame. I think. Awww..Or did you think your pic might be posted online and your scumbag-ness be exposed? Too bad you were right. You messed with the wrong lady.

Ugh....I was fuming at this point. But more was to come. To our horror we soon realized we had to pass another construction area in order to reach the park. I felt like screaming to all the pervs on that street and throwing rotten tomatoes at them but of course I couldn't with the kids there. I tried to control myself and only raised my voice every once in a while saying "stop staring" Nobody did. In fact, it seemed to only spark even more interest so I stopped.

Walking along this street made me feel as if I'm completely naked and the men are raping me with their eyes. So blatant and immoral they were.

It was like walking in the gay parade or something. Spectators watching on the sides of the street cheering leering at the parade.
See the pervert guy in the turban? I will call him Mr. Turbert. Funny how the bearded guy (outwardly trying to appear so religious) was the most perverted of them all. Mr. Turbert actually started following us.

Who are you calling? Your wife, while you're gawking at us? Go drink some hot sauce.

I can see you Mr. Turbert. You think you're clever, huh? Why don't you just jump off a cliff.

The only man on this street that didn't leer at us was the old guy pictured here. God bless his soul.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to...
Mr.Pervert Universe.

He surely thinks I snapped the pic because he's ALL THAT. Wrong. It's because you actually took this relaxed position to enjoy staring at the female parade from a long way.
When we came closer I made a surprise pic of him but he didn't get the memo and kept enjoying his time. The look on his face is so smug it's just begging for someone to come and pour glue all over it! Ugh.

Oh hey look it's Mr. Turbert again! I hope you walk into a pole. No a landmine.

Actually it's not a turban, it seems to be some sort of a 'silly hat'. And Mr. Pervert Universe seems to be thinking some perverted ideas in his head which I really don't want to know.

So we arrived at the park after this walk of horror. I felt a sigh of relief. All too soon, since the perverts had populated the park that day. They actually came to pray there, Mr. Turbert and his buddies. On the way they all took a looooooong look at us in the playground. How pious of them. One guy even gawked at us WHILE praying.

You know that weird feeling you get that someone is staring at you?

Noticed this chap leering from the parking lot. Snapped his pic too to include in this photo-collage. So he noticed I was taking the pic and I started yelling at him to stop staring. Did that help?

Of course not.

 He just changed his position and kept staring. No shame, no respect, no decency. I was outraged. I wanted to go and kick him in the groin.

After five minutes, Mr. Hand In Your Pocket Putter is still staring. Leaning on the car and chewing on miswak just enjoying his sweet ol' time. I swear if looks could kill he would be a corpse by now. Didn't your mother teach you ANY manners? I can think of a name to call you which begins with MOTHER.

What a day. I hate perverts.
Freakin freaks!
Just leave us women alone!
Next time I'm going to be armed with water balloons. Filled with vinegar! HA!

DISCLAIMER: This post is not intended to make fun of any specific race or nationality. This post is about MEN behaving badly, and I'm calling them out for it. If you found this post racist in some way, you are very wrong and perhaps should do some self reflecting. About 90% of this post is written with HUMOR and as a rant without much planning. If you don't get my sense of humor (which I admit sometimes might be very sarcastic and black) then that's fine. We're all good.
That's it folks. Nothing more to this, so please don't make anything else of it. Thank you!

P.S. The camera or iPhone in this case was pointed at the men AFTER they began staring. They are not looking because I'm shooting them. I was there, I know what happened, you weren't, so please spare us your expert comments on what was going on and who was leering at who.

SAMSUNG Godfathers And Washing Machine Eating Mice

You've probably heard about the crappy customer service in Saudi-Arabia before. Disservice, un-service, no service..WHAT service? Sometimes I'm lost for words when describing these things. It makes my head hurt and I can feel how my brain cells are slowly dying from trying to handle the ultimate stupidity. I try not to think about it too much in fear of permanent brain damage.

Let me tell you that writing this post literally made me sweat in agony. Experiencing this in real life however was something else altogether. The customer service here can only really be understood by someone who has had the "privilege" to experience it.
Like those moments when you called the plumber to come "plumb" something, he comes and pours water on it and says "ma'm it's plumbed". 
To give you a better idea of how things work (or don't work) in the Magic Kingdom, read this encounter with SAMSUNG Riyadh customer services. 

28th October
Our a little bit over a year old Samsung washing machine breaks. An error message appears on the computer screen when the machine tries to start rinsing cycle. I inform husband. We suspect a problem with the drain or filter. Husband calls plumber and cleans filter.

29th October
Plumber arrives, checks drains. Pours water in them. "Kulu kweis. Mafi mushkila."
Husband calls Samsung maintenance service telling them our machine is broken. They promise to send "someone".

1st November
The first Samsung maintenance dude arrives. Cannot diagnose problem, finds no issues, machine appears to be working when he checks. Note he checks the machine with no laundry in it. DUH!
An hour after his "check-up" I run a cycle of laundry, it happens again, husband calls him to come back. Dude says he will come back Saturday and order the spare parts to fix the computer board. As if the problem is in the computer screen itself and not the actual machine. Silly me for thinking that when an error message appears, it means there's a problem somewhere else. The maintenance dude naturally knows what he is doing right. RIGHT?

8th November
After about 192 calls to Samsung that week the same dude finally comes and changes the computer board. They test it, now with laundry inside (which my husband insisted to put in) and it seems to work. Charged 700 SAR for all this.

9th November
I start doing laundry. The same freakin problem comes up and I scream a little bit inside. I am starting to have a huge pile of laundry by now. The laundry room has started to stink.
Husband calls Samsung and says the machine is broken again. "We will send someone" they say.

11th November
The someone comes after about 36 phone calls to Samsung asking when is mr. Someone coming.
He tries to check the machine, opens up the backdoor and takes some wire out. Diagnosis: The lock and the computer board has to be changed. 
Excuse me? Samsung dude #1 already fixed it and we paid for it.
Dude #2 says when dude #1 changed the computer board he should have also changed the lock because if he doesn't they're both going to break. 
OK so you're telling me he kind of un-fixed it? Like, as in BROKE it more?
Dude #2 leaves saying he has to now order the spare parts from somewhere (maybe somebody will hand carry them on foot from China?)

12th-13th November
Husband calls Samsung, nobody knows anything.
Laundry room has now started to seriously stink. Stink as in MOLD stink.  Plumber comes. Says the nasty smell is coming because we're not using the washing machine which normally would flush the drains. Pours water on drain, leaves.
Thank you Samsung for the lovely TOXIC home odors.

14th November
The same dude comes back again after a few days with a co-dude. They change the computer and the lock. Next he cannot locate the wire which he had removed the first time for reasons not understandable to people with logic. (try looking in your arse perhaps? ) After an hour searching an area of about 3 square meters they finally relocate the mysterious wire. Dude #2 puts the thing back in.

Machine does not work.

Another two hours goes by and either dude #2 or #3 can figure out what's actually wrong with the machine.
"Too much work, can't be done here" he says. "we need to take it to the workshop".
Husband says sure, take it. "Oh but we don't have a car big enough to transport things in."

Wait a second, WHAT? You're telling me you're a maintenance dude for SAMSUNG which mostly makes large home appliances such as washing machines and refrigerators, and you drive around in what? A Morris Mini or a Toyota Corolla? Somebody tell me this is a joke right?
Nope.
They leave and say someone will call you tomorrow.

15th November
Big surprise! No news from Samsung! Husband gets upset and refers to Samsung customer service as "piece of crap". He calls them to schedule a pick up. Samsung Riyadh say next available appointment is following Monday. This is totally unacceptable after waiting two weeks already and especially after the unprofessional maintenance disservice. Husband demands to talk to manager. "No manager here sir". Husband asks to leave a message for the manager to call him on Saturday.
The smell of mold in the laundry room is getting stronger and stronger. Plumber arrives. Pours water in drains and also on the floors. Smell of mold the spreads to entire apartment.
Toddler is now down with a bad flu and vomiting all over the place.

17th November
Saturday rolls along.
Husband receives SMS from Samsung Saudi call center saying your appointment has been CANCELLED. Husband goes nuts. Is now referring to Samsung as "piece of s**t".
Calls Samsung, asking for maintenance manager. The employees at call center are all Saudi females with the same default replies:
"we don't have a maintenance manager, only a call center manager"
 "we can only reach the manager by email" 
"I will send the manager an email and he will get back to you"
So to reach these managers (all Saudis of course) who seem to enjoy the status similar to some sort of untouchable, unreachable mafia Godfathers, the call center ladies have to send emails. The Samsung Godfather then either gets back to you, or doesn't, depending on his mood or how busy he is with his other ahem, "businesses".

Later that day, the phone rings. Lo and behold, it's the SAMSUNG Godfather. He listens to my husbands complaints and promises to call back. The Godfather named Raed Al-Something NEVER calls back. He probably got busy smoking cigars or just didn't bother.
The toddler is very sick now, vomit and diarrhea is everywhere, no washing machine. Funtimes!

18th-21st November
Husband calls Samsung customer service call center everyday, over and over. Same monotonous replies from the call girls. No signs from Godfather.
Child is still sick.
Plumber arrives to "flush the drains". This time is met by crazy Finnish woman who tells him some facts about plumbing, drains, mold, moisture and health. After the Plumbing-101 quick course the plumber laughs in disbelief but does what the woman instructs him and opens the drain up. He tries to remove the mold and then pours Chlorox in the drains. The smell is gone.

21st November
Fed up and furious, husband goes to the Riyadh Samsung store maintenance manager Godfather in person on Wednesday morning. He is now referring to Samsung customer service as "piece of *#%#  s**t".
The Godfather, Mr. Raed Al-Hamaad is smoking in his office when husband enters. It is hard to see the Godfather from all the smoke in the room. He doesn't look up the entire time from the computer screen. I guess he was busy reading emails.

The same day around 2 pm someone calls saying he's on the way to pick the machine up. Really? Could this be it finally? Did the Godfather push some buttons?

The Samsung dude #4 asks for directions and husband explains the way to Diplomatic Quarters. The dude does not know where it is. The sucker gets lost and calls husband. They try to figure out where the dude #4 is but dude doesn't have a clue where he is. Husband spends the next hour on and off the phone trying to locate the hopeless case. He is Yemeni so his understanding of Arabic is not the problem.

It's 4 pm now and we do not know where he is nor does he know where he is. Husband asks the dude to stop somewhere and give the phone to someone around him. Dude does and then husband tells them this clueless dimwit needs to be sent into the DQ. Turns out he was right next to it.

A stubborn camel would've made it from the SAMSUNG store into DQ by this time.

Husband specifically instructs the sucker what to say at the gate and IF the security doesn't let him in, to STAY at the gate so husband can fetch him. It's now nearing 5pm and there's no sign of the dude, husband calls 15 times in a row before the dude picks up. He left. Went back to the store. AFTER 3 HOURS OF DRIVING AROUND YOU FINALLY FOUND IT AND THEN YOU LEFT? O-M-G.

Turns out the Godfather had not sent one of his official men but an Iqama-less random Yemeni dude to us. Husband is now referring to Samsung customer service as "%$#@ piece of *#%# s**t".

22nd November
Husband leaves to Samsung store to kill people but on the way there Mr Someone calls him says we are on the way. They actually come, make it inside the gate and have a big enough car to take the machine. "A few days", they say.
Newborn baby is now sick. Smell of mold still lingering in the house. Smelly laundry in the baskets and on the floors. Plumber says "you need a washing machine". You don't say??

24th November
Saturday rolls around again, husband calls and Samsung says tomorrow, inshallah. We've all heard that before. The next day it's still being fixed. Same thing the next day.

27th November
Without asking if anybody is actually home, the Samsung dude calls in the middle of the day and informs they're on their way to bring the machine back. 
Machine arrives and the dude starts checking if it works. I tell him we need to put laundry in it and wait the entire cycle to see if it works because the problem arises when it's full of water and clothes.
He doesn't get it and keeps pressing on the buttons. I try to explain again, this time speaking veeryy sloooowly. Now he thinks I don't understand how a washing machine works and starts explaining the process in full detail. I give up trying to explain and hope for the best.

Out of interest I ask him what caused the problem in the machine. He tells me it was.....wait for it...a MOUSE that had chewed up the wires in the machine. EXCUSE ME? A mouse ate my washing machine?

You're telling me a mouse entered my house? A house that's full of cats? Wouldn't they kill the mouse before it passed by all the delicious foods awaiting in the kitchen cupboards and made its way to the irresistible wire it was craving to chew on? Would it not leave droppings and some signs of itself?

Has anyone ever heard of a washing machine eating MOUSE before? I thought so. Do mice even live in Saudi-Arabia?

I felt so sorry for him for not coming up with a better excuse. It might have been more convincing had he blamed at least a gerbil because I had gerbils as pets when I was a kid and boy do they know how to chew things up. But a mouse? Get real dude. So DUMB. It's like when a seven year old comes to his parents saying "a mouse chewed up my homework".

I have a pretty good idea who "chewed up" that wire, Shamsung!

Well at least the machine seems to be working now and I don't know what we would've done without our amazing friends and neighbors who helped us do the laundry during this whole anguishing ordeal.

What words would you use to describe this service?

P.S.  If you like this post and think Blue Abaya should win the best Saudi expat blog title, then PLEASE vote for me here: http://www.expatsblog.com/blogs/566/blue-abaya
Thank you!

Saudi IKEA's Misogynistic Madness

I might have gotten out of bed with the wrong foot as we say in Finland, but I noticed something so disturbing today that I just HAD to rant a little bit about it. I mean this is complete and utter madness. So Dumb. Disturbs me what kind of sickos and women haters are out there.

This is the source of my headache, an article in the Swedish Metro magazine this morning: http://www.metro.se/nyheter/kvinnor-gar-inte-att-retuschera-bort/EVHlja!2mPseJ6LPTrK2/
So the new IKEA catalogs are out and can be viewed online at their site www.ikea.com.
All the countries have pretty much the same stuff on offer and the catalogs look the same. Except for of course Saudi-Arabia, the so called model country of Islam.

What's different in the Saudi IKEA catalog then? Can anyone take a wild guess?
They censored it. ALL THE IMAGES OF WOMEN have magically disappeared from the Saudi version. A misogynistic airbrusher has vandalized the entire catalog.

You might have seen how they censor stuff in Saudi-Arabia before, like blacking out half clad women from the swimming pool packages or placing white tape on celebrity decolletages, drawing imaginary black leggings and T-shirts on women in the women's magazines or spray painting the bare skin parts black. Heck they even black out the word PORK from food items.

I can understand why some of the censoring is done in Saudi-Arabia if I really really try hard to block most of my brain activity while at the same placing my head in a very narrow tunnel. But people, this is a furniture catalog, OK? Who the hell needs to censor a furniture catalog anyways?

Take a tour of the Saudisized IKEA here: http://imagesofsaudi.blogspot.com/2012/02/saudi-ikea-experience.html
The censorship at the actual Riyadh IKEA store has always creeped me out. Check this out:

 What on earth was going on in their minds when they decided to do that? It's just the babies mother for God's sake!

How about this? The woman is fully covered! Looks like someone has some serious issues with women.

As a woman I find this highly offensive and insulting. This must also be the height of hypocrisy. I wonder how many of the men responsible for this stupidity have maids (as in unrelated females) living in their houses? I would guess 99%.

What is the point to remove all the women from the Saudi catalog? Women do exist. What are these misogynist men trying to accomplish by this, trying to imagine women don't exist? Do they not watch the news or TV at all? Do they not go to malls or grocery stores? Images of women are everywhere in Saudi-Arabia! Heck there is even REAL uncovered women out there on the streets of the conservative capital Riyadh. Should they be blocked from public view too? Even the women's magazines that are allowed in the Magic Kingdom are not censored like this. So why IKEA?

I wonder how IKEA as a Scandinavian company is even agreeing to this. Sweden is one of the most gender equal countries in the world. What a mockery this is to equality of women. This is oppression of women. What an absolute shame and disgrace that is going on with Saudi IKEA. I feel insulted as a Scandinavian. As if the women are indecent or shameful and thus needed to be removed. These are normal everyday images of women, of mothers with children in their homes, not of women posing in sexy positions in bikinis or miniskirts.

What do these people think, that Saudi men can't handle a few images of mostly fully clad women? Are Saudi men expected to be so sex deprived they would go crazy to see these tempting Swedish women? Do these perverted minds assume all men think like them and would take the magazine into the bathroom for some "private viewing"? How disgusting. Is someone out there really this sick? For the life of me I can't understand what is wrong with this picture of a family brushing their teeth together:

And in the Saudi version the mother has disappeared. I find this very sad that someone thought she needed to be removed. What kind sick minds are these?

This is the scene from the normal catalog kitchen section, the screen shot taken from the UAE catalog. How are the UAE men able to handle the images of women btw?

You would think that women naturally appear in the kitchens right? Not in Saudi! They also removed the man though. But hey, by taking a closer look we can see the woman looks Asian. Wouldn't this be a scene from a typical Saudi home then? An unrelated, uncovered Asian woman working in the kitchen, mixing with the Saudi males of the family. Why is it totally fine in the home but not in the catalog? Can anyone say double standards?
Maybe they removed the guy too so that Saudi women don't get any ideas of hiring male maids! God forbid an unrelated male mixing with Saudi women. What would the world turn into.

Another image from the real world. A family cooking happily together, father, grandfather, mother, children all joyfully together. What is so wrong with this image that Saudi-Arabia can't handle it?

First of all scenes like this just don't exist in Saudi homes. Better to remove the grandpa (although he looks culturally acceptable with his muttawa-look) and the father so that Saudi women won't get any ideas in their heads that men do actually cook in countries like Sweden and thus become too demanding on the Saudi men. The woman is dressed so indecently that she needs to be removed straight away. The kids are helping to set up the table. What! Helping?? Where is the maid? Totally unacceptable to make children to do housework. This is what it should look like:

Except that the magic deleting wand forgot the wine bottle on the table. What a horrific mistake! Someone might some bad ideas from that!
How about this image. Honestly I can't even tell which one is the woman immediately. She seems to be dressed just like the male counterparts. But because she's a woman..DELETE.

How ridiculous can this get really? The entire catalog is full of examples like this. Why does the IKEA censor hate women so much they need to be completely deleted from the catalog? Above all how could IKEA, which is a company based on family values and comes from a country once chosen as the best country for women to live in, accept this misogynistic madness? Are women not welcome into the Saudi-Arabian IKEA stores?


Edit: IKEA has issued a statement saying it regrets its decision saying "We should have reacted and realized that excluding women from the Saudi Arabian version of the catalog is in conflict with the IKEA Group values." http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444592404578030274200387136.html?mod=WSJUK_hps_LEFTTopWhatNews

Muttawa Encounters Volume 2

I noticed that a post on one of my favorite subjects, the Saudi religious police, was long overdue. "Muttawa" is actually the third most popular search word that lands people on Blue Abaya, so something about them just fascinates (or disturbs) people and they want to find out more.

Read volume 1 of muttawa encounters here.

For many expats coming to the Magic Kingdom the concept of a religious police force is just incomprehensible or downright insane. Why do Saudi people need morality cops to tell them how to behave? Are they really THAT bad? If Saudis are supposed to be the role models of Muslims to the rest of the world, then why is it the only country that needs religious police chasing down people on the streets and enforcing morals on its citizens?

I hear so many muttawa stories from my friends all the time and unfortunately they are 99% negative. That said, there are some smart religious cops out there, I swear! Check this post for one example: Muttawa Gets It Right.
There are too many similar stories to mention here, most relating to women and covering hair and being chased by muttawa in malls. I thought of compiling another muttawa encounters list with the top most disturbing or hilarious incidents. These are all very recent cases from around the capital that happened to friends and family.

My mother visited us for few months here in Saudi and the few times we went to the mall (she hates malls) every single time would a squad of the morality cops chase her. I think we had bad luck but also during that time muttawa were on a roll. This was before the old Hai'a boss was sacked.
Her first encounter happened at Sahara Mall, she was on her own browsing shops while we were with the baby in another shop. Three muttawa came up to her. She said they could not have been much older than her teenage son (19yrs) and there she was, a 60 yr old woman minding her business when suddenly these three men started very aggressively shouting at her.
At first she did not even understand and just got scared and thought she had committed some crime. When they motioned at the scarf she understood and put it on. But that did not satisfy this blood thirsty moral squad. They continued shouting at her and by this time everyone was looking and she was mortified.

Apparently they didn't like how she had wrapped the scarf on. My mom walked out of the shop and tried to escape because she didn't understand what was wrong but they followed her like sharks. She had felt frightened and cornered.
Finally when they saw my husband and he shouted for them to go away they left. After confirming he was the "owner" of this red haired woman causing a stir of course. The same squad came three consecutive times to check on her if she still had the scarf on. I was so angry when I heard this that I wanted to go check their ID's and names and make a complaint but they had already left the mall by that time.

Mom wanted to make a complaint to the human rights commission because she felt her dignity and basic human rights had been violated, which was of course true. I felt so angry and frustrated that this was the experience and image she was getting of Saudi-Arabia. And of course she told everyone about it, so this is how muttawa vicariously spreads image of muslims as aggressive harassers, hostile toward foreigners, women haters and intolerant people.

Another incident this year that happened to two young Finnish women in IKEA. Two Hai'a officers were browsing for Vice which apparently IKEA has plenty to offer. Just look at what they have to deal with:

The horror. An uncovered smiling woman, with a dash of lipstick and some decolletage to go with it!

The muttawa at IKEA had spotted the sinful uncovered westerners and started their customary yelling. These two women have been here for years and become accustomed and immune to the harassment so they continued shopping as if nothing had happened. This angered the bearded bullies and they started following the women repeating the same over and over and now adding they should leave the store. The women ignored and cheerfully talked in Finnish about the furniture, as if there was no disturbance whatsoever. They knew muttawa cannot touch them or make an arrest without policemen present. Pretending muttawa were just a tiny mosquito making some buzz had gotten rid of them every time. The muttawa left but this time only to return with two police officers.

The women did not give up and continued walking around trying to seem calm but at this point they were furious. Now one of the angry beards lost his cool. He grabbed the shopping cart one of the women was pushing and started to drag it in the opposite direction yelling barra (out)! She held on to it with all her might and pulled the cart back yelling no! This tug of war lasted for a while with onlookers gathering around. It ended in the victory of the woman and the defeated muttawa leaving with his tail beneath his legs.


Another Finnish iron lady and long timer here who also uses the ignoring tactic was shopping by herself in the Riyadh Gallery Mall. While inside a clothing store the muttawa squad entered and asked her to cover. She initially ignored but when it became apparent they would not leave she got frustrated, took a dress from the clothing rack and placed it on her head saying inshallah! She had forgotten her scarf home. Muttawa was satisfied.

Another similar incident at the same mall, a western woman is shopping with a group of friends, muttawa approaches and they all cover expect her, she had forgotten to take a scarf. The muttawa did not leave her alone but started getting aggressive and shouting for her to cover her hair. The resourceful woman took the plastic shopping bad she was carrying and placed it on her head. Muttawa left the scene.

A friend of mine was at a frozen yogurt place and wanted to sit down but saw a sign saying women are not allowed to sit inside. She asked why not and the worker said Hai'a officers won't allow it. There was no clear indication it was single section, the place was secluded and there was nobody else around, so why not?

Why were woman allowed to enter, but not sit? The friendly salesperson then told her how the some Saudi women had sat there and muttawa had raided the place to prevent this HUGE vice. The women had left but the poor Filipino worker was accused of not preventing it and his "charge" was allowing women to sit inside. What happened then is the Riyadh Vice Cops had actually hand and LEG CUFFED the worker like he was one of the most dangerous criminals in the world. He spent two nights in jail for this horrid offense.. I don't think they even leg cuff mafia bosses. Or Hannibal Lecter.

Once while we were in a women's clothing store with mom, a muttawa came up to the entrance and started shouting in Arabic. First we thought he was shouting at us but he was targeting one of the male salesclerks. The Turkish clerk looked anxious as the muttawa approached him. The 4 ft tall muttawa continued for a good five minutes of nonstop blabbering and preaching and the clerk was nodding his head, staring at the ground, looking humiliated. By now everyone in the store and the hallway had stopped shopping and were staring at the clerk in a condemning manner as if he had committed a big crime.

When the muttawa finally left we went to talk to the salesclerk because he looked absolutely devastated and about to cry. He told me how this same muttawa comes to his shop almost everyday and always picks on him. I must mention this was a well mannered, friendly young fellow, he was definitely not one of those overly "helpful" and slimy salesmen there are out there. He continued that the muttawa always complained and lectured him on his appearance and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

The first time the muttawa midget came, it was the ear length hair which had been deemed too long. The Hai'a guy made him leave work right there and then to cut the hair short or face jail sentence.
Now the hair was short but he'd put hair gel in it which was what the lecture had been all about this time.

The young man said it felt like being publicly shamed and bullied by this so called religious representative. He told us how he couldn't wait for his contract to finish to get out of this horrible country! I told him to please ignore what the Hai'a say and that they don't represent Islam or Saudis. We tried to make him feel better, he had done nothing wrong. We told him we understand how bad that feels and were sorry he was targeted. My mom talked with him too and afterward he seemed more cheerful about it and thanked us for the support.

Last week there was an incident in Riyadh where a Saudi woman got harassed by muttawa because of her nail polish and asked to leave the mall. The video has now gone viral all over the internet. Here is the video clip with English subtitles:

Thumbs up for this brave lady for standing up for herself against her harassers. Saudi-Arabia needs more women like her!
More on this incident from these two blogs:
Saudi Jeans: http://saudijeans.org/2012/05/25/saudi-jeans-8-nail-polish/
Saudi Woman's Weblog: http://saudiwoman.me/2012/05/25/the-immodesty-of-nail-polish/

Some more reading about the religious police on Blue Abaya:

Meet The Saudi Religious Police

Lower Your Gaze Mr. Muttawa!

Muttawa Gone Wild

Commission Of Ex Thieves And Drug Addicts

Do you have a muttawa story, positive or negative, to share?

P.S Non-Muslim women are not required to wear head scarf or face veil In Saudi-Arabia, only the abaya is compulsory and all women mentioned in this post were wearing abayas.

The Move From Hell

Apologies for being away form the blog so long. But I had a good excuse! We were finally able to move into our new place in the Diplomatic Quarters in Riyadh. For the move we were planning to hire a moving company. Last time we moved the company destroyed many precious items I had brought from Finland and some things (like a huge painting) went MISSING.
So this time we searched for a moving firm we could trust not to destroy everything. A company was recommended to us that seemed really professional and even had a good website, but they would've charged us over 8000 riyals! For a days work I think that's ridiculous, considering petrol is almost free and labor for such work is very cheap.

So we tried to find something we could afford and ended up using a company that seemed OK and signed the contract which included price, time and most importantly that any destroyed items would be reimbursed.
When the moving day came, the crew arrived in the morning and we had hired two maids to help us pack and unpack. I felt I needed at least ten extra heads and sets of hands to be able to supervise these people.

The way these men were handling and packing stuff was amazing. I mean we are talking about people who do this for a living right? You would assume they knew what they're doing huh? Pack clothing nicely in plastic bags and other things in boxes with padding and wrapped in newspaper and so on.

In reality what was going on was about six Afghani men were throwing random things into plastic bags and boxes as fast as they could. I did not have time to label anything and they mixed everything together with no logic whatsoever. Their idea of padding was a single sheet of newspaper placed between items, not around.

So next getting the trucks (there were two which resembled something I've seen sheep transported in) into which about 70% of our belongings had been stuffed. No padding or wrapping, of course. I took a deep breath and thought with careful driving everything could still work out well. The men needed advice from us how to tie up the things so they don't fall in the middle of the road. As if they had never in their lives had to secure anything on the trucks before.

When we got to our destination we realized the trucks were too tall to drive into the parking hall. This meant the load had to be carried from a nearby parking lot to the building and up one set of stairs. In other words the men were now forced to walk an extra 200 meters and instead of having to carry things up two sets of stairs it would now only be one. Just a minor set back, or even better that way right?

Nope. This was the END OF THE WORLD. Suddenly the men became so lazy and slow, sloths would look like cheetahs next to these people. They dragged (not carried) one small bag at a time complaining about having to walk. In our apartment they tried to avoid having to take anything upstairs. We had friends over to help supervise and carry stuff but I swear for each one of these movers, a personal assistant is needed to ensure they don't break everything and do at least something!

The boss walked so slow I could hear when he was coming from a mile away by the way his sandals dragged on the ground. It was around 1 p.m and he was already giving up. He said this will never finish! Oh yeah? Well if you slouch around like a freakin SLUG it will probably not end this year! But do your job and it just might! I saw him THROW a box into the laundry room upside down, he thought no one could see him. When I confronted him he pretended it was an accident. How professional.

The mover-snails finally got to moving some of the larger furniture after long talks and persuasion. My husband and his friend were helping them since things were seriously not moving along fast enough. However the movers would not listen to any advice. The staircase is quite narrow and some things are difficult to get upstairs so my husband tried to tell the men how to turn furniture around to make it fit. Instead, the men didn't listen and kept turning the stuff around like it's the Rubik's cube until finally after half an hour they figured out what my husband told them was in fact the only way to take things up.

So after they had thrown our stuff around and finally emptied the trucks they started refusing to finish the job. WHAT? We have an agreement! We signed a contract! They said it's too much work. Excuse me you knew exactly how much stuff we have and said it's no problem. Plus most of the stuff was already here. They had left the heaviest things in the previous apartment for last. We told them if you don't finish it today you won't get any money!It was only 5 p.m and there was still plenty of hours in the day.

Truth is they were just too lazy. The laziest of them all was the boss or some sort of so called supervisor. His job was apparently to drink and eat all the food we provided and to sweat like hell after carrying a pillow. His job description also consisted of CONSTANT whining and sighing. And the sandal dragging, of course.

So when they got back to the old apartment, they QUIT. Just like that. In the middle of the move. Without getting paid. They QUIT. WTH? How can someone's laziness be so profound they even forget about money? So they did all those 8h work for free? I wanted to kill them.

My husband started calling around for another company and finally someone agreed. They came that evening with the promise of finishing off that night, despite it being late already. This all Pakistani crew seemed more professional in their packing techniques, plastic and padding was actually used.

Oh and a small setback at this point, my husband's car broke down.

So when the next truck was all packed up and my husband had managed to get another car they arrived at DQ. Guess what?

They REFUSED work. So our stuff (including those beds and baby foods!) were in the truck. They were holding our stuff hostage! They asked for more money. My husband initially refused but when it became evident the things were going to be held ransom, he agreed to pay a small amount more. No luck. The asses locked up the truck and left. Just like that.

Grrreat! Now what?

Well we ended up sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the same dirty clothes with no idea where the baby stuff was. Not the best of nights especially with the cats howling like crazy and jumping all over the place. The kidnappers were supposed to arrive 8 am the next morning because the truck was parked in the blazing sun and it contained food items. Husband called them in the morning. "Oh we're still sleeping, maybe around 11. MAYBE? 11? I was already sizzling.

So these hauler-pirates arrived around noon. Same thing as with the previous crew happens: After carrying a few boxes and things they start moaning and groaning. The boss says he will just drop off the things on the street and leave. No motivation, no respect.

These guys were even more reckless with our stuff. I had to watch them every second. They started to fill the corridor outside the apartment with our things. It looked like the gypsies were moving in. So instead of carrying the item five more meters into the house, they blocked the corridors for the sake of pure laziness. Even placed some things inside the neighbors foyers. Nice first impressions huh?

I was so annoyed and embarrassed at this point that I started to carry the things in the house myself, which I normally would without hesitation but I happen to be pregnant so it's not exactly advisable. My husband had to stay at the truck to see they won't run away and destroy our things. Whenever one of these useless slimeballs came around they refused to listen to me. You don't take orders from a woman eh? I could strangle you from your balls right now so you better listen to this one!

One of them was a total CREEP he would stare at me with no shame even in front of my husband. The same guy destroyed the house by dragging our pool which was full of mud up to the roof through the house leaving a trail of mud all over because he was holding it the wrong way. He got a good shouting for that but it didn't brighten up his attitude one bit.

I asked one of them to carry a box containing food (left in the +30c sunshine) inside to the kitchen. He looked at me and said with a poker face I don't carry boxes.
WHAT? Here's a newsflash for you: You're a MOVER. You know, the guy that carries boxes for his living? If you don't carry boxes, what DO you do, stare at women? So he ran away. Many of the men just ignored me or left when I asked them to do something. They were lucky I didn't have a rifle.

I saw another moving hero carry a box labelled Fragile UPSIDE DOWN and then drop it on the floor. I opened it and found a broken expensive glass item inside. Showed it to him and said you can't carry stuff like this look what you've done, it's broken. His reply? Mafi malom (I don't understand) and he laughed and left. He was lucky I did not have a bazooka on me.

The creep peed in all of our bathrooms, on the floors and the rims, so disgusting. Probably on purpose. I was going bananas. Then I went up to the rooftop to check if he'd done what I asked. The dude had actually left everything half-way in the staircase, thought I wouldn't go up and see. You're in no luck CREEP-O, get back here right now to finish! "Mafi malom." He tried to escape but I forced him to carry the things in their places.

So after thousands of similar scenarios that day the things were finally in the house. Now the moving geniuses needed to re assemble the wardrobes and beds. They tried to run away but we took revenge and kept one of them hostage upstairs. The rest of the crew vanished into thin air and my husband was left to assemble with this one totally clueless guy. That took a good three hours.

When they were leaving the manager came to the house. We showed him all the things they destroyed like one chest drawer ruined because of rough handling, the broken and scratched items and guess what he has to say? More money. Oh yes, more money, for this SUPER DUPER professional, swift and personal service. More money.

NO WAY. We won't pay you another halalah for this crap. In fact, you should pay us for what you destroyed by handling it wrong and apologize for your staff's totally frivolous working ethics.

In the end all was well, since we only ended up paying a very small amount for the "half-move" and things are just things and at least we are finally here. Forget these slimeballs and unprofessionalism that is flourishing in this country. I'm happy where I am.

P.S. Two days after this chaos we managed to pull off my daughter's 1 year birthday party ;)
P.P.S After we had emptied all the boxes we realized that all the expensive kitchen appliances had gone missing.