Saudi Arabia – another planet on this earth. Review on Saudia Arabia, General

Circa 1990 – ‘if you were to leave a suitcase full of gold unattended at Riyadh airport and come back after an hour, you would find it at the very place with all its contents intact’ : now – ‘if you were to leave your wife unattended at the porch outside the airport while looking for taxi, chances are that your wife be kidnapped, raped and brutally killed ’. Both examples sound extreme but that’s what has happened to Saudi Arabia in last 15 years. Saudi Arabia - a symbol of staunch Islamic beliefs, immaculate law and order, abundance of wealth is at the very door of social deprivation, unrest, chaotic lawlessness and everything that Islamic doctrine doesn’t permit.

If there was any place other than Switzerland that I was very curious to visit, it was Saudi Arabia. Saudi stories always amused me – open punishment of criminals in the square after Friday prayers, imprisonment of non Islamic people for displaying their religious beliefs, relegation of woman to four walls and so on.

Saudi experience begins when pilot announces flight descent. It’s amusing to see all western clad woman rush for most precious ornament-abaya. At customs, if your luggage contents are not strewn all over and left for you to repack - you would be lucky. If you were to carry any cassettes or CD, Be prepared for long haul at the airport till they take their own sweet time to screen . It doesn’t take long for you to become familiar with ‘Saudi version of Sharia’ that dictates the country’s lifestyle. There are no theaters, no library, no public bowling alleys, no bars or nightclubs and definitely no temples or churches. All restaurants have two sections; a single males section and a family section. You just don’t see a sight of a woman unless of course you were to visit a hospital. If your car were to be hit from behind by Saudi national’s car- verdict is loud and clear: You are at fault. Argument is : If you were not there on the scene , he wouldn’t have hit you. When prayer time comes, the entire economy comes to a screeching halt! Stores close, restaurants shut their doors and things come to a complete stop until the prayers are over. Considering this happens 5 times a day, you can imagine how much of a hassle that becomes! Every expatriate generally carries a prayer schedule with him at all times to plan any visit outside. If you were in a restaurant or grocery store and prayer time was called, you would be promptly thrown out till the prayer time gets over.

It’s no surprise that while being in Saudi, you are forever warned by your expatriate friends of list of “DONT’s”. Don’t walk on street during prayer time. Don’t wear anything that will expose your body. Don’t go within periphery of woman domain. Don’t question the police on their Judgment of being at fault when you have done nothing wrong. At every sphere of Saudi Life- there is clear dichotomy. Either one is Muslim or not, Saudi national or otherwise, White expatriate or Asian, Resident status with family or single. List is endless. There must not be any country on this earth where a resident expatriate needs exit visa to leave the country.

Today, watching liberal western channels on TV, surfing the internet in cyber cafés that are mushroomed all over city, reading people opinion and dissent in local dailies with photographs of females is a sea change from draconian religious and political censorship laws that gripped this country over decades . Would emergence of satellite channels and internet be very factors that will bring the much needed political and social upheaval or would they just make Saudi society turn towards worst as is being narrated by extreme example, only time will tell.

But one thing is sure, till that time Saudi Arabia shall continue to be another planet on this earth.