A Veiled Opportunity: Walking in Saudi Arabia

Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Last August, I had a few days of rest, relaxation and theater in London. I spent one afternoon shopping (but not buying, due to the tanking US dollar) at Selfridges in Oxford Street. As usual, I was magnetically drawn to the designer shoe department. On a weekday in the heart of London, I was the only Western woman in sight. Everyone else was covered from neck to ankle in long robes and tunics; all wore headscarves and many were veiled.

At first, I was annoyed. I felt that "my" store had been invaded by women who weren't like me, speaking languages I couldn't understand. Almost immediately, I was ashamed and embarrassed: I was more xenophobic than I knew.

In comically swift fashion, I was given a chance to redeem myself a few weeks later. My husband was invited to spend the last two weeks in December teaching a writing course to healthcare professionals in Saudi Arabia. I tagged along, in my abayah (long black cloak) and matching headscarf to walk a kilometer in my Saudi sisters' shoes.

We've had an amazing experience. It's been funny and humbling to stick out like a sore thumb for a change, speaking only a few words of the local language and being so easy to spot in a crowd. I'm convinced that we're known to all of the people who met us at airports and drove us to meetings as the American man with the big moustache and the lady with yellow hair. We have been met everywhere with unfailing kindness, even by strangers with no connection to our reason for being in the country.

The lovely and gracious women I have met here, some whose faces I never saw, touch me most. Like most women I know, they're full of worry and love for their children and ambitious for their careers. They fret about being good-enough wives and daughters. They also speak with humor and exasperation about the indignities of being female in a male-dominated world.

As I watch, with newly opened eyes, the images coming out of Gaza, it pains me to think that some Americans might look at those pictures and see people who aren't like "us." Perhaps, for example, you'll worry about "those women" a bit less because you can't see yourself in their shrouded faces and shapeless black clothes.

I don't know enough about the conflict and its history to discuss it here. But while others are assigning blame, let me suggest that communicating compassion is a much more important task, and one that will bring us closer to a resolution. Ordinary people in this part of the world still have hope for us, judging by the beaming smiles we saw at any mention of Barack Obama. Let's prove them right.

Comments

[Chaimirija]

I have nothing but sympathy for the Palestinians because they are being used as pawns

[felsen stark]

For many years I traveled within Brazil but until I read their 500 year history written by a South African who migrated to the USA as I recall, it was impossible for me to understand the actions of the Brazilians. Once I learned this I understood much more and also appreciated my own culture and history more fully. If you have another opportunity to visit Saudi Arabia I recommend you read their history, preferably by another Westerner. Sandra Mackey would be my first suggestion, though her book The Saudi is considered outdated by some, it sets the stage for the struggle of change especially for the women of SA.

I also came across a great older article in the Atlantic Monthly (1961) about the Gaza situation which really I found helpful, it is online in their archives, written by an American trying to find answers and having no apparent preconceived ideas. After reading this, the events became clear, taken out of historical context, everything is just confusion. FS

[str8baller]

The sad reality is that most Americans have already given up any sympathy for Palestinian deaths after seeing "people dancing in the streets on 9-11."

As you said, communicating compassion is important and assigning blame is not. Going along with your arguments, I would encourage other Americans to think about what the state of mind of the Palestinian people must be like and what situations may have caused their way of thinking before they jump to condemn them.