young men have many of the same restrictions...

Here is another great article from the New York Times on the Middle East, this one on young men in Riyadh. Much like the previous article on young female flight attendants, this one focuses on the young men from Saudi Arabia. Having lived in Saudi Arabia for almost a year, I can say that I'm both thankful for the experience and glad not to make it a permanent home.

Last year, I lived and worked in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, which is certainly more liberal than Riyadh but also still very much a part of Saudi Arabia. The picture painted by the New York Times is quite familiar to the lives that most of my students lived, with a few exceptions. Some of the students do routinely claim to date girls, and its very possible to see a few brave young men and women eating together in the malls around Khobar.

My friends regularly spoke about how the religious police had really toned down their pressure on social activities in the past 5 years in the Eastern Provence (which includes Khobar, Dammam, and Dharan which is home to the largest oil production facility and company in the Kingdom.) That said, the affect of the occaissional vice bust or worse, social policing by family and community members prevents almost all interaction between men and women at all times.

The result is a bizarre partioned world reminisent of segregation from my American history books. Instead of "whites only" signs, there are "singles section" and "family section". In nicer restaurants, they have seperate entrances, and if you are an unlucky brave sole who isn't married or related to your date, occaissionaly police check id cards to ensure nobody sneeks in. As a westerner, I knew of friends who had broken rules before, but I was terrified when a woman once asked me for directions. Even worse was walking around a mall and hearing loud whispers in Arabic saying "ohhh, welcome my love" and giggling. But for all of the talk of people getting busted, I had several students who clearly broke rules, I went to an underground rock concert, and never once was I ever hassled by the police, religious or not.

a good article on the changing state of Arab women

Much has been written about the social and political roles of Muslim, or in this case Arab women. In almost all cases, they are seen as being repressed by their society or government or immediate families. I don't necessarily disagree with some major critiques of the place for women within modern society but it certainly has changed a great deal in the last 10 years. Here's a great article on some changing views from the IHT. It is fairly well written and discusses both the new job mobility for some single women to travel and work and the trouble and resistance they face within their society for doing so.

Oman: a very brief introduction

Oman in many ways is the best and worst of the competing worlds in the Middle East. On one hand, it has a deep and lengthy history stretching back thousands of years with numerous destinations to prove it, putting it on par with Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and Lebanon as a historical/cultural tourist destination. On the other, is the booming, sprawling city of Muscat, complete with its massive real estate investment properties that make it feel more like Bahrain or the Emirates instead of an old school tourist destination. Culturally, it’s both. With its massive expat worker population and rapid development, living in Oman feels far closer to Bahrain or Saudi then it does to the “older” Middle East. Like the rest of the Gulf (GCC countries, which include, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates), Oman has a national employment program to replace expat workers with locals. Education is free, there are no taxes, the government buys you a house when you get married, and with the help of the aforementioned job program, so long as you show up to work, you get a job.

Sounds like Paradise, right? Well, yes and no. The price you pay for these benefits is you have absolutely no say in the government whatsoever. In political science, this is known as a rentier state. After the discovery and development of massive oil and natural gas reserves began to profit the local government, authoritarian kings flipped an old adage of the American Revolution on its head. “No taxation without representation” cried the masses, and the kings said, “ummmm, ok. Oh, and by the way, we’ll throw in free education and housing as an added bonus.” In reality, all the GCC countries except for Oman and Saudi Arabia gained independence when the British left on good terms in the 60’s and 70’s. Saudi Arabia gained independence in 1933, and Sultan Qaboos took over in 1970 with the help of the British. The social expectations and policing also place massive restrictions on the enjoyment of these benefits as well, but that has relatively little to do with any sort of political strength.

Another strange side effect of the governments in the region is the legal structure in place. Despite being extremely common in the GCC (again, minus Saudi Arabia), prostitution, drinking alcohol, premarital sex and cohabitation, and homosexuality are all illegal and often with harsh punishments. Yet most of the time, they are not punished. A good example is the alcohol laws in many countries. Drinking alcohol in Oman is legal for non-Muslims, but illegal for Muslims. There is a complex government system in place that requires a license to purchase alcoholic drinks in stores. Bars, found in hotels and back alleys across the country are either exempt or not forced to comply, meaning that any Omani or other Muslim may drink as much as they want so long as they find a bar. If they would rather indulge at home or on the street, which is also surprisingly common, the obvious emergence of a black market catering to lower income Muslims accommodates the rest. Prostitution is the same way. With numerous health clubs and massage parlors staffed by low income Asian women, one could guess that a happy ending isn’t hard to come by. Escorts frequenting bars are common as well for a great combination of the aforementioned vices.
Drawbacks aside, most Omanis are quite pleased with the government, and who can blame them. They have an incredible amount of provided social services, and the development of infrastructure in the past 30 years is astounding. Before Sultan Qaboos took over, Oman had been “protected” from almost all Western amenities including paved roads, electricity, telecommunications, healthcare, and education. The older generations still talk about life before, when most travel took place by foot, donkey, or camel, and when they lit their houses by candles and fires. Even rural mountain villages consisting of only a couple families have electricity, graded roads, and even within only an hour’s drive from a local school and hospital.

New Beginning

"Come see Egypt's greatest treasure: the sun". "Visit business friendly Bahrain" See the undiscovered Gulf: Oman. Tourism slogans on CNN are more plentiful then the growing number of correspondents on CNN. Most of the commercials are for Eastern Europe or Angola, but they easily cover all the populated continents. Travelling today is huge, as is global reporting, but both in the Arab world are seriously lacking. It's not hard to see why. Being a general news junky myself, Most of the stories on the Middle East focus on either terrible political situations, wars, airstrikes, terrorism, or oil. The pieces on culture either stick to the most extreme Islamic judicial ruling of the day, the rapid development of the Gulf cities, or some Western music genre popping up in unexpected places (heavy metal in Saudi, break dancing in Iraq, or hip hop in Palestine). Very little exists on how people live their daily lives, what they think of the rest of the world outside of poorly written general surveys about Bush, or crisis torn countries such as Iraq.

In my third year living in the Middle East out of my last 4, it's easy to see why. Painting an overly general picture is easy, as is taking tiny snapshots of bizarre shit that happens every day. Iron Maiden T Shirts in ancient souks make for a great photo and interesting side bar to the other crisis stories, but doesn't help paint a picture of what life is like here. I've lived in 4 Arab countries and visited 3-5 more depending on how you count Israel and Palestine. Currently, I'm living and working in Rustaq, Oman, which will likely be the focus for most of my initial writing. However, I hope to include my insights from various past trips and comparisons between different countries to paint a better picture of what the Middle East is really like for the millions of people who live here.

 

Next Week: the countryside in Oman