Life In Saudi Arabia
The primary item of interest in getting a family into the kingdom is the “iqama” Every person who applies for a residence visa gets issued an iqama (pronounced “ih-gaa-muh”). This was the equivalent of a national passport; only a male or the husband was issued this document and you did not leave it at home! Without this you could not even apply for accompaniment status for your family.
My family finally arrived in late August; I picked them up at the airport and gave my wife her abaya I had purchased a few weeks earlier. The abaya is the floor length long sleeve garment that all women in Saudi must wear when out in public. The Muslim women in Saudi must also wear a headscarf, and most of the actual Saudi women wear a veil. Western women were never required to wear a veil, but there were several times when we were downtown and the “Mutawwah”, the religious police, told my wife to cover her head. She would put on her scarf and after the officer had moved down the street she would take it back off.
Life in Saudi is measured mostly by Sharia, or ultra conservative Muslim law, of which the Saudi version includes women not being allowed to drive, wearing the abaya at all times, forbidding all alcohol and virtually all other Western “vices”. Cigarettes were about the only vice allowed in the kingdom. There are no theaters, no public bowling alleys, no bars or nightclubs and definitely no churches! Some hotels had private bowling alleys, and some larger compounds had a small theater for movie viewing. All restaurants have two sections; a single males section and a family section. Women downtown by themselves or with other women had to sit in the family section; otherwise they could be arrested for “prostitution”.
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Islamic law also dictates 5 prayer times a day; sunrise, mid morning, just after the noon hour, midafternoon, and midevening. In most Middle Eastern countries when the mullahs give the prayer call from the many minarets dotting the cities, the faithful go to the mosque and perform their ritual prayers and then return to work or whatever they were doing at the time of prayer call. Businesses continue to operate, and life goes on as usual.
In Saudi, however, 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 westerner I knew carried a prayer schedule with them at all times; you planned any day out in the public or downtown around the prayer schedules.
If you were in a restaurant or grocery store and prayer time was called, you were able to be locked in and continue to eat or gather groceries into your cart. The lights would be dimmed, but you were able to go about your business. If you went to eat at night though you always carried a candle so you could see your food when the lights went out during prayers!
Housing In Saudi Arabia
For Westerners there are two types of residences; most live on large resort-like compounds where you can wear shorts or swim suits or even halter-tops. Most compounds are provided rent and utilities free for working on a particular contract, usually with the Saudi military. I have friends who still live and work there, and their current compound’s villas each have 4500 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms!
Life inside the compound is like being back in the States or Western Europe (there are more British and European workers in Saudi than American). Most compounds have small convenience stores, libraries, gyms, several swimming pools, beauty shops, recreation centers, and other amenities. Some compounds have villas with their own swimming pools along with the large community pools dotting the compounds. Fortunately the mutawwa cannot come onto the compounds and hassle the residents, but when you leave the compound, the women have to put on their abayas and follow the other strict rules.
The other type of residence available is renting an actual house on the economy. Most people try to stay on the compounds even if they have to pay rent, as it provides some insulation from the stark living outside. We knew a few people who lived in rather large and luxurious villas, but they felt a bit like a fly on a plate due to the surrounding Muslim families and environment.
Thanks libra girl, i stumbled across that one myself, he was writing about like ten years ago still very informative though. thank you.
Presumably, you will be working for a major corperation an dliving within a European compound.
Most workplaces and compounds are now heavily guarded and surrounded by armoured concrete blocks to prevent repeats of the kind of attacks that occurred a few years back in Al Khobar and Riyadh. In adition to this, the authorities have been working extremely hard to ereadicate extremists.
Follow the advice issued by the Foreign Office and be sure to register your presence immediately with your embassy representative.
Follow the rules. Don’t be tempted to drink alcohol or flout the local laws in any way. If in doubt, err on the side of caution.
Ask your employer to confirm what your travel arrangements to and from work will be. Do your own checking… if your expected transport fails to arrive, confirm that the replacement driver is genuine by phoning in for example.
You should have access to a supporter/co-ordinator through your employer who will advise you of any paperwork etc. that you may need. Go armed with a dozen passport photos and be sure to leave a copy of all of your essential documents with a relative/friend back home in case you need to replace them ever.
wow thank you! i will do!
Sharia law is extremely, extremely harsh and women are virtually nonentities umder it. Watch your step. Go nowhere alone. They have religious police. Don’t run afoul of any of their “blasphemy” laws. They will seize any Bibles at the border and burn them . . . and Christian services are illegal even in private homes. So much for religious tolerance.
Really? Wow. thank god im not really religious.
lol i just totally contradicted myself!
I think you will gain a new appreciation for Christianity while over there.
Oh.. and familiarise yourself with your company/employers security and safety procedures. If they don’t have specific procedures, contact the embassy and ask their advice. Do this as soon as you arrive.
You will find that occasional decrees are issued.. for example, there was one banning Valentines cards (even though many shops stocked them). Follow those decrees.
Do your research before you go and make sure you know what is and what isn’t acceptable. You may not, for example, accept a lift with a male colleague. Women may drive under special circumstances.
The biggest danger? Lunatic driving. Wear a seat belt at all times and report any company drivers who are not up to standard to your employer.
Wow, you really have been so much help thank u. its really very hard to find information on it!
What do you mean by relocating? Do you actually have a job offer over there? If not and just wanted to have some adventure, I would tell you to choose another country. You are practically a child and you won’t have any breathing space over there. I am working with people from that part of the world and see every single day how they treat foreign women. If you don’t have a job offer, forget about it. It is not Mecca!
thank you for your imput beatrice. im not practically a child, thank you, and yes my employment is orginised.
Just be careful. Remember, you are an “interloper.” Mohammed’s last command was to sweep the Arabian peninsula of all Jews and Christians. Osama bin Laden bitterly protested that Mohammed’s command has been ignored. Just be careful. You will be in Wahhabi land, and the jihadists draw no distinctions between men, women or children.
So, kid, keep a very l-o-w profile!
Then you would definitely need to do your homework before you go there. People here can tell you all kinds of things but the best to do is to actually go to the UAE consulate and ask them all of those questions. They will tell you from A to Z the expectations from a foreigner. Also, your employment if it is that organized as yousaid is, should have sent you an information package. Riyadh is a very conservative city. Women even from their own kind have absolutely no rights. Your life would be to go to work and to go home. You would have to be escorted everywhere. So kid, just like chev. said, keep a very low profile.
thanks guys you have been great!
You can’t relocate there WITHOUT a job to go to Beatrice! Saudi is not in the UAE !! Yes, life is different and it takes a while to get used to the culture … but, follow the dress code and local law and you do get respect in return. Not all Saudis beat their wives and I think that the press do not emphasise enough how the Saudi Govt. is determined to stamp out terrorism and attacks on westerners. Sure, things aren’t perfect by any means but I think the positive aspects of life there are often swept under the carpet.
Having lived much of my life in the Middle East, it worries me just how much anti propaganda there is over here.
And I’m a western woman !
Well mumstheword, I know many people who just jumped on a plane and relocated to Saudi Arabia without a firm job offer just because they thought they would find honey and milk there. Yes, my mistake, UAE is not Saudi Arabia. Nobody said they beat their women, but what I see here in a daily basis says otherwise. This young girl will learn from her own experience reality. Reality and propaganda are two different things. I never believed in propaganda but I have to believe what I see with my own eyes daily. Women from that particular part of the world are a living example of that and I see these women in a daily basis. I don’t think they lie when they come and press charges against their husbands, male relatives etc. I was only talking from experience what I see here. If you lived in the Middle East as you say you did, you must saw things too or you were blindfolded.
beatrice no disrespect, but alot of westerners go to saudi to work, i mean ALOT, if it was that bad no1 would go.
Have you ever lived or worked there Beatrice?
shebechri exactly. That is what I meant. Lots of people go there to work and I know it too. No, mumstheword, I have never lived or worked there, I wasn’t as fortunate as you were. What I tried to say here is that in contrary, I am dealing with these women on a daily basis from that part of the world, including Saudi Arabia, who lived and worked there, who tell me how were and are treated. I have to believe them since they are the ones with experiences. I don’t think they lie. I am not saying all men treat females like the cases I am dealing with here but the cases I have to deal with are nothing but criminal cases and abuse. All cultures have men like that but my job is to deal with only these kind. I have not heard yet a case from a Christian or Buddhist or Jewish religion where women were so severely treated and abused like women from that particular part of the world and from those countries.
Shebechri . . . one last piece of advice. YOU hang onto YOUR passport. Don’t give it to anyone else . . . not to your employer, not to any Saudi official. Just do that for me. If you decide you want to leave, and especially if you decide you want to leave in a hurry, you will need your passport immediately available. And make sure you know the location of the UK embassy and consulates.
Stay safe!
Beatrice, I’m wondering if you’re confusing Saudi with somewhere else still? It’s simply not possible to relocate to Saudi without a firm job offer and accommodation and all the paperwork. You would get turned back at the airport.
Even WITH the paperwork, they sometimes tell you to wait in Bahrain until they have another stamp that some official has decided is the rules (you need a passport with a lot of pages shebechri!)
No, I am not confusing one country with another. I am talking about what I was told from these people. I wish good luck to this young girl. Hopefully, she won’t become another case I am dealing with in a daily basis. Chev. she can’t hold onto her passport if her employer requests it. One of the cases I had to deal with was about this. They confiscated her passport saying to safe keep it and that was their law. It took one year fight involving our government to get her out of Saudi Arabia.
It is the law there. But… once registered at the Irish or UK embassy you effectively get one held for you there in case you need it. The US embassy has very different arrangements and insists that passports must not be given up. They still advise against travel.
UK and Irish have a different agreements with the Saudi Govt. and different systems in place to deal with passport issues.
That said, most employers employing westerners no longer require the actual passport and a copy is deemed acceptable. Check the contract on that one before going and query it with your embassy/travel office before going sheb.
Excellent advice mumstheword! :-)
yeah i need to give them a copy, and then one of the site you sent me mumstheword says to carry sevral photocopys of your passport also. Guys you really have been so much help its brilliant.
Good luck to you and take good care of yourself! It is quite an accomplishment what you are doing and you will have so much experience too! Best of luck!
Look at other options like UAE or Qatar life as a working woman can be tough and if u work for a private company not government or large public listed or well known companies expected non payment of salary and always keep your passport with you sorry to say some government and public listed company do delay salaries of foreign workers for Irish nationality up to 2 months
I want out
chev.jame
beatricegalant
careemahchoon