I visited Saudi Arabia and realised that everything I thought I knew about the country was wrong
The first sign that I was wrong came to breakfast. While the Mini Babkas tray arrived at the table – going on to be buttered and rented – a tingling of laughter went up in the stairwell. A couple emerged at landing, the woman in hijab, accompanied by her husband in her immaculate white thube, holding her hand and laughing by a private joke. “Is it common that people are openly affectionate?” I asked my host, Mishael. “Yes, but in public, the most you will see is that couples hold their hands,” she replied nonchalantly, before adding: “Saudi men are very romantic.”
And thus started my daily routine to search preconceived concepts and examine them under the ruthless light of the desert sun. When I was younger and I saw the world in black and white, I proclaimed that I would never visit, as tourists, places where women were not also treated by law. Saudi Arabia has dominated my non-theft list. Then in 2017, King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud said women could drive. My hosts told me that there was such a rush of the candidates that the waiting time to pass the driver’s test extended to more than a year in the main cities. In 2018, the crown prince followed with a statement that the hijab was not compulsory.
