I didn’t realize there were so many of you,” he stammered. The Consul General came into the room and blinked at us. The meeting had to do with security precautions during the war and the infrastructure whereby volunteers would be assigned to call a list of four or five people whenever there was some news or recommendation to impart. We all waited, wrapped in our abayas and turhas, for the Consul General to address us. The less financially capable Western wives must depend on husbands or sons or hire freelance drivers who come to their houses by arrangement.ĭuring the first Gulf War (1990-91) under Bush Senior, I went to the American Consulate in Jeddah and found myself amidst a crowd of other American ladies married to Saudis. They have gotten used to the poor drivers imported from Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka or Egypt who take them to their children’s schools, to shops, or to their friends’ homes. Every day they put on their black cloaks-called abayas – and their black scarves – called turhas – to go out in the cars they are not permitted to drive. A great number of Western women-running into hidden hundreds if not thousands-live in Saudi Arabia, married to Saudi men.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |