Lebanese with the Ladies

Normally on Memorial Day in the US, it's all about barbeques. Today on Memorial Day in Saudi Arabia, it was all about Lebanese food! Instead of a typical Monday (aka Wednesday) night, we had the opportunity to spend dinner at the Lebanese restaurant Byblos with our Dar Al-Hekma hosts.

The food was so delicious that I didn't even have time to take any pictures before it was gone (well done Dania on the ordering!). We feasted on hummus, tabbouleh, baba ghanoush, pita bread, grape leaves, fried cheese rolls, falafel, fava beans, fattoush, and a delicious platter of kebab-style meat. The chicken was SO amazing. And don't forget the best mango juice I have had in Saudi Arabia!

Although I don't have pictures of the food (just trust me it was good), I did manage to snag a few photos of our group. The waiter didn't do such a great job warning us, so I have posted two so you can see everyone.

Starting on the right and going around the table: Dr. Amal (whom we have worked with on the soon-to-be launched MBA program), Dr. Amani (who spoke at our workshop and we are working with on the MBA information session), Ms. Fatma (who we worked with to develop the workshop), Hind, Eve, Dania (who works with Dr. Saleha and has helped arrange so much of our work and leisure activities), Zeynep, me, Lubna (an attendee of our workshop and Dr. Amal's daughter), Kholoud (who works with Dr. Saleha and has helped organize activities during our trip), and last but certainly not least, Dr. Saleha (our project sponsor and welcoming host who runs the Institutional Advancement division).

All in all, it was a delicious and fun outing!

A celebration of my poor hijab-wrapping skills

I must have tried half a dozen approaches to wrapping my headscarf since I've been here. When I first arrived, my hijab style was all about survival; even though we aren’t required to wear hijabs in Saudi Arabia, I didn't want to draw too much attention to myself. I thus present to you “the survivor”. This twice-trademarked approach consists of putting the long rectangular scarf on your head, safety pinning it under your chin and wrapping the excess around your shoulders till there’s nothing left to wrap. It’s okay if you stab yourself with a safety pin a few times or almost choke yourself with overzealous wrapping; it’s part of the patented process. Our early days, if you'll recall...

Next, I tried out the “extreme double-wrap”, so called because I didn’t center the scarf on my head, but rather left only a few inches on one side and several feet on the other (see below). Then I wrapped it over my head twice and subsequently around my neck.

I was pretty happy with this style until I started to do that in front of a few of the women in our workshop, who very sweetly teased me. Happily, one attendee took me under her wing and introduced me to the “hang loose”, which is apparently the stylish way to do it. All I have is this blurry photo because there’s no hope for my figuring out how to replicate it.

And actually, I shouldn’t say the hang loose is “the” stylish way. Turns out wrapping a hijab offers women the opportunity to express their style, so there are a bunch of ways to tie it (and tons of websites dedicated to sharing new methods). In addition to expressing style, the way women tie their hijabs can also reflect the country or region from which they come. But we’ll leave that interpretation to the experts and continue on with the rest of my attempts at hijab-tying.

One of my go-to’s is the “quick 'n easy hijab”, known by some as the “it’s 105 degrees out and we have to walk fifteen minutes on an asphalt road without sidewalks or shade”. I’m a pro at this one. Put the scarf on your head. Wrap one side very loosely around your neck, and then the other. Proceed. And trust me, you’ll have to proceed a bunch of times because it falls as soon as you take a few steps.

After playing around with a few more techniques, I have actually found one that I like. Now, I put the scarf on my head, off-centered so that the left side a bit longer than the right. I then fold under about an inch of the scarf around my cheeks and neck and then bring the left side of the scarf around my head again, tucking it into the first layer a little bit at my left cheek. I still haven’t figured out how to drape the parts that hang down, but I take solace in the fact that there are women who have been here for years who still haven’t mastered their style.

Andrea, Zeynep and Hind, on the other hand seem to be pretty consistent—and confident—in their hijab styles. Hind never even touched a safety pin, making it look easy.

Zeynep somehow figured out how to be completely gorgeous in hers.

And Andrea has been crowned “best hijab” for her tireless commitment to covering every last inch of her hair.

A whole new world

Over the weekend our team had the opportunity to experience a very different side of Saudi Arabia. As a result of last week’s workshop, we were able to meet some fantastic women from the Jeddah community. One of these women, who also happens to work at Dar Al-Hekma, was kind enough to invite us to her beach resort compound north of the city. As we drove up the coast (or more technically as our cheerful and chatty Egyptian driver drove us up the coast), we began to see a series of buildings, each with very high walls and secure doors (like the one below).

When we arrived at Fal Beach Resort and began to explore the grounds, I finally understood why all of the buildings were surrounded by high walls. Inside, men and women were able to mix and women did not have to wear abayas. There were children swimming, women reading books, men playing cards, and music playing. It was just like a beach resort that you might find in another part of the world. From what I have gathered, these compounds are only open to non-Saudis and allow them to live a lifestyle that is more familiar to what they are used to back home, wherever that may be. There seems to be an abundance of these compounds throughout Saudi Arabia.

For us non-Saudi ladies who had been wearing abayas for the past two weeks, it was quite a nice change. My skin thanked me for being able to see the sun! Here are some pictures of us and the grounds. As part of the compound, there are apartment style rooms, pool and beach facilities, and a poolside cafe.

We had a lovely and leisurely day swimming, tanning, reading, eating, and playing Taboo. I was also finally able to complete the “trifecta” of my favorite things in Saudi Arabia. They are 1) the fresh juice, 2) the shisha, and 3) the beach resort compound. Here’s me and Eve partaking in all three activities at the same time! We were in heaven.

All in all, it was a fabulous day and one of the highlights of our trip! We are so grateful to Dania and Hadeel for making this happen!

Call to prayer

One of the Five Pillars of Islam is that Muslims must perform salah, which are the daily Islamic prayers. Here in Saudi Arabia, the five daily prayers are very well integrated into the daily routine. Every day, we hear the adhan, which is the call to prayer. The first is performed at dawn (4 or 5am), then around noon, then the afternoon (3:30pm), sunset (7pm), and evening (8:30pm). Luckily, I have never heard the dawn prayer, but for the most part, we hear it wherever we go: at Dar Al-Hekma College, our hotel room, and even the mall. Here is one video I took from my hotel room window in which you can hear the call to prayer in the background (sorry it’s not more scenic).

During the day, prayer time doesn’t affect us much – we just keep on working – but in the evening, we have had to shift our dinner schedule until after the last prayer. Typically, restaurants and stores close during prayer time (or at least don’t serve food), so you have to plan your schedule accordingly. Once we were out to dinner and had already sat down before the last prayer. Luckily we got our food in time, but during the last prayer, no waiters came around and the restaurant drew the blinds, turned off the TVs, and dimmed the lights. Here is another video I took at the mall when the evening call to prayer began and you can see the food court stores start to close down (quick cameo from Eve at the end).

After being here for 11 days, the call to prayer is something we’re used to, but I hope it offers our readers a window into Saudi Arabian life!

Our big night out

In a country without movie theaters or pubs and that's too hot to spend much time outdoors (during the day anyway), you might wonder what the locals here do for fun. So did we. Last night we found out when we took a "Friday" evening excursion to the Red Sea Mall to celebrate finishing up our workshop. All of Jeddah seemed to be there: young, old, male, female, families, singles. Even one of our colleagues from Dar Al-Hekma stopped by with her adorable 3-year old son to say hi.

Here we are, excited for our first Jeddah mall experience. By the way, my pitiful Arabic is just good enough to read the sign, which is a transliteration of the English words "Red Sea Mall". There's a lot of that here...so my 4-year old reading ability comes in handy sometimes.

And here, we're hanging out in the "bizarre" themed section.

Turns out the malls here are a lot like the ones at home...

You've got your food courts (which also had a McDonalds, Starbucks and KFC)...

And your shops (including H&M, Sephora, Adidas).

But there are few notable differences. For example, all of the shops must close down at prayer time and the TVs around the mall play live streaming of the prayer in Mecca...

There's also a huge arcade with carnival games (my personal favorite as you can see. Note the concerned child in the background)...

And shops where only ladies can enter...

Not to be confused with the lingerie, make-up or abaya stores, which were staffed entirely by men (a requirement of the country's anti-mixing laws). The Sephora, for example, looked exactly like every other Sephora I've ever seen, except for the men standing around in the store's signature all-black dress code staring back at me. And I must say I'm impressed that anyone here owns a bra, because I felt awkward wandering around the "Women's Secret" store with a salesMAN following me around offering to help find a size.

All in all, it was fun to see how Saudis spend their weekends. Hopefully, we'll soon get to experience another popular activity: hanging out at the beach.

The challenge of mobility

Over the last few days, many of you have reached out to us about the woman in Saudi Arabia who was recently arrested for driving. First of all, thank you for thinking of us! Second, since this is a topic that is now hitting global headlines (including the New York Times), I figured I would offer some insight from “the inside.” The women here in Jeddah have definitely been talking about Manal al-Sharif, the women who drove, but also more broadly about the campaign on June 17^th encouraging Saudi women to drive en masse. In previous years, women have tried to organize similar protests, but never has it been organized on such a large scale. The campaign’s success is largely due to viral networking tools, such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter, that are now so widely used in our society. Many women here seem to support the movement, but only time will tell what will happen on June 17^th.

What I learned the other day is that there is no official Saudi Arabian law that prohibits women from driving. What does exist is a fatwa, which is a religious opinion concerning Islamic law that is issued by an Islamic scholar, that says women should not drive. The primary concern of those opposing women being able to drive is that it would “cause too many problems” (this information is based on some survey data that was presented to us by a guest speaker during our workshop). What does “too many problems” mean? According to the survey, people are afraid of male harassment, increased traffic, and a woman’s lack of knowledge of the car mechanics. Each of these concerns is addressable, and I have learned that the most effective way to push for change in Saudi Arabia, is by laying out a thorough, intelligent line of reasoning that operates within the context of Islamic law. I have heard numerous times about women sitting in meetings with Ministry officials for hours and days until they are able to reach a solution. Ultimately, sound reasoning seems to work.

But more challenging than a law or a fatwa, is the cultural and societal way of life that has existed in Saudi Arabia for so long. Women here are used to operating within an environment that requires them to rely on male relatives or male drivers. Many families employ private drivers so that the mother and daughters have the ability to get around. There are 750,000 private drivers in Saudi Arabia, many of whom are immigrants from neighboring countries. Changing an institutional practice such as this will not happen overnight. (Here we are getting into the DAH van after work)

Mobility is actually a huge challenge for all people in Saudi Arabia, not just women. In fact, many see the lack of public transportation as a much larger issue than the ban on women drivers. In particular, this impacts lower income individuals, who often cannot accept jobs in other neighborhoods because the cost of a car or a driver would be prohibitively expensive. Until the broader issue of mobility is addressed, many Saudi Arabians will be limited in their ability to reach full potential.

Savoring the 9-5

Hey guys! Eve here, your cultural correspondent. I’ve got another juicy societal topic for today’s discussion: women. I decided it was finally time to take it on…or try to. It’s such a complex topic I know I won’t be able to cover all the facets in one post.

Before I get all academic, I just want to share how optimistic, sophisticated, and tenacious we’ve found the women here to be. I’d be writing this post all day if I were to talk about everyone who has inspired me already, so I’ll focus on one for now: Kholoud Attar. Kholoud graduated from Dar Al-Hekma four years ago with a degree in graphic design. She was back on campus yesterday to present as a guest speaker at our workshop. Kholoud is the founder and editor of Design Magazine, a high-end fashion/ design/political commentary publication. In the three years since she started the magazine, distribution has grown from 2,000 copies to 40,000, and it now reaches multiple countries in the Middle East.

Although she impressed me on many levels—starting a business, starting a business in her early 20s, starting a business as a woman in Saudi Arabia, starting a business that has created jobs—what impressed me most was her willingness and desire to tackle sensitive cultural issues. The latest edition of her magazine addressed censorship (the Minister of Information closely monitors the media) and another edition manipulated the image of the Saudi flag in order to start a dialogue about what Saudi Arabia stands for (shown below). As a result of her “questioning the status quo”, Kholoud has actually been called into heated meetings with the country’s Minister of Information. And while she’s managed to talk her way out of the hot seat, she’s not backing down on the issues. She and her peers are eager for change, and they’re using Design Magazine to propel it. Kholoud isn’t letting her age or her gender get in the way.

Even so, it’s still a big challenge to do business in Saudi Arabia as a woman. The Businesswomen's Center at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce reports that only 14% of women are employed. The number’s likely going to grow, with the government making strong efforts to improve women’s educational and professional opportunities, including the May 15^th opening of Princess Noura University in Riyadh (photo below), which is the largest all-women’s university in the world.

One of the main roadblocks to women's employment, according to a Monitor report, comes in the form of gender-specific constraints within the regulatory environment. Until quite recently women had to appoint a male manager in order to “run” their business. Even now, if a woman walks into the business permitting office to try to start a business, she’s laughed or yelled at. She has to push hard in order to exercise her rights. Furthermore, since women can’t drive and the Kingdom is devoid of public transportation, it’s hard for them to get around locally for day-to-day business activities. And when it comes to international travel, Saudi women must get permission from their legal guardian. We’ve only been here for 9 days and have felt constrained in our ability to get around, and we have a dedicated driver to get us to and from the college! Many women can’t afford a driver.

Most government positions are not open to women and until recently, the country had strict segregation laws that required men and women to be separated in the workplace. Some companies do mix the sexes, but men are still predominant in both numbers and status. Thus, most women who are employed in Saudi Arabia work as teachers or nurses. Interestingly, many of them have access to loads of capital (Saudi Arabia is a very wealthy country after all, and according to Amnesty International women own 40% of the nation’s private wealth) so entrepreneurship—especially social entrepreneurship—is another common pursuit.

The women we’ve spoke with thus far—faculty, staff, students and women from the community—are very optimistic about the future. They see things changing, albeit slowly, and believe more and more opportunities will open up to women. Given the amazing women we’ve met, I can’t imagine that won’t be true.

Back in the classroom

Today was the first day of the four day workshop on Essential Business Skills that we are conducting at Dar Al-Hekma. We have been working hard over the past week to prepare the training materials for our sessions. These sessions will teach participants how to evaluate industries and new business opportunities, develop a marketing plan and conduct marketing research, manage projects effectively, and lead and motivate teams. Although we have been able to utilize many business principles and learning techniques from our first-year MBA courses, I have developed a strong appreciation for how challenging it can be to deliver content in an engaging and interactive way!

Many of the women attending the workshop do not have formal business training (although several have started their own businesses), but by the end of the first day, I was proud that they had conducted a SWOT analysis, brainstormed and clustered ideas using post-it notes, applied the 3C’s and 4P’s frameworks, and analyzed the attractiveness of starting a catering business in Jeddah using Porter’s Five Forces. It was strangely similar to our first year at Haas!

In addition to teaching, I am also learning quite a bit. Did you know that there is no official law that states that women cannot drive in Saudi Arabia? That Saudi women have cash savings of more than $12 billion that remain unused in Saudi bank accounts? Or that the milk industry in Saudi Arabia exhibits fierce competition? One of the most interesting things that came up today in conversation was the importance of handbags, shoes, and watches for women in Saudi Arabia. Since the women must wear abayas and hijabs in public, these accessories are some of the few ways in which they can express themselves.

It is hard to believe that our first week in-country is already over, but I am excited and intrigued by what the next two weeks will bring!

Saudization you say? What's that?

We’ve met many women at the school who identify themselves as something other than Saudi. In fact, most of them do! These students, faculty and staff seem to identify strongly with their foreign heritage, even if they haven’t lived or spent much time in their homeland. It makes the school feel very diverse. And in fact, the Saudi population as a whole is quite diverse: one fifth of the 26 million people living in Saudi Arabia are non-citizens. That means there are a lot of fathers (and a few mothers!) who move to the Kingdom with their families for a job. It also means, according to our hosts, that if Dad loses his job the whole family has to leave the Kingdom, even if the kids were born and raised here.

In Saudi Arabia (and perhaps other parts of the Middle East, I'm not sure), a father’s nationality determines his daughter’s nationality. I’m sure there are subtleties that I don’t understand, but basically if a woman’s father is a foreign national, then she is a national of that country as well, even if she was born in Saudi Arabia, even if her mother is Saudi. This law made for a few confusing conversations when I first arrived. “You’re Yemeni…so you’re originally from Yemen?…oh you’ve lived in the Kingdom your whole life…so you were born in Yemen?…oh you weren’t...Wait, what?”

One important consequence of this method for tracking citizenship is that it makes the already difficult task of finding a job even harder for many of Dar Al-Hekma’s grads. The Kingdom has a policy called “Saudization”, which requires that 75-80% of private companies’ employees be Saudi. The government implemented this policy to reduce the unemployment rate and address the growing number of Saudi college graduates. In practice, though, private companies haven’t reached that level of Saudi employment because foreign workers are willing to accept lower wages. As a result, the government is continually refining the policy, and just announced the most recent set of changes that include a “red”, “yellow”, “green” classification system. Green companies get incentives and government contracts; red ones are prohibited from renewing visas for their foreign employees.

For the “foreign” female graduates of Dar Al-Hekma—even second generation expats who were born in Saudi Arabia—Saudization is a significant roadblock to employment. I was really surprised when a finance student told me that she didn’t really see being a woman as a challenge; the challenge for her was not being Saudi. The students in the school are optimistic for the future, but they're also realistic. Some of them talk about getting jobs abroad, where they can get visas.

http://www.arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article388938.ece

Bab Al Yemen

Several of our lovely followers have requested a food blog post. We have heard your request and are happy to present our first food-related entry! Tonight, we had the opportunity to go to dinner at a Yemeni restaurant called Bab Al Yemen with two young women who work at Dar Al-Hekma, Kholoud and Arwa. Both of them were born and raised in Saudi, but Kholoud is Yemeni and Arwa is Egyptian (check Eve's upcoming post for more commentary on this).

In general, Yemeni cuisine is quite different from Middle Eastern cuisine (we will bring you an authentic Middle Eastern food blog post soon). The dishes are more sauce-based. We started the meal with a simple soup broth, to which we added lime juice.

Then, we had an appetizer, which I believe was called shafout, which is Yemeni bread with yogurt and fresh herbs like dill and mint (it looks like fish, but it's bread).

For the main course, we shared several dishes - I tried to remember/look-up the names, but unfortunately I can't figure it out. And the entire menu was in Arabic so that didn't help either. From left to right, the dishes were ground beef with potatoes and vegetables, chicken in a tomato broth, and white fish in a tomato and onion broth. The chicken dish was still boiling when it got to our table!

Also, the bread was HUGE and quite delicious. It tasted somewhat like Indian naan bread.

We also tried raisin juice (white and red), which is a traditional Yemeni drink. At first, we thought the waiter translated it wrong and it was actually grape juice, but it really did taste like raisins so I think he was right all along!

For dessert, we had a sweet bread pastry coated with honey on top (you can see it in the background) and some delicious tea that reminded me of chai tea.

It was a great meal and we had a wonderful time with our local hosts. We were shocked to discover that Kholoud and Arwa were attending a wedding later that night. The invitation had said that the bride and groom would walk down the aisle around 1am (this is not a typo), so they would be fine as long as they arrived before that time. We also heard that the wedding party would only be for ladies, and the men would have their own separate celebration. All in all, both the dinner and the conversation were quite intriguing!

Wednesday is the new Friday

As you may or may not know, the weekend in Saudi Arabia is Thursday and Friday, because Friday is the holiest day for Muslims. So tonight was our first weekend night out! Our first stop was a walk along the Corniche, which is the waterfront along the Red Sea. Here is a picture of King Fahd's Fountain, which is the tallest fountain in the world (1024 feet). It's a little hard to determine the scale, but trust me, it's huge. You can basically see it from all over the city.

We asked some women to take our picture with the fountain in the background. They were mesmerized by the camera and held it up for what seemed like a minute while we posed silently. When they gave it back to me, I realized that they hadn’t even taken a picture. First attempt, failed. So instead, we tried to take it ourselves and each of us had an attempt at creating the perfect shot. I have crowned Hind the winner.

Finally, as we were leaving, we came across four women who were attempting the same fountain picture trick. They were not wearing headscarves and had blonde hair, so it was clear that they too were not from the area (let's be honest, we don't blend in all that well, even with the abayas). Turns out they were British and we happily helped each other take the coveted group shot with the fountain. Here it is!

Next was dinner at a French café, which also turned out to be a shisha bar. They had a Moroccan dish, which especially pleased Hind.

I am also starting to discover that the fresh juices in Jeddah are quite delicious. Here’s me with fresh mango juice.

After dinner, we enjoyed some delicious apple shisha. Before coming to Saudi Arabia, I wouldn’t have imagined that four women could go to a restaurant without a male escort, and on top of that, smoke shisha. I guess I was wrong. It was a lovely way to end the night!

Just a typical day in Jeddah

Here we are going shopping at Bin Dawood, the local grocery store...

...where they sell ketchup, chili, salt and popcorn flavored chips.

On day 2, Eve is already rocking the coffee and sunglasses with her abaya as we enter the college gates.



Internet access is patchy, but it works well in the foyer of our room, where we have created a "home office."

Officially in Abayas!

So distinguished followers, ladies & gentlemen and dear friends,

This is how we left the US:

And this is how we were just an hour ago, while enjoying our food at Cafe Aroma, an apparently very famous shisha place very close to our hotel!

Ready?

It has been less than 48 hours and we are already getting the hang of it!