Although this probably would never happen in Saudi Arabia, I will share an experience of one of my Saudi niece’s. She and her husband recently returned to the Kingdom this year after having lived in Alexandria, Egypt where he was attending University. She is a modern and open minded Saudi woman and has an excellent grasp of English. One day while in Cairo she was out and about. Somehow she found herself engaged in a dialogue with Western English-speaking tourists. Now of course she was dressed in abaya, hijjab and niqab so only her eyes were revealed. The group with whom she was interacting politely asked her if she would have any objections to having her picture taken with them as well as alone by herself. She graciously agreed to their request. She never did tell them that she was in fact a Saudi national but chances are that this group is one of the very very few who actually do have a photo of a Saudi woman who actually allowed herself to be photographed. (Little did they know!) When she shared this experience with us, we enjoyed teasing her in how she could have set up her own little business as the “Burqa clad picture lady.”
Filed under: abbya, gender, Just for fun, Saudi Arabia, Saudi culture, travel | 33 Comments »
