I spent the last two days discovering Riyad, It is the first time I go there. Riyadh still feels and look like Saudi, but I could relate to “money CAN buy beauty!” The highlight of my visit was meeting a very impressive Saudi lady. I met her at the kingdom mall with her husband who knows Yasser. They insisted on inviting us to a meal, but since it was tight and Y. did not have time, we agreed that I will go to have coffee with the lady in the morning. What caught my attention is that even though this lady does not wear the hijab, when she was with her husband she covered her face! (According to her when they are on their own, no one knows who they are, so it are safe, but once they are with their husbands they are known and so they have to cover. My mother, however has another point of view, the only men they wear the hijab in front are their own husbands which is really very ironic)
I spent yesterday morning in her humble house (humble means instead of covering one whole block it covers half a block!) She was such a low maintenance, pleasant and smart person. She is a dentist who studied in the UK, there, she learnt the meaning of living a real modest life and according to her she loved it. She loved having to cook for her kids, having to do their laundry, having to take care of her shopping and do her own documents. But what she loved most was that she had to walk from one location to the other in campus wearing a brand less jeans and T-shirt (one of the biggest problem women face in Saudi, is that they have to wear impeccably expensive at any moment, because if they were caught otherwise they will be shunned by society!). Jo has 5 kids, 4 of which are girls, and she is doing a very impressive work to teach them that they are as smart and independent as any other women around the world. That they have to be appreciated for who they are and not what they own.
Way to go Johara.
I just finished another book by Paul Auster, The New York Trilogy. Interesting, I liked the locked room more that the other two. But all three have to be read in order to understand what is going on. I still like Leviathan and book of illusions the most. In his writing I like how he keeps putting small anecdotes and incidents to stress his point.
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