Mike's Saudi (35) Success for Mansour and I

At work Mansour and I decided to do an investigation of our American contractor. There was no particular reason for our investigation and the contractor welcomed and cooperated with us but we felt it would be a useful thing to do. As it happens it was, we employed the same strategy as we had at Khamis Mansour talked to the Saudi trainees and I talked to the trainer and their management. We found that there had been a mix up and the contractor was under staffed as laid out in their contract. Naturally up to this point no one had noticed at least from the RSAF side they hadn’t. It was raised up to the Head Quarters and put right. Mansour and I got a lot of kudos out of it that was to do neither of us any good in the end.

Shortly after our report had gone in Mansour was moved to the office of the Base Commander which broke up our team at work though we continued our socializing particularly as Fateeha and Syb had become close friends. At the same time our boss was transferred to Riyadh, so we had a new one. A young dynamic captain who drove a BMC Mini and was by Saudi standards very progressive, he had just returned from the States and was fired up with what he had seen over there. He encouraged me to help him in the impossible task of improving the training of the Saudi trainees with my new colleague and workmate.

Mike's Saudi (34) A Saudi Disco

 

We used to visit Mansour and Fateeha on a regular basis and they would visit with us and our bonds strengthened. In fact when Fateeha bore her husband a son after three girls he took us to visit her in hospital and meet his new heir, this was an incredible honour as every Muslim wants a son and we the first to see him. To celebrate Mansour decided to have a disco once Fateeha was out of hospital; his only knowledge of discos was what he had heard and a few videos. He cleared His family lounge out invited all the American managers and their wives along, advised his female relatives it was western dress and a western disco. He had a tape machine and flashing lights, no booze of course but the Saudi girls turned up trumps, I was convinced one or two had sprayed their tight leggings on. It really did look the part, the music started and the expatriates took their wives and started to gyrate in the usual fashion but the Saudis were not used to dancing as couples so segregated and danced girl and girl, man and man which made for in interesting evening. We tried to show them but each time they would separate into same sex groups. Just as a note in Saudi as a man if you walk along hand in hand with another man you are considered normal, if you walk hand in hand with a woman your sexuality is questioned. It is a serious matter for the Mutawa as it is against the teachings of the Quran; Mansour was once cautioned for walking hand in hand with his wife.

Mike's Saudi (33) Syb shops Saudi style



 

Syb and I were soon totally accepted throughout the family and so it happened that when Mansour and I were asked to return to Khamis Mushayt to do a little research into a base that was now totally manned by RSAF personnel with a few American advisors. Our object was to see if there were any tips or pitfalls we could take advantage of or avoid at the Dahran base. Syb lived with Fateeha while we were away. It was during this time the BBC chose to show “The Death of a Princess” a film deeply offensive to the Saudis, which caused much discussion amongst her friends in the house. Not having a full command of conversational Arabic she could only judge that something had upset them and for their part they could speak no English. After what seemed like an age one of Mansour’s brothers came in and explained to Syb, although the Saudis were very upset at the English for showing the film she was not to worry as she was a visitor in their country and their friend.

Syb had a glorious time with the family going out shopping, she insisted on wearing Purdah so as not to draw attention to the group. Apparently behind the veil of purdah the girls were just girls admiring good looking and particularly blond men. Some of the unmarried girls would hand out their telephone numbers but would always stay mystically behind their purdah. Not all Saudi women are as down trodden as people in the west believe; in fact some actually have stock brokers investing their money and are richer than their husbands. Fateeha was in the family circle like many western wives but behaved in line with her religion when required to do so. It was an experience Syb would never forget.



Mike's Saudi (32) Getting to know Mansour

Mansour was what might be described as a middle class Saudi with western leanings but a strong reliance on his faith. So he tended to understand me and my sense of humour and I had by this time been in Saudi long enough to more or less understand him. When Syb arrived back out I had taken him home and introduced him to her, we had a cup of tea made the Arabic way which impressed him, then, much to our surprise, he suggested we go to his home to meet his wife. This should be seen in the context of the time and of Islam, wives did not meet other males outside the family.

We were naturally flattered. When we arrived at his home both of us were ushered in to the family lounge and introduced to Fateeha his wife and the children. Syb and Fateeha immediately took to each other and learnt over the next few weeks to converse with each other in a half English and half Arabic. We all seemed to integrate so well from that moment on we became members of his family and whenever we visited we all used the family lounge, the only exception was when non-family men or women visited, and then we used to split into the two lounges. Mansour’s extended family was very large and we were introduced round “This is my brother from another mother” was not unusually his father had had many wives but no more than four at a time as was required by Islam.