My Brief Saudi Encounter

When I booked my ticket in February, the price of my return flight was honestly too good to be true. For under $1200, I had a return flight to Kuala Lumpur, and a one-way ticket to Siem Reap. The catch: I was flying through Saudi Arabia. 

The Middle East is crudely mythologized in the United States, and it becomes this foreign land that houses oil, burqas, terrorism, and extreme Islam. I felt prepared for my brief encounter with what Flaubert and so many before and after him deemed "the Orient," but felt that I would be sheltered in the airport.

Not so. I arrived at JFK about two and a half hours before my flight (I meant to be there three hours ahead but Bareburger was more important at the time) with my two backpacks in tow along with a large bag of Whole Foods goodies (which wow--I have a lot but I am thankful for!!). Already in the line, I saw more burqas than ever before. I was used to hijabs in Indonesia, but it is always shocking to see a female, just like myself, have only her eyes showing to the world. I also saw some very fashionable Burberry and Fendi hijabs, along with piles of luggage on smartcarts (the amount of luggage was truly concerning)

I was wearing my signature Nike shorts in line; however, when it was my turn to check-in (after about 45 minutes) I was told I had to put on long pants before receiving my boarding pass. 

Excuse me?

Luckily, I had slightly foreseen such an occasion and had leggings in my backpack. I put them on and got my boarding passes to Jeddah and Kuala Lumpur, and by some miracle my bag only weighed 21.7kgs. 

View from the table I parked myself at

On the plane, I sat next to a little boy and a woman with a full burqa on. Assuming that she was travelling with her mom (who came over often, and often woke me up in the process of either leaning her hand on my shoulder, her talking basically in my ear, or her black burqa sleeves tickling my face), I was surprised to see that her husband was in the seat in front of us with his friends, but never once acknowledged his wife or son. For some reason, I thought that they were meeting her husband in Saudi Arabia because there was no sign of him on the plane, and because I was sitting in the aisle seat of a three seat row, I took the spot he might theoretically take. I did see couples, nonetheless, that were "holding-hands-affectionate" with each other. 

The flight attendants were all female, but there were only some male cabin crew in a simple white-shirt-black-pants combo. Honestly, the flight attendants did nothing to ensure that electronics were off, tables up, seats up, and seat belts fastened. There were a few announcements, but no walking through the cabin. 

I was happy that we all had personal TVs, not so happy to find out that these TVs barely had any television on them. I went to recent western film releases, expecting to catch up on the Oscar winners, and instead only recognized Life of Pi, which, sorry, but I have no interest in watching. In television, however, I saw familiar hits: Friends and Modern Family. I watched the two available episodes of Friends and started to realize....some words were bleeped out, scenes missing, and it was fuzzy over Rachel and Monica's chests. The word "beer" was bleeped out, yet not lager, stout, or ale, which was interesting (the episode happened to feature Ross and guest star Paul Rudd having lager together, hence the plethora of beer related vocabulary). In Modern Family, they bleeped out the word "period" and "menstruation." So does this just not exist? I wondered then, what was the point of even showing these series? Is saying the word "beer" really going to ruin Saudi way of life? And periods are a way of life, whether it is recognized or not. As an American, I would see this censorship as the government taking away my freedom to watch what I want, but in Saudi Arabia, because the Koran--or some version of the Koran--is the basis of life, this "right-to-see-Rachel's-cleavage-or-hear-the-word-beer" is not even considered a freedom. Bleeping out "period" irked me even more. On a more macro scale, this means that the human rights initiatives can be construed differently all over the world depending on the definitions of these freedoms. Although much of human rights discourse is founded on equality...are we equal?

I was thinking that I really would not be able to listen and respect my mom like I do today if she were wearing a burqa that covered everything but her eyes, and wasn't assertive and independent. But then I get conflicted: In Islam, this is how women are (not) meant to be. In the US / Europe, are we actually improper? Is complete equality between the sexes ever possible, and meant to be? Although comparing Saudi Arabia to the US is extreme, and let me tell you I am thankful to be able to wear shorts, and write this because I have only recently become very interested in feminism and feminist policies. Even though I am confined to a small portion of the airport, I am still in the land where television is only just starting to break cultural barriers (and New York Times wrote a great article about this) and has two women participate in the Olympics for the first time ever less than a year ago. 

Well aware that I should read some Saba Mahmood, and fully plan on it.