Saudis, who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s, only need to ask their parents and grandparents what another Saudi Arabia may look like. Forty years after 1979, our generation can finally influence the course of the country.
I represent a generation that was born after the doomed year of 1979, following that year was a reshaping of Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. An exasperated region that was disappointed by the six-day war, and the wake up of the illusion of the Arab Nasserism pushed the region further into the abyss of religious devotion. My generation, or those who were born in the eighties, did not experience the renaissance era where literature, music, films and plays were cherished and applauded. Religious clerics were celebrities who were in charge of the media, any comment or announcement done by the name of religion was respected tremendously.
I perceived the surroundings as a stranger who could not comprehend the harsh beliefs of “Us against the world” or “whoever is not like us is wrong”. I was born in the United States; my parents were part of a wave of Saudis who chose to study abroad for many years, thus, absorbed the western culture and the tendency to tolerate other civilizations and embrace the differences as part of the human nature.
Returning back to Saudi Arabia was harsh in the midst of “Al-Sahwa” which is the Muslim awakening, a movement that was a result of many factors including the Iranian revolution in 1979, which caused the overthrown of the Persian monarchy under the Shah Mohammed Pahlavi, thus turned Iran into an Islamic Republic ruled by Ayatollah Khomeini. The same year experienced the siege of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, when Juhayman Al-Otaibi, an extremist raided the Holy mosque with weapons claiming that the awaited Mahdi was amongst them, the siege of the Holy Mosque caused a major milestone that reshaped the Saudi society.Nothing remained the same afterwards.
This was coupled with the Jihad in Afghanistan against the Soviet Union, which created afterwards figures such as Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Thawahiri, who believed that they could conquer the world through Al-Qaeda. The teachings of the Muslim Brotherhood on the other hand already infested the Saudi Education system. Many who belonged to the Muslim Brotherhood fled their countries during the sixties and seventies and arrived in Saudi Arabia as education experts with massive recommendations that were designed to glorify religion, segregation between genders. My generation experienced constant religious preaching, the dissemination of religious cassette tapes instead of music mixes. The older generation must have comprehended the massive changes in the society, yet for the younger ones they were born within an isolated society which believed the only salvation was within the teachings of Islam.
The gatherings of people were more intimate and more peaceful without judging others of how their ethics or how they apply religious demeaners on their daily lives.
In fact, my grandparents witnessed the era where life was much easier which was during the late sixties and early seventies in the Hijaz region which is located in the western side of Saudi Arabia which is considered more cosmopolitan, given the fact that the two Holy mosques are located there and many pilgrims arrived and were even allowed to stay with local host families such as in Mecca and Medina. The pilgrims used to utilize rooms in many homes of the locals which made it an opportunity to mix with other cultures and socialize with them.
My grandfather was involved in the textile business and travelled frequently to many countries including Turkey, Jordan and Syria to choose the textiles and fabrics. My grandmother was negotiating in many of the business deals as well as administering the custom clearance without facing any exasperation of men who dealt with her more than my grandfather. Things back then were more relaxed where weddings were celebrated mixed between men and women which involved singing and dancing. Picnics at parcs were planned for big families, while others gathered in cabins in the beach on the shores of the Red Sea.
Women were not all wearing veils, it was more of a casual way of hiding parts of the hair as part of a tradition that shows respect of the elderly. The mixing of families made it easier to fall in love and arrange for marriages later on. At some cities such as in Jeddah, there were movie theatres while in other areas certain neighbors had equipment to play the movies and invited the rest of the people to come watch movies at their place. The gatherings of people were more intimate and more peaceful without judging others of how their ethics or how they apply religious demeaners on their daily lives.
My mother described to me what seems to be her reflection of what had happened during that time right before she left with my father to the United States to complete their education in 1979, she remembers religious bearded men arriving out of nowhere and demanding the society to change its norms. They were willing to punish those who did not listen or obey them. The society as a whole started to change as segregation between the genders was visible. Even movie theatres were abolished.
Certain families who were not religiously strict even started to force their daughters to wear the veil as part of a new norm or even worse, ask them not to raise their voices in front of men as part of their modesty and complete segregation between genders.
During the eighties, my mother completed her education and returned with my father back to Saudi. She did not have many job choices, as women chose traditional jobs such as teaching or medicine most of the time. Certain families who were not religiously strict even started to force their daughters to wear the veil as part of a new norm or even worse, ask them not to raise their voices in front of men as part of their modesty and complete segregation between genders. People were convinced that the only salvation in this world is through religion. And any other people who were different are considered enemies that threaten the teachings of Islam.
I have personally witnessed back in college colleagues of mine demanding at an international conference involving empowering women to leave us alone, asking westerners not to meddle with our affairs such as women driving since we do not need that as we mostly have drivers to take us to where we wanted. I was never able to understand their concept of not wanting to have rights of their own. Even getting married became the responsibility of mothers of grooms hunting for the perfect candidates in weddings which involved typical features that are considered standards that reflect beauty, such as the woman being tall and white with wide eyes and long dark hair. I did get approached in weddings in my late teens and early twenties where possible future mothers in laws asked me which family I came from and where my mother sat during the wedding.
It seemed ridiculous to me. This even reached a point where I was approached in a supermarket and in a hospital, which was definitely merely based on the looks and the fact that I had soft features that might indicate how “peaceful” I might be. In fact, I do have many friends who got married that way stating that it is better than getting into relationships with men who might not be serious enough to get married. I am glad that the last few years involved more opening up between genders who meet more in workplaces with many deciding to find their matches by themselves.
It was more like the society lived in their own bubble, believing that those who practiced the teachings of Islam properly were the only saved ones from Hell. This varied from a person to another depending on their interpretation yet there were the extremists who believed that women should cover their faces and even their hands. I have heard from religious teachers during school that I had to do that.
Back when I was ten I still remember a religious teacher that insisted that sleeping was a type of “small death” and that we should say certain prayers before we sleep since our spirits will leave our bodies for a while until we wake up.
I remember once when I was sixteen I decided suddenly to cover my face in the car. My mother looked at me disapprovingly and asked me not to do that again. Back when I was ten I still remember a religious teacher that insisted that sleeping was a type of “small death” and that we should say certain prayers before we sleep since our spirits will leave our bodies for a while until we wake up. This led me to have severe panic attacks and insomnia as a child aside from being rebellious and not wanting to sleep early. I do remember that I once wanted to observe my soul leaving my body once I slept and I did feel my heart pounding so hard and not being able to breathe.
What aggravated the situation more was the 9/11 attack which suddenly put Saudi Arabia in the map of the world and made the society itself realize there was life outside of the Kingdom. Osama Bin Laden became a celebrity, along with 15 Saudis -out of the 19 hijackers- affiliated with Al-Qaeda organization. Misconceptions of the Kingdom were all over the place. The international media started attacking Saudi Arabia massively, it was difficult to react as the local media was dedicated to its society more than internationally.
The country itself faced the threat of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula followed by the threat of ISIS. Many terrorist attacks targeted Saudi Arabia and killing civilians. 2003 was a turning point to the country when massive security measures were erected to stop extremism, a rehabilitation center was structured to deradicalize extremists. People started to fear sending their sons to mosques as there was fear that Al-Qaeda was attracting young men to join them in their training camps, I remember my friend’s mother forbidding her sons to visit mosques even during Friday prayers.
One of my colleagues even told me once that a boys’ summer camp he was about to join was linked to extremists. Donating to charities became fraud upon as there were some that were linked to terrorist funding when it used to be independent charities. In fact, once terrorism affected Saudi Arabia whether in its perception in the world and inside its borders where people respected whatever a religious preacher says, that was a turning point where there was a realization that misinterpretation of religion might turn people into enemies of the State or hostile aggressive people filled with hate, even though the extremists represented a small portion of the society, the danger back then was finally realized.
Even cynicism towards what certain religious preachers says is now evident if what was written is not logical nor convincing. This was not even possible before once every preacher’s words were considered sacred.
The Friday speeches in mosques started to become standardized with a warning not to include any hatred speeches or anything that does not support tolerance. The media itself started to change as the voice of moderate writers who believed in social reforms became voiced out. Tolerance became the new motto of the society where there was a realization that there was life outside of the country and beyond the borders of religion. Of course, the students who obtained scholarships at different countries during King Abdullah’s scholarship initiative were among those who pushed for the change in the society.
The other aspect which helped in the vigorous changes was the explosion of the internet and the social media in Saudi Arabia, where it was easier to get the information from the sources themselves. Simply reading the comments of the locals nowadays reflect how massively the awareness of the world has changed. Even cynicism towards what certain religious preachers says is now evident if what was written is not logical nor convincing. This was not even possible before once every preacher’s words were considered sacred.
Recently the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman summarized what our generation faced by a simple sentence: “What happened in the last 30 years is not Saudi Arabia. What happened in the region in the last 30 years is not the Middle East.” Signs of the return of the pre-1979 era to the Kingdom are evident, with the vision 2030 reshaping Saudi Arabia with vigorous modernization, and a blue print for a bright future which invests in the Youth’s, a rigid transformation that will hopefully create the new Saudi Arabia, with a real awakening away from the remnants of an isolated Kingdom.
Major changes are evident, more than 30 women became members of the Shura Council. The lift of the driving ban occurred, I was among other Saudi females who obtained my Saudi driving license cherishing this moment. Cinemas and music concerts are back in the Kingdom. Many Saudis from the younger generation are now spotted working in shopping malls, coffee places, restaurants and pharmacies, which before was not socially accepted as many preferred traditional jobs such as banking, teaching or medicine.
There were exasperated expectations that the conservatives in the society will not accept those changes, yet change already started with more than 60 percent of the population under the age of thirty, there is a willingness to accept change. It will not be an easy road yet I am delighted to be part of the national transformation and I look forward to further developments.
Nidaa Abu-Ali is a journalist and writer. Born in 1983, she grew up in Saudi Arabia and the US and later studied at the Institute for Defense and Strategic Studies (IDSS) in Singapore, focusing on Middle East policy and security policy. She has written four novels and writes for the London-based newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat on radicalization and literature.
