First trip out of the bubble

Still on my way back from head over hills with the very nice and uneasy performance of Maisah Sobaihi ( http://maisahsobaihi.com/).

A very nice women-only one woman-show that reflects perfectly the key issues in KSA: marriage, driving and all kind of underground subjects that are treated with great subtility.

First we learn that yes men can chose to marry up to 4 women but clearly he does not want to be a bad guy to the actual wife, he is just contributing to a social responsible cause (it sounds like a joke in the show but she ensures that's what men officially answer when asked!!) it's social responsibility that lead them to marry single or divorced women.

Because none of those status are well observed in ksa, although apparently the rate of divorce is exploding. One women divorced her husband few months ago, after 25 years de bons et loyaux services because her husband never said "no" to her...could we get his number ya, please?

Then we discover that single or divorced women tired of this loneliness are willing to settle for an unofficial marriage with the husband who already has a family and basically would just like to have an additional quicky without his wife knowing of it. In Maisah's friend life what looked like paradise at first: she has the feeling to get a new status, can have best of both worlds: take care of her girls from her first marriage and then since she is married again can enjoy these touchy movements that otherwise are not permitted... When writing these elements on the paper, I feel like basically this is not anything different from our society, besides the fact they actually get married, this is just a husband having an affair with a woman who accepts to date a married guy. At the end, the fairy tales ends just as in any other country: the poor Leila is divorced by the husband whose first wife is getting very suspicious of his second love affair and definitely he will never leave her... Cqfd!

One interesting moment went when Leila was showing us all the nice lingerie she had the chance to buy with her forbidden husband and that for politically correct reasons, she tried to convince us that the nice little string that goes with the night dress is in fact a head band... Even the actress didn't manage to remain serious when doing that part.

My conclusion, after writing this part, is that what drives society conversations is common to all languages: sex, sun and love...

The driving theme came next as Maisah's friends in the US where thinking that not having this sensible right to go and get on your car whenever you want to go on your own wherever you want (you see the frustration is already building in my head...) would allow women to play the very nice role of Miss Daisy and her driver. And Maisha recognizes that some Saudi women do enjoy that part and do not want to learn how to drive.

But the other flip flap of this is that you basically have to learn how to deal with a driver who usually does not come from a very educated family, who sometimes barely speaks your language so that you have to explain in "petit negre" everything single errand you would like him to do thus taking 10 minutes when the course would have been done in three if you could f... Drive!! Without speaking about the fact that you might have to teach him how to wash a car and respect hygienic norms afterwards. An entire full time job! And don't even think you could just rely on taxi. In the past three weeks I have been trying to book taxis twice to go to Jeddah, one day in advance... Impossible! They are all booked... 

The other funny picture on this trip was to observe all these foreign women get in the bus westernly dressed and come out Abaya style once at Effat University. Then once at home again, and the same women  wiuld just get rid of this black cover to ride on their bike home. It's a bit like when you go to the restaurant "dans le noir" where once you get to see the light you're breezing again but then realize that the waiter who was accompanying you does not have that chance...

On the way there I was able to see a bit of Jeddah but I doubt it was the best part. Let's see on Sunday for nice pictures hopefully. Another interesting point: radars are universals... Even here they flash you if you over speed limit, good to know although here at least I won't get any speed ticket that's one good positive side of the situation. As they say there is always two ways to look at it, better take the most optimist one :-)

Now, off to bed as tomorrow it's snorkeling day!