Sex and the Saudi

Overall funny. Sincerely hope the remarks about bengalis are expected to be taken in a lighter vein. Truthfully, bengalis working at the lower end of the job-market tend to be more docile in this regard. This could be owing to the extensive family they`ve to support back home or other factors affecting their decisions to break free from such servile and subservient contracts.

Some points that you did not to mention:
1. A Saudi-male`s desire to own a good car and having the ability to drive it like Schumacher through heavy-traffic.
2. Saudi`s infatuation with the `gora-saab`.
3. Prevalent for the past 10 years or so; the propaganda that all foreigners, specially the working class bengalis, indians, and pakistanis are amassing Saudi wealth in their countries. Jobs that deserve to be held by saudis are being given to south-asians (at less than half the salary, but of course, this point the saudi fails to consider).
4. Condoms are sold at 24hour shopping stores and at pharmacies.
5. Viagra is available, on prescription.
6. Although drugs and alcohol aren`t allowed into the kingdom, but you`ve drug-rehabilitation centers in the outskirts of all major cities. Its a 4 to 6 hour drive and the cost of a medium size pizza for any saudi who wants to travel outside of the Kingdom to get drunk or have sex. And this duty he performs religiously, whenever he wants (preferrably on the weekend) by going off to Bahrain. Viva-la-Causeway.

Some inaccuracies that I found in your article.

...in response to which the porter began operating on his master with said walking stick, finally stopped by several dozen police...
#This is not only true for Pathan porters but also true for Pathan taxi drivers and all the other Pakistani taxi drivers, who are mostly Punjabi (on average standing somewhere between 5ft6in to 6ft).

... All of them are commonly brown, and most (except Punjabis, like me) are pretty short. This provided added amusement, free of charge: I towered over Saudi Arabia’s policemen, leaving them in the odd position of looking down on me when in fact they were looking up to me...
#A majority of Saudi`s now, have a much fairer complexion like Pathans or Punjabis, because of their fathers/grandfathers taking brides from neighbouring arab countries, that can boost of their gori-chitti girls (Lebanon, Syria, Egypt etc.). One thing that you forgot to mention here is the slim and emaciated bodies of an average Saudi policeman.

...a Saudi man, ... You come home expecting a warm dinner .. your wife presents you not with dinner but a grocery list ... That you, the husband, have now become a chauffeur ...
#That isn`t necessarily true. Modern day saudis like to eat out a lot, if you aren`t a bachelor, you will probably be taking home a Take-Away from any restaurant that serves Arab/Turk cuisines or any of the other half-a-dozen or more international fast-food restaurant-chains. If a bachelor, you would be occupying the already filled-up singles section of the restaurant.

...Girls are married at alarmingly young ages in Saudi Arabia simply because their fathers are sick of driving them around: they just dump them on some other poor fool, who will then commence a lifetime of chauffeuring responsibilities...Saudi men have multiple wives, and thus even more daughters...
# Girls have their own chauffeurs. And so do their mothers. The multiple wives trend is considered to be a status symbol and in modern day Saudi Arabia, an average Saudi male cannot aspire to hold more than one wife or even hope to pay the cost of buying a second wife, let alone maintaining more than one.

... driving is the root of all evil, as they imagine that each time a Western woman steps into her car, it is to indulge in illicit sex. As much as any Western man would wish this true, it is not...
#Unfortunately for Saudis, even after having strict rules for females to only use a taxi with a male-escort, a fair number of their frustrated women-folk using these taxis (driven by Pakistanis/Bengalis) engage in sexual acts with the drivers. An old Chowk-article by the name of `Sex everywhere` comes to mind.

...When the wife’s pregnancy produces a child that is half-Filipino, certainly someone’s masculinity is in serious question. The Filipino is already in the car, though, and halfway to the desert...
#According to a new law, also carried in a news-item on the front-page of a local english-daily, hospitals can now only allow pregnant females to be admitted if they are accompanied by a male-escort who formally registers with the hospital, bearing responsibility for the care of the child, the mother. This law has been laid down after an alarming number of females delivered babies and abandoned them in various hospitals throughout the Kingdom. Which amazingly led the government to believe that the children were illegally conceived.

I am living in Saudi Arabia, and this article is funny, since other interactors moved their attention from article and now focusing on why bengali person mentioned only. Then let me tell you and this is real fact-saudis mostly hire malaysian, indonesian, philipino, bengali & hyderabadi ladies. Pathans & malaysian & philipino men as drivers. Any other nationality is very very very rare.
Usually most of the Saudi families are found in restaurants, and whenever they shop even for groceries it seems they are purchasing stuff for the whole year. Mashallah thats why their kids & ladies are so BIIIGGG...sorry for getting rude i should have said FAT, or to be more polite inclined torwards gaining weight.
Its very rare that you find a lady going alone for shopping, (which really bugs a lot, waiting for escort, come on save time instead of waiting. Go and get it for yourself). Ladies (specifically Saudi) can go only in groups but to shopping malls, not to grocery shops. If their husband comes to know that they went alone they get so mad, that it ends up in divorce.

This article is well written (in English) and is hilarious, but is pathetic in gist. I don`t understand that as homosapiens, how can we justify this generalization of a whole group of people into looking so bad as this article has made. Its like picking the worst of America and applying the same on all Americans, picking the worst of India and applying on all Indians, picking the worst of Pakistan and applying on all Pakistanis.

I am sorry, but this article is unbecoming of a graduate of as prestigious a school as NYU. Perhaps the writer got carried away by comparing the environment of a typical weekend night at Greenwich (spell?) Village with a typical perception about Saudi Arabia.

Again, a very well written article about total nonsense.

Salam,

This post is from the author, to no`s 6 & 9.

``Martial races`` is a British construct, an imagined idea that Punjabis and Pathans (well, at least, Punjabis) have internalized. I hope everyone could see that this is a satire, directed to peoples of Muslim and/or Subcontinental origin, who would understand the ``in-joke``: Punjabis like to think they`re a martial race, and they do so because the British made it up for their own purposes -- and everyone knows that the West Pakistani army, composed of some 90,000 soldiers, surrendered after being crushed by a supposedly ``racially inferior`` Indian army. It`s all a load of crap.

Recall that this is part of a larger book, which discusses, in depth, the Pakistani proclivity to view ``Pakistanis`` as a separate racial type, superior to Indians, though in real military terms, Pakistan loses every war it fights with India.

- Haroon

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You said it Ras!

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Moghul?!..not Mughal? (Perhaps you also call yourself `Moslem` not muslim).
Made any movies recently, Mr. Moghul ? ;)

With an anglicized name like that you have some gall advising us not to suckup to the white man.

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``...Punjabi and other martial races...``

I`m always struck by this one. What the heck is a martial race?

Ancient India for example was made of 16 kingdoms. Punjab and afghanistan would roughly fall in the gandhar kingdom. The other 15 had no army ???

RE: #6 ...

I Concur with Ras - While demonzing the reprehensible behaviour of the Saudi - the writer uses poor judgement and racial stereotypes to reinforcement his point.....
The term martial races ( a fictional agrandizement of the the NCOs by the gora masters )... The Proud pathan vs the pathetic Bengali .... `` The Brown skins vs ( The punjabis like me) `` reeks of racism etc etc ... I Have met both tall fair Bangladeshis as well as short dark Punjabis ....- so the racial steretypes dont apply..... and even iof there are - I have seen several short Dark `` put yoourt nationality here`` managinging tall fair Pakis dudes all over the valley ...... SO loose the stereotypes dude.....

Good to see an article on Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia should be the most discussed Muslim country, in the current world situation. It is the center of all the problems of the Muslim world. Unfortunately, Iraq and Afghanistan are the most discussed. Any country that is in the good books of the USA, apparently can do no wrong - specifically Saudi Arabia and Israel.

One has to hand it to the Saud family though. They play their cards well. Even if it is done at the expense of a lot of other Muslims. George Bush still treats them at his ranch - an honor reserved for his most loyal friends. The US has troops in Saudi Arabia to protect the Royal Family dictators, while it launches attacks from there to remove other Royal Family dictators. They, at least in rhetoric, oppose the Israelis, alongwith most Arabs. And are thus considered very, ``Arab`` by the Arabs. They treat Pakistanis like second rate citizens, yet some how or the other, many of the Pakistanis still sing their praises. They treat women like second rate citizens, yet nobody ever complains about them. While everyone complains about Iran`s treatment of women, even though Irani women now have one of the highest literacy rates in the Muslim world (and now have a Nobel Peace Prize).

The situation in the Middle East is getting interesting, with Saudi Arabia again gaining more importance. The US would have run over any other country, had it produced 14 of the WTC hijackers. It ran over Iraq and Afghanistan, even though none of the hijackers were from there. However, Iraq is one democratic step away from electing Shia Clerics into power. Maulvis in power in Iraq. Maulvis in power in Iran. If maulvis gain power in Saudi Arabia, directly, instead of indirectly through the house of Saud, 40% of the world`s oil will be controlled by maulvis - all of whom will be anti-US. After all, wasn`t it OBL who said the price of oil should be $300/barrel and not $30/barrel? And if maulvis take power in Pakistan, they will have nukes, as well. Even Turks, the most loyal of the loyal US allies, have now elected maulvis - though of the suit and tie variety. Maulvis win their syndicate elections in Egypt, as well. Though they get banned (like they used to in Turkey).

No wonder the USA is inviting Jamali, and Musharraf and Abdullah to America, every third day. It just fought a war, allegedly to spread, ``Democracy`` in the Muslim world, and has just realized that a democratic Muslim world will vote for maulvis. In such a situation, it definitely needs the House of Saud in power in Saudi Arabia. Even if Saudis continue flying planes into buildings.

Mr. Moghul,

this would have been an otherwise funny and witty article had it not been

your mention of ``Bengali`` in almost racist terms. You wrote :

``when a Saudi beats his Bengali employee, he expects the same passivity and silence from his other employees—"

and then:

``Imagine you are a Saudi man, tired from a day of beating your Bengali worker.``


It appears that we have learnt little from 1971.

Many ``short`` Bengali types like my old friend H. Alam who was easily 6` 3`` plus

would disagree with some of your comments.

Let us not point out the racism of one people by trying to similarly put down another.


Ras

the article is very funny... there is truth in it.. atleast the last part....

{{

When the wife’s pregnancy produces a child that is half-Filipino, certainly someone’s masculinity is in serious question. The Filipino is already in the car, though, and halfway to the desert, where he’ll simply fry to death, leaving the poor desi to more of his brutal fate.

}}
my friend here tells me that he knew of a guy who ecaped before his employer could drop in the middle of the desert....

#2 by temporal ...
I disagree...
I wouldn`t dare say this is Islam!!!! but I dont think you can get away by saying this aint` Islam either...


# 4 meet_taimoor
{{
God has given these damn fools so much money that people are forced to live there
}}
God Knows! ....

Having spent all my childhood in Saudi Arabia, this article did amuse me a lot. The author, if residing in Saudi Arabia has a strong control over his feelings that he used only these words for the Saudis.. :) Kharjis living in Saudi Arabia wonder why God has given these damn fools so much money that people are forced to live there. Khair, it is a good satire on the condition of women out there. About going back from work hoping for dinner, i remember a chat of a Saudi with my father who was astonished to know that when my father goes for work at 8 in the morning, my mother serves him breakfast. He said that I cant ask my wife for that or she will say that divorce me, which I cant afford because I have paid SR 200,000 to her father for marriage!! (I dont know which number wife was she). Rest.. a good article!!

Quite funny. Won`t bring in religion here for there is a lot to argue...but I found a couple of quotes interesting.

``Imagine you are a Saudi man, tired from a day of beating your Bengali worker. ``

Bengali worker? Rarely. Would it be different were the worker from any other region or part of the world? I do know that Bengali men like getting beaten. It is a profoundly exhilarating experience.

[Now consider also that the Saudi man is quite proud of his possession of a male organ, which allows him to father countless children, among them certainly daughters—all of whom also cannot drive. Girls are married at alarmingly young ages in Saudi Arabia simply because their fathers are sick of driving them around: they just dump them on some other poor fool, who will then commence a lifetime of chauffeuring responsibilities. ]

We must therefore deduce that chauffeurs are (gawd no!) in possession of said organ, of which they might be proud, which in turn could produce children and girls too, who because they have been driven around will not drive and will be married of to other chauffeurs with the requisite organ...so in the end it all boils down to cars. Sad na?

Veeru:

...this is not islam this is only one of a myriad (mis) interpretations of Islam...ask fatima mernissi

(answer to your next query...google for that moroccan lady:))

...t

What I am told by friends who know about Islam, here in India, is that the two verses about women in Islam being quoted for the veli, Sura al-Ahzab 33:32 and 53, were to be interpreted only for Muhammad`s wives. These were not applicable to other women at all. Furthermore, 33:53 was not explicit at all about whether the face and the hands needed to be veiled.

The fact that the veil`s usage has spread and found firm place in Islamic society has more, apparently, to do with commerce of property and business. It has been further forced into achieving a religious character thanks to the interpretations of jurists and others.

To those who will now come forth with their responses, I say ``Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grav, even if it is in China``.