Saudi Arabia has a distinct issue with men and women being in the same place. Popular thought seems to have it that if the two are in the same place, sex is going to happen. Torrid, illegal sex. And that simply cannot be allowed.
As a result, the country has devised various wide flung schemes to keep the two apart, from sex-segregated schools to separate sections of restaurants that keep men apart from women and families (which may include male members, of course). This separation extends to shopping malls, among the few public, social recreation venues the Kingdom affords its citizens. But, people being people, what is forbidden becomes attractive.
And so, young men, banned from malls, find ways to get into them. It’s a challenge that they’ve accepted, be it for the simple sake of doing what is barred to them or taking whatever scrap of a chance they can find to put themselves in the company of females. Arab News reports on the issue…
Young Saudis invent ploys to enter family-only malls
NADIA AL-FAWAZ | ARAB NEWSABHA: Entering malls and shopping centers have become a real challenge for young Saudi men, who have innovated many ways and means to force themselves inside.
Under the prevailing rules, only women and families are allowed to enter malls. The young men are barred from malls because of fears that they may disturb families. The young men have considered this a challenge that they have to defeat and deal with one way or another.
Many young men dress like women in order to be allowed into the malls. Others bribe the security guard who controls the gates, while a third group pays money to young girls who will give them company to gain access to malls.
Most of these adventures take place over the weekends. Many young men gather at the gates of malls and shopping centers with the hope of being allowed to go inside. “Preventing young men from entering malls represents a real challenge that we have to overcome,” said Saeed Al-Amri, a young Saudi.
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It’s sad, really, that millions upon millions of Riyals are spent in trying to maintain this separation. Schools, businesses, banks; restaurants, medical clinics, airport waiting areas… all are duplicated in the name of segregation. It would be far cheaper to teach men (and women, if necessary) that proximity does not equal promiscuity.
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December:30:2011 - 13:16
Ah youth! I am particularly tall (for a Saudi), and when I’m unshaved I look a lot older. I used that to my advantage many times to enter “forbidden” malls. The trick is to act as if you own the damn place, and have a loud, officious sounding, conversation on your cell phone as you pass the gate keepers.
December:30:2011 - 15:15
This is all an inevitable consequence of our foolish gender taboos.
For another, more tragic consequence, of our taboos:
http://bikyamasr.com/52127/kenyan-gay-men-become-sex-slaves-in-arab-gulf/
December:30:2011 - 15:48
As soon as my “kids” got old enough to do their own shopping- they weren’t allowed in the malls without me. When will they ever consider peoples behavior to be the standard of how they should be treated- rather than gender?
December:30:2011 - 16:05
Saudi Jawa-I’m taking that comment as a public service announcement. LOL
I seem to remember a Saudi man commenting elsewhere that in fact not having access to the malls meant not having access to certain activities like ice skating, or even just shopping for oneself on an urgent basis. He was about 21 and had just recently been tossed out again.
It is a lamentable practice of exclusion and its attendant complications.
December:30:2011 - 20:27
A friend of mine who lived in Jerusalem says that much as the Palestinian government may deplore Jewish settlements, that is where the Arab women prefer to shop. They do not get harassed because Arab men are not allowed in.
January:01:2012 - 15:49
Dakota:
If that is true, it would be amusingly ironic.
However, I would doubt that it is true.
Does anyone know?
January:01:2012 - 18:13
If what is true? That Arab men harass women? The consensus is that Arab men are absolutely horrible, and that Saudi men are the worst of the Arabs, possibly because their wealth (or presumed wealth) gives them de facto immunity from prosecution. You see them in Riyadh cruising around the compounds. Maybe they can’t always get to Bahrain during the week.
Apparently the banking is better in the settlements as well, security for cash stations etc. My friend (Roman Catholic, so no dog in that fight) was there long enough to know. A surprise to me, since I always thought the Jews in the settlements didn’t even get along with other Jews.
January:01:2012 - 22:03
You would think that with the amount of money and construction to keep the sexes apart, that by now they would realize this is an unnatural situation creating a disturbed society.