The Saudi Experience

Traveling To Saudi Arabia Is Different For A Woman, As CBS News Producer Mary Walsh Discovered

(CBS)  Written by CBS News producer Mary Walsh, on assignment for 60 Minutes.

The experience of putting on an Abaya and scarf just to get into Saudi Arabia is unsettling, even for a journalist used to hop scotching countries and cultures. I'd spent time in Muslim countries before, but in Saudi Arabia the rules are strict - all women must cover themselves in black robes and head scarves. This is said to safeguard public morality.

Preparing for the trip, I reached out to CBS News correspondents Sheila McVicar and Elizabeth Palmer, veterans of the Saudi experience, to get the wardrobe lowdown. I needed an Abaya just to get off the plane, they told me. No, I wouldn't be able to buy it in the Paris airport en route.

So my journey to Riyadh began with a frantic drive up Massachusetts Avenue in Washington D.C. I had been searching for an Abaya store with no success and my flight was in less than 24 hours. I was desperate.

So, as Friday prayers at the Islamic Center ended, I drove up the avenue stopping my cab to ask covered women walking by "Where'd you buy your outfit?" One pointed to the Islamic Center itself.

In there, she said. Who knew?

The gift shop has books and Abayas. I came away with a hooded one for day wear, another with a few shiny beads for evening.

But wearing robes does not necessarily open doors in Saudi Arabia. I had booked the Four Seasons Hotel specifically because its gym is expansive and well known. It's also off-limits to women. Ditto the swimming pool. To get some exercise I had to go to a tiny room in an obscure location. The front desk gave me a secret code to open the door. Inside there was a treadmill and a couple hand weights.

In the morning I learned another rule when I sat down for a working breakfast with the CBS News camera team - women are forbidden in restaurants' main dining rooms. The maitre d' interrupted our conversation and moved me to a side room. My CBS colleagues kindly joined me.

But truth be told when it came to getting my work done, none of these cultural strictures mattered. Inside that robe I was still a CBS News producer working with CBS News national security correspondent David Martin.

We were there to do a story on the rehabilitation center the Saudis have put together for ex-jihadists, men who had joined al Qaeda and spent years in jail - either in Saudi Arabia or in Guantanamo. It's a serious subject and the Saudi psychologists, social workers and, yes, even the sheik, took me seriously when I explained how we wanted to proceed with our story. We would need extensive interviews, I told them. We're here for 60 Minutes; we must have in-depth access to the work you’re doing.

As I said the words "60 Minutes" I saw expressions soften, small nods of recognition. Most of these men were educated in American universities. "60 Minutes," one doctor responded. "If I had known, I would have brought my son."

Watch the full segment below:

[sam-kiley]

bonjour
Mais à vrai dire quand il est venu à faire mon travail, aucune de ces restrictions culturelles d'importance.

vous l'avez dit vous meme, une abbaya ou un foulard, n'ont jamais empeché une femme
musulmane, d''avancer, d'accomplir plein de choses, il n'ya pas que dans ce pays que la femme porte une abbaya, une djellaba, et un foulard,, cela n'empeche pas ses femmes d'etudier, de travailler ...de conduire , de sortir librement..etc..ce qui le cas dans
mon pays ......en arabie saoudite aussi les choses changent doucement mais surement..je l'espére..
pour la reinsertion, des anciens detenus de guantanamo, j'espére qu'elle se fera dans de bonnes conditions, tout un chacun a droit a une deuxiéme chance....je salue cette initiative de deuxiéme chance....

[maxee525]

Where are all the feminists in America on this issue? They complain about women not getting spots on the Supreme Court or only making 70% of what a man makes. Yet, they never even mention the fact that a Middle Eastern woman can get stoned to death for removing her veil in public.

[faez7046]

I think these former terrorists should go through trials and kept in jails. What the Saudi government is doing is wrong and it's just doing this because it's greatly linked to the very same idiology. Can the Saudi government tell the world why some 13 Shia prisoners are in jails since mid 90s? why they look at these as "our kids" ? I think because they are indeed their idiological kids. I was not surprised when I heard some former terrorists went back to their terrorism camps. This is a cancerous idiology. Westerners do not appreciate this fact. We muslims know this and suffer from it. The Saudi government is just taking care of it's "kids".

[emokkk]

I can't believe you people are judging a country you know nothing about!
I am a Saudi woman, I am not being abused or all the of the terrible things you have mentioned in all the above comments.

Let me tell you my story...
I was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. And I lived there until I graduated from High School. Then, I traveled to Washington D.C. in the states in pursue of a better higher education (which is now offered in our country for woman and men). After ten years of living in the states, I went back to my country with my husband and daughter. I lived in Riyadh for about another ten years, then I traveled to Dubai for a couple of years with my two daughters, and finally, I came back to my hometown in Jeddah where my eldest daughter Haneen is studying Computer Science in Effat University in Jeddah, and my youngest studying in junior high.
Throughout my entire life I have not been under any sort of abuse, nor have I been unable to claim my rights as a Saudi woman. I have not been beaten down or shot at or any of that!!

I don't deny that there are women who are being abused, there are men who are violent, and there are people who believe in strange things I have never heard of... But if you watch Oprah or Dr. Phill, you find all of the cases I have mentioned and some are even more shivering and more disgusting.

Saudi Arabia is one of the most peaceful countries you can ever find, we have never been to war, and war has never come to us!
Sure, we have a few bad people, but so does every other country in the entire world! You shouldn't judge a whole country by a few people who did bad things! And for the record, Saudi Arabia has captured the most number of terrorists than any other country... You people should know a little politics if you feel so confident about your opinions.

And if you read more about Islam, you will find that a woman has as many rights as a man. Killing other people whether they're Muslim or NOT is forbidden, and is taken very seriously!
The very meaning of our religion is peaceful... So I'm very sorry to say, but you guys have it all wrong!

I just want to say that I don't hate America, I have had some of the best times of my life there, but I love my country and I am proud of that as any woman can be! And I hope you guys can be able to open your minds just a little bit more :)

Peace!

[emokkk]

if what all this people are right why their many saudi woman are very happy and many of them has their own bussinses and their are allso alot working in banks and unvirstes for as long 50 years know and do u know that saudi woman are far more educated and open minded then many of the gulf countries and no one can say allot about someone until u lived with them our atleast traveld with and that what i been tought since chilhood did any of u people who judgam have been their to see for u self ,,, any one been to dubai ( which bay the way its a city of uae but people say it as a country by it sellf but dubai is a small city people in a acountry ) did you know for fact that jeddah our riyaddh is biger and older then dubai and bleive it our not had been grown before dubai ( 50 years ) before ......
what makes me angry that because dubai gave the westrens their freeadm in drinking wesky , and opend for them discos to make people happy ,no one sees that many familles in dubai ( uae nattionlast ,) are less open minded than saudi arabian familles and men in partculare or no one sees any arab countries but dubai because of the ( allchol drinks and ham eting and disco)

[hamiltongrad]

pandering.

[hamiltongrad]

SHAME ON YOU MARY - GUTLESS ? DID YOU ASK ANYONE ABOUT THE LACK OF FREEDOM FOR WOMEN AND GAYYYS ? NO , YOU JUST PLAYED NICE....

Mary.. Shame on you for not speaking up and protesting.

By going there and cooperating with these intolerant thugs, you just add to their power, and say, hey that is OK if you kill GAAys, Jews, and beat and cut off hands and heads at whim !

Shame on CBS for having a cozy relationship with these Oil rich countries who have infiltrated by their cash into the halls of Power. Why don't you do a story on that , eg the Clinton Group and the tons of ARAB oil money ???

Puff Pieces by CBS on ARAB dictatorships, bowing and groveling because , guess what, they are rich, stinks to high heaven. COWARDS all.

[slantedview]

They are for all practical purposes the slaves of men. It is legal that men can kill women in these countries for any reason at all with no repercussion. They call it an honor killing. All they have to say is that the woman brought shame on the family.

They get shot in the head by public execution if they get caught trying to leave. That's why they are not allowed to be out in public without a male relative... it's so they can't escape or organize to escape. And the women who do successfully get out are held in detainment centers (in the USA) indefinitely until it is determined whether or not they should be deported BACK to their country.

If they are sent back, they face certain death. They are also killed for daring to leave. That's a pretty strong deterrant and THE WORLD SHOULD DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!!!

[slantedview]

No wonder it is infuriating for women of other cultures to see the way the men of this country treat their women (and children) and use a twisted man-made version of their religion as their basis for authority. Like most religions, they blame the women for the evil thoughts of their men. They sell their 10 year old daughters in "marriage" to be raped because they can. No one can stop them because it's their culture and the civilized world can't take a person culture away from them.

I say get the hell out of there and leave them to their own destruction because they will not change. They will not stop beating their women, selling and raping their own children because that is their power.

We cannot change them or convince them there is a better way to live because they want us all dead. Haven't you heard? We're infidels. The basis for their religion is that everyone else in the world is unholy and must die.

You can't deal with that. They don't want peace. Just distance yourself as far as possible so you don't get blown up too. Women will never have power in the Arabian countries because every time they try to stand up or get out, they're publicly flogged or shot in the head.

[YCantWeAllGetAlong]

I have no respect at all for their culture. Any culture that represses anyone, regardless of sex, race, religion or otherwise is archaic and should not be given the smallest measure of respect. When these people come out of the dark ages and start treating women as equal will they then be able to hold their heads high. Now, their heads should hang with shame. It's embarrassing that this journalist had to abide by these rules of oppression. The men are control freaks. I feel sorry for women being raised in such a backwards country.