It is day three after the king's decree, as a faisal Ba-Dughaisch, 34, and his wife du'a, 29, realize: You don't feel like waiting for the future longer.In June, the king has just announced, the driving ban for women in Saudi Arabia is to fall.You'a but now wants to get by wheel.It is Friday, weekend in Saudi Arabia, the childless couple has free.He thinks: it would be cool to show her that I support her.And asks her to get ready for a trip.interview
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"Where do you take me?" She asks when he is going on the black range rover.Shortly thereafter, the event manager sits behind the steering wheel with a black headscarf and mirrored Ray Ban.The parking lot on which it drives is located on the extensive campus of the state oil company Saudi Aramco in Dhahran in East Saudi, where Faisal works as a specialist for exploration systems.Many foreigners live on the shielded company premises, which is why there are many things that have been unthinkable elsewhere in the kingdom..Women at the wheel, for example.Quietschmenchünkt curvt du'a with faisal over the empty asphalt.With a wide grin he leans out the window and makes a selfie of himself and her.Later he posted the photo on Twitter at home, writes: "I started to give my wife driving hours - safely and legally in a private car park - in preparation for the new law."Then the two lie down to the afternoon nap.
Saudi Arabia looks like catapulted into the future from a time machine
When du'a and faisal wake up again, hell is going on online.The selfie spread virally and triggered an outcry.The fact that a Saudi encourages his wife to drive his car and then put a photo of her online goes too far to many."Worse than a pimp," comments a user.Another: "Allah does not ask for women to go to the mosque to pray, but now people are pulling them out of their houses so that they drive a car."These are still the more harmless among many dozen hostile comments.Of course there is also approval, 12.000 like the video."How happy you look! Your rays are concerned.Hopefully the rigid heads will learn something from you, "writes an enthusiastic user - but among the comments the rejection predominates by far.
The scandal around the driving school selfie tells a lot about the amazing conditions in the Kingdom of Al Saud.Not only the driving ban for women is on the brink.Cinemas are supposed to open in March - for the first time in 50 years.The dreaded religious police were disempowered months ago.At the same time, the opponents of new politics are suppressed and persecuted.The whole country looks like a time machine to be catapulted into the future.
For decades, the rulers had raised an ultra -conservative variant of Islam to state doctrine in the team with the clergy.Suddenly it should be over with all of this.But what does the new Saudi Arabia stand for?Strict or freedom?Intolerance or cosmopolitanism?In view of the rapid change, many Saudis finds the answer difficult.
Responsible for the identity crisis is a man whom you only call here according to his initials: mbs.Some also say "the Bulldozer" - and it is said that the nickname like him.Muhammad bin Salman, 32, the fully bearded, tall favorite son of the king rose to crown prince last summer.Since he has almost completely adopted power in the state with the blessing of his 82-year-old father Salman Bin Abdulaziz, rules that have been irrefutable for generations no longer apply.Especially among young Saudis, MBS finds many supporters with his program.And 70 percent of Saudis are under 30 years old.
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Because the oil revenue no longer covers the excessive government spending, MBS has public companies privatized.At the beginning of November, more than 150 heavy members of the ruling family and prominent business people who thought were inviolable were arrested with suspected corruption.Some have obviously bought up for billions of bills.For the common subjects of the desert state, 2018 began with an increase in gasoline prices by 80 percent and a new VAT of five percent.
"General entertainment authority"
At the same time, the government grants the people new freedoms.Like all shops, restaurants have to close five times a day during prayer times.But the company continues to run behind the blinds down.In the chic, new cafés from Riad and Dschidda, young men and women sit mixed around the tables.Music runs in the background, even recently unthinkable.The branches of Starbucks or McDonald's with their separated entrances and seating areas for "singles" and "families" (women accompanied) (women accompanied) have a look like it from time.
A newly created "General Entertainment Authority" takes international stars into the country week after week.At the sold-out open-air concert by the US rapper Nelly near Dschidda a few weeks ago, fans in hoodies bobs from the box towers in hoods, among others in Thaubs, the traditional white long shirts.Foodtrucks served burgers and hot dogs in the parking lot.The night smelled of frying fat and she smells of freedom."Let's show Saudi How it's going down," Nelly roared into the microphone."Let us show Saudi Arabia what works."It sounded like the soundtrack for the" Vision 2030 ", the official blueprint of the king's son to redesign the country.
But not everyone is enthusiastic about the new times.Why driving for women, just still proven by the state with punishments, is suddenly approved by the state, apparently not every Saudi.Faisal Ba-Dughaisch has printed out the first 140 insulting comments in the days after the spontaneous driving lesson for his wife and brought to the police.After that he stopped reading the agitation under his tweet.
A few weeks later, the smart young oil expert sits in the living room of his apartment and pours white coffee, a yellow gold brew from a bright roasting that is popular on the Persian Gulf, into small porcelain cups.His selfie tweet has now been shared around 8,300 times and commented over 3000 times, but Ba-Dughaisch is in my thoughts elsewhere.
He has just returned from the Diwan, the weekly meeting of the male members of the family clan, in his grandfather's house.There was an upset mood there."The men are angry," he says."New taxes and then also concerts.That brings people to the palm."His sister, a religious woman who only leaves the house with Niqab-the facial veil-was also shocked when she saw pictures of the Nelly appearance on television.She thinks that women will be able to drive a car soon."Not everyone with us who is open to new things is therefore liberal," says Ba-Dughaisch.And suddenly looks very thoughtfully under the ghutra - the headscarf, complained by a cord, forms the traditional clothing for the Saudi man with the long shirt."With all the new freedom: security and order remain the top priority," he says."My biggest concern is that there is too much change in too short time.That could trigger a counter reaction."
For Dschidda, piety and openness to cosmopolitan were never contradictory
But care and patience are not one of the virtues of the MBS."We will not waste for 30 years of our lives to combat extremist ideas.We will destroy it now, immediately."So the ambitious king's son spoke months before he was appointed crown prince.And also made it clear why the change of direction will work in his opinion."We just return to our traditions: to a temperate, cosmopolitan Islam."In the past decades in which the hardliners show the tone, the country was" not normal ".
Anyone who wants to trace the spirit of cosmopolitan Islam, which the Crown Prince wants to trace, must fly from Faisal Ba-Dughaisch's place of residence Dammam on the Persian Gulf to the west for two hours.The old port city of Dschidda on the Red Sea for the people of the Arabian Peninsula was the gateway to the world for centuries.It is a headquarters of mighty retail dynasties, which from here have contacts throughout Africa, to the Hindu Kush and to China.Millions of pilgrims from all corners of the Muslim world have reached the holy sites of Mecca and Medina over this port.For Dschidda, piety and openness to the cosmopolitan were never contradictory, but always a common business basis.
This legacy still shapes the city.Here the female members of the "Jeddah Running Collective" meet when jogging at the Corniche in the morning.There are exclusive beach clubs here that move in at the entrance to cell phones and cameras, but leave all freedoms when it comes to swimwear.You meet young directors, activists, journalists and other creative people, together they form something like the delicate beginning of a civil society.The actor Hisham Fageh, about 30 years old, with nickel glasses and hipster-dutt, star of the romantic comedy "Baraka meets Baraka": Filmed in Dschidda and was awarded at the Berlinale 2016-but never shown in Saudi Arabia in public.Or the fashion designer Alaa Balkhy, 27, whose grandmother comes from Malaysia, the last name of which is reminiscent of a city on the Hindukusch with whom her ancestors are trading, and whose husband, a banker with whom she commutes between New York and DschiddaYemeni nobility is.Typical Dschidda, this mix.But typical Saudi?no.Or at least: not yet.
It is an irony of history that in the person of the Crown Prince, that of all things that is called to the traditions of Dschidda, which this city and what it stands for has been fighting for a long time.
"Now it's a cool time to be young here"
The Hidschas, the area along the Red Sea, with the world -faced Dschidda, and the Nadschd, the barren, Nomadic State of the Al Saud in the desert, have been rivaling centers for centuries."Tarsch Bahr", sea dirt, some Nadschdis call the hidsca..Since the clan of the Al Saud around 270 years ago a pact with the religious sharpener Muhammad Bin Abd Al-Wahhab Castle, the conflict is bubbling.Wahhabi riding armies for the first time in 1802 conquer the city.In 1925 Abdulaziz Al Saud, a few years later, rides the first king of Saudi Arabia, at the head of his army in Dschidda and finally makes it part of his empire.The bubbling oil sources later cement the power of the Al Saud.In the meantime, the Dschidda trading houses have come to terms with the rulers from Riad.Some of the authoritarian state power appear to some here as a guarantee of a minimum of tolerance.
"I love Saudi Arabia.But if the majority in this country would say that they would forbid my mouth as a woman, "says Basma al-Charaidschi, 37, daughter of one of the richest dynasties in the city."That's why I'm for the government and for the rule of the Al Saud.They make sure that I can live as I want.If democracy is introduced here, I'm gone tomorrow."The young mother has made a name for herself as a food blogger and influencer on Instagram and Snapchat.
In three -quarter pants and with flowing hair she sits on the sofa in her chic apartment in Downtown Dschidda.She is just coming from her gallery around the corner.There she had aligned a retro bazaar with Italian pottery, Syrian embroidery, biogem jump and organic date syrup.In a few days then we go to London for a short vacation with men and children. Zum interview reicht Basma al-Charaidschi Gourmetburger und San Pellegrino auf Eis.It is full of praise for the crown prince's reform zeal."Now it's a cool time to be young here," she says."This moment is full of opportunities."Then why did MBS not pardon Raif Badawi as a signal for the new time? The blogger is sitting in a prison on the outskirts of Dschidda - sentenced to ten years in prison and 1000 lashes for" insulting Islam ".
"Raif Badawi", asks Basma al-Charaidschi."Who is that the same?"
The country evades the clichés
With all the departure, a constant in the Reich der Al Saud is unchanged: what is good for the people, the rulers in Riad decide alone.The Crown Prince may profile himself as a fighter against corruption.Citizens who dare to publicly criticize the rampant nepotism disappear into prison.The king may have a good time to allow women to drive the car.But the brave activists who have broken the driving ban in protest and thus initiated change get telephone warnings to better refrain from making public comments on the decision.Shouldn't be imagined, the cancellation of the ban is also its earnings.
Because the opening of the country is also flanked with repression.Devatiators and dissidents are pursued even more adamant than before.In no country, measured by the residents, the number of Twitter users grows as quickly as in Saudi Arabia.Instagram or Snapchat are also part of everyday life for many more people than in the West.But since Saudis with many followers, including some clergymen, a wave of arrests, the fear has been around.In the mother country of Wahhabism, conservative islamic views are at once as similarly subversive as those that were considered an insult to religion.
The change in Saudi Arabia cannot be equated with a trip west.The country evades the clichés.What looks like a tangible example of the departure at first glance can quickly run into the opposite when looking closely.
When the orange light of dusk lies over the capital, the hour of the youth begins on the large forecourt of the König-Fahd library in Riyadh..Under the singing of the muezzine, which the believers call the mosques, a walk with scooter blades rushes over the brown floor slabs and slips through an open side door into the underground car park.The underground concrete landscape of ramps and columns is your favorite course.Skating here is prohibited.But now at prayer time they have their peace in front of the guards.
Even on the ground floor, the square is a rare oasis in this urban desert made of Malls, office towers and private quarters entrenched behind high walls.Women sit around palm trees on the green areas at the picnic.Young fathers steer toddlers in remote -controlled miniature cars over the pavement.The space was closed for years.The city administration recently had the fence removed.Immediately, it seems, life has made its way.
"Maybe we need the old religious police back."
For Monzir Ali and Saad al-Qahtani, both 24, the library place is not an oasis, but rather a sins.The two street dealers have set up their stands on the edge of the open space.One sells pancakes with chocolate sauce, the other flexible tapes and other tinnef.The new line of the crown prince also gives them more customers - but not everything that happens before their eyes like them.
"It's particularly terrible on weekends," says Monzer."All of these kids come here, many from outside.They don't know how to behave.There are girls, over and over with make-up.And the boys come over them like the vultures.But if you intervene and asks if the parents know what they are doing here, they only say: 'This is none of your business.'"
