U.S. Women Bear Brunt of Saudi Culture Clash

In her steamy native Georgia, this American woman’s short-sleeved top would have been considered only sensible.

On the streets of Dhahran, revealing her elbows was enough to provoke a scolding from one of the officially sanctioned religious policemen who watch for breaches of Saudi tradition.

“ ‘You should cover your arms!’ he told me. ‘Does your husband know you are about like this?’ ” recalled the woman, the wife of an American businessman. “I thought: ‘I’ll never adjust to this place.’ ”

Such cultural frictions contribute to the antagonism toward Americans that was so forcefully demonstrated in this week’s bombing of a U.S. Air Force housing compound in Dhahran. While most Americans get along easily with residents of the conservative kingdom, the differences between the two cultures remain considerable.

And with at least a minority of Saudis, that cultural tension can turn into powerful anti-Americanism when combined with resentment toward the U.S. military presence in the desert kingdom, which many consider a sign of foreign domination.

The conservative Islamic Saudis who killed five Americans and two Indians in November by bombing a national guard building in Riyadh were explicit in their desire to rid the nation of U.S. influence.

Saudi Arabia is overflowing with signs of Western influence: Its markets are stacked high with CDs and the latest electronic gear; its television stations import programs from abroad that draw good ratings. “Ugly American” attitudes of cultural imperialism are not generally a big issue.

But American manners can grate on Saudis, “especially on the role of women,” said Jeremy Pressman, a Middle East specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace in Washington.

Saudi women may not drive, smoke cigarettes, appear in a public role in business affairs or show much of the female form in public.

Many American women see these rules as unfair and oppressive, and some display their feelings openly.

That, in turn, stirs anger among conservative Saudis about the 40,000 Americans, military and civilian, in their country.

“I see women who break these rules every time I go downtown,” said one American woman who has been in the country four years. “Some are being defiant. Some want to show Saudi women that they don’t have to take it.”

The restrictions here do pinch for many American women who live in U.S. compounds rather than single-family homes. A few years ago, some women in a social club called the American Women of the Eastern Province found that the religious police had raided their club headquarters and taken away, among other things, their recipe books. They had violated rules forbidding women from joining organizations.

Aware of Saudi sensibilities, the U.S. military gives troops who rotate through the desert monarchy briefings on how to behave during their time here. Their contacts with Saudis are far more circumscribed than with Bangladeshis, Filipinos and other “third-country nationals” who come here, often for work.

The military bars men from wearing very short pants, earrings and collarless shirts when they go into Saudi shopping centers. Some troops say they can sense the bad vibes: “You just have to put up with the fact that a lot of them just don’t want you to be here at all,” Air Force Staff Sgt. Frank Mutter said.

The rules are more restrictive for servicewomen.

They must cover their necks, elbows and legs, and if they wear pants they must be baggy enough to obscure the female form. They may drive but must wear hats to partially conceal their heads.

If people break the rules, Saudis often glare, point or scold, said Tech. Sgt. Carrie Dovos. In this country, “if you break the rules, they’ll let you know.”