The looks of bewilderment on the faces of my interlocutors kept reappearing. "You are Muslim?," they asked with surprise.
At this point, I would find myself updating them on one of the major changes that their country has seen in recent years, as I share with them my experience in Medina, the second-most important city in Islam, where it became a political-religious force.
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Unlike Mecca, where it is absolutely prohibited for non-Muslims to visit, in Medinah, things changed two years ago, when it was announced that only the area around "The Prophet's Mosque" (where the Prophet Mohammed is buried), was off limits to members who are not in the Islamic faith. After explaining this, Faiza (not her real name), an English teacher, conceded: "The changes in the kingdom are so fast, that it is hard to keep track." Sometimes, they don't even inform the public about a change in policy; it just happens, and that is how they avoid a clash with those who would oppose it. There are quite a lot of people who are not happy with what Saudi Arabia has been going through over the years. They wake up every day to discover a new reality. The process is moving forward too fast, and we have no way of knowing when a forceful counter-reaction will remerge. But for now, Saudi Arabia is experiencing something that would have been inconceivable only a decade ago. "
I spent a total of 10 days in the kingdom, which included the first few days of Ramadan, allowing me to get a cursory experience of one of the most important revolutions that have been taking place in the Middle East: the transformation of Saudi Arabia from a radical and conservative country that is closed to the world, rich in prohibitions and low on personal freedoms to a country that is rapidly opening up to the people and the world and seeks a global leadership position that would take humanity to a better destination that could be described as almost fantastical or even fictional. During those ten days I had to, time and again, deal with the disparity between my preconceived views of Saudi Arabia and the reality that I saw before me. I didn't seek to challenge the traditions and laws; I respected them. However, I found myself challenged on numerous occasions that I had not anticipated. For example: having a woman shopkeeper with a niqab on her head help men shop for clothes. She had no problem engaging me, while I could not escape the thought that there were times that Saudi women were not even allowed to work. Another mind-blowing experience was when I met a local woman painter on the narrow streets of Jedda that painted before my very eyes during the first night of Ramadan the uncovered face of another woman. More than my interlocutors were shocked by my visit to Medina, my visit to Saudi Arabia blew me away. Moreover, as someone who took Islamic history classes in high school and then in college, the visit to the cradle of Islam had a very moving effect on me.
I made Jeddah my home base. The great port city on the Red Sea has been the gateway for Islamic plagiarism since the 7th century. They arrive every year by land, air, and sea from all four corners of the earth to perform the Islamic precept of the Hajj – visiting Mecca. They often also make a stop in Medina. There are those who make the Umrah, also known as the mini Hajj, outside the official pilgrimage season. Some claim that doing the mini Hajj during Ramadan is equivalent to doing the Hajj. The plane that brought me to Jeddah was full of pilgrims donning the Ihram, the traditional garb that represents purity. The men's are white; the women's Ihram is in the form of colorful dresses and head coverings.
Most of those on the plane had arrived from Central Asia or the Far East. The flight to the heart of Islam had the appropriate hallmarks: First, a prayer asking Allah for safe travels; then, just before landing, the entire cabin was imbued with passionate religious singing.
A futuristic train to the past
From Jeddah, you can travel to the two holiest cities in Islam via bus or by The Haramain High-Speed Railway (Haramain means "the two holy places"), which connects Mecca and Medina. It passes through Jedda and the King Abdullah Economic City, a mega-city project that, like many other grand initiatives in the kingdom, could not live up to its ambitious goals. I chose to go by train. This line was officially opened to the public in October 2018. You can buy tickets on the internet for a specific time, and the departures are spot on.
Digitization in Saudi Arabia's large cities is omnipresent. The train stations in Jeddah and Medina are big, spacious, and air-conditioned. Their architecture is inspired by both Islamic and Western themes, with the passengers swallowed by the immensity. The train is very comfortable, and just like in the plane, one hears a prayer as the ride begins. The 340 km (211 miles) between Jeddah and Medina get traversed in 90 minutes, at times at a speed of 205 mph.".
Judging from what I see from my train window, it looks as if the entire area between the two cities is one big construction site. As part of the Saudi Vision 2030, which Mohammed bin Salman unveiled seven years ago in a large gathering of heavyweight investors from around the world, the project will see that swath of land dotted with high-end medical centers, tourism resorts and hotels, and various mass entertainment venues.
.Mass entertainment is one of the main pillars of Vision 2030. It is how bin Salman hopes to turn the younger generations more liberal, secular, and modern. Some of those with whom I talked said that this is a modern version of "bread and circuses" that is designed to hide the fact that the kingdom is still governed by one family that does not allow free speech on a lot of issues.
Others told me that bin Salman could not have affected those major changes without having total control over the country. His uncle King Faisal, who ruled between 1964 and 1975 and was one of the main backers of the Palestine Liberation Organization, was assassinated by one of his nephews after he began liberalizing Saudi society, including by opening schools for girls and introducing household televisions.
"His assassination," Faiza the English school teacher tells me, "was the first stage in halting modernity in the kingdom. The next stage was when radical Muslims from the Ikhwan ("the brothers") took over the Grand Mosque in Mecca in late 1979, four years after the assassination. Then-king Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud responded by issuing a decree to enforce Islamic law more forcefully and gave more powers to the most conservative clerics and to the most extreme elements of the morality police. Now we have finally begun to turn back the clock, in a good way; we are now reverting to what we used to be in the 1970s."
Just before I arrived, bin Salman managed to stir controversy among radical elements when he announced the building of a futuristic center in the capital Riyadh that will include various housing units, hotels, restaurants, stores, and entertainment venues. The anger was due to the external features of the proposed structure: It has a striking resemblance to the Honored Kaaba in Mecca. The project's name also doesn't leave much in the way of imagination: Mukaab, which means, the cube, whose dimensions are the equivalent of 20 Empire State Buildings and has a golden cover.
Social media was replete with harsh criticism over how a new Kaaba was being built "that would celebrate capitalism.
Pilgrimage tourism
As noted, the only place where non-Muslims are still banned in Medina is the Prophet's Mosque area. It was originally built by the Prophet Muhammad himself shortly after he had made his journey from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE, in what is the first year in the Islamic calendar. Despite not being allowed to come close, the view of the mosque and hustle and bustle around it is clearly in sight, despite the fence that walls off the area. When traveling by plane over the Haram (forbidden) place on board the local airline Saudia, the PA system carried a special prayer for the passengers.
The area of the mosque is surrounded by wide boulevards with impressive buildings that fuse modern and oriental architecture. The city is teeming with pilgrims who create a mosaic of colorful traditional garbs from Africa, the Far East, and Central Asia, along with the white Ihram. Police presence is minimal.
The morality police, formally known as The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, was nowhere to be seen. That body's job is to enforce the modest appearance of people in public – especially women – and to avoid mingling of the sexes and quashing of Western traditions, as well as enforce participation in daily prayers. Over the years, it has on occasion used force to carry out its duties, but ever since bin Salman launched his reforms it has all but ceased its activities.
Its expansive powers have been stripped to a large extent, and many of the prohibitions that had been long enforced were lifted – including the ban on women obtaining a driver's license. In Medina, you could see fewer women drivers than in Jeddah, and generally speaking, the atmosphere in the city is more conservative. Almost all of the shops in Medina close down during prayers and in most of the restaurants there is still a separate entry for each gender, as well as segregated areas for unmarried men and families. The city maintains its tradition, but it also has a whiff of Western consumerism in its character. Gone are the days when the elder religious men could issue Fatwas (religious decrees) against Barbie dolls because they are "Jewish" or call for the murder of Mickey Mouse. The big shopping centers dotting the city offer every possible toy, and there is also an option of going to the movies to see a 3D feature film on the life of the prophet in the modern theater complex.
It is Medina, which is often called Al-Madinah al-Munawwarah ("The Enlightened City"), where Muhammad turned from a preacher to a respected political and religious leader, no longer mocked by his fellow Mecca residents. It is in Medina where he convinced most of the local Arab tribes to convert to Islam and where he successfully amassed a unified military force that served as the main contingent with which he captured the entire Arab peninsula. It is in Medina where the conflict between Islam and the Jews began. One of the main attractions in the city is the tourist bus whose first stop is near the Prophet's Mosque. It then continues to 11 additional ones, including the 9th one, where the story of the Battle of the Trench. This is where, according to Islam, the Jews of the city betrayed Muhammad and the rest of Medina. The Jewish presence in the city when he arrived there had been very noticeable: three big Jewish tribes probably controlled key areas of the city. But, according to tradition, Muhammad was struck by how much infighting there was between them, and he went on to take advantage of these divisions and expelled the Jews one after another on the pretext that they had been conspiring against him. Their only sin was that they refused to convert.
The riders of the bus hear during the tour that the Jews of Medina betrayed Muhammad and the local city tribes who hosted them. The tour also accuses the Jews of turning to Mecca residents and advising them to attack Medina. Muhammad adopted a tactic that was uncommon at the time in the Arabian Peninsula: he dug up trenches around the city and inside so that the attacks would not be able to use their cavalry of horses and camels. During the last phase of the siege, which failed, Muhammad – the story goes – offered the last remaining Jewish tribe to help him in the attack. The Jews refused because it would have fallen on the Jewish Sabbath and this sealed their fate. When the siege was over, Muhmmad's troops killed all the men in the tribe and sold their children and women as slaves.
That tour casts the Jews as traitors who inflicted harm not only on Muslims but also breached their agreements with local Arab tribesmen of Medina for dozens of years before Muhammad. The Battle of the Trench station also has a big mosque, next to one of the mountains enveloping the city. It is called the Al-Fath Mosque (MOsque of the Conquest). It is considered an Islamic pilgrimage site.
Jedda – spearheading the changes
Because of its proximity to the Red Sea, the weather in Jeddah at this time of year is very pleasant. This is not the only advantage of the city, which used to be the diplomatic capital of the kingdom. "Unlike other cities in Saudi Arabia, Jedda – being a port city – has always been cosmopolitan, open to the world, and welcoming to foreigners," a local photographer called Hind tells me about the old city. I had met her there in the early hours of a Friday morning when I was there documenting the old structures, most of which are still deserted but some are already undergoing renovations as part of the effort to make this place a tourist magnate.
"Over the course of hundreds of years, many pilgrims have arrived here with their last remaining funds just so they could complete the duty of the Hajj without being able to pay for their way back. This created an interesting mixture of cultures and a great degree of tolerance – unlike other parts of Saudi Arabia, which are still very much isolated. That is why Jeddah has in recent years become a hub of culture and arts. Just before the coronavirus pandemic, we were a group of photographers who were active in the old city. We used to hold parties here."
Q: What do you think about the rapid changes in Saudi Arabia?
"Here in Jeddah, they are very much welcomed, especially among the younger generations. Most of the young people have lived abroad for long periods in the West, and the restrictions they have had to live with since returning are very tough on them. Lifting many prohibitions creates a much freer atmosphere. Although freedom is not absolute, there is a sense of a new Saudi Arabia, especially when it comes to arts and culture. On the other hand, there are those who believe that too much freedom and this rapid transition is not necessarily a good thing. People don't know what to do with this freedom."
As we were talking, a group of Western tourists passed by us, having arrived by cruise from OMan. After their Jedda stop, they were to continue to Egypt. "We are not used to having so many tourists from the West here," Hind says. "This is definitely one of the positive changes happening here. People are coming to see for themselves who we are, beyond their prejudices."
Girl power
This year, just before the Holy Month of Ramadan, Saudi television ran its first season of Saudi Idol. Hams Fekri, a 29-year-old Saudi wedding singer from Jeddah, won the reality show. Fekri usually performed without a head covering and said in interviews that the fact that a woman won the competition is a great source of pride for Saudis. She went on to encourage women not to be deterred by glass ceilings.
"I have been hoping all my life that a moment like this would arrive, and I kept asking myself whether such a thing could ever happen in Saudi Arabia," she said. The women revolution is in full swing: I saw women with a black niqab or with uncovered face work at the hotel reception, as shopkeepers, and as employees of fast-food chains. They don't disengage men when they provide service. They fill up the shopping centers with other women their age. Seeing women go on their own to the movies was something that you could not have imagined only five years ago. As part of the reforms he has introduced, bin Salman also reopened theaters, although you still have to go through metal detectors at the entrance, as the regime still fears fundamentalists will try to target those venues.
In Jedda one can also notice more women on the road. One of them was even involved in a crash with the vehicle I was in. She did not pull over to apologize, just continued driving recklessly. "There is no point in reporting her to the police," Abdallah, whom I was riding with, told me. "The officers would have to accept her version even if they believe my account. Women don't get ticketed; there is affirmative action from the authorities. Women also take our jobs."
"If four men apply for a single opening and there is also one woman applicant, it wouldn't matter what their qualifications are – she would land the position. This creates quite a lot of tension," he continues.
Khaled, a physician, told me that because he had been living in Jeddah all his life, he failed to see the changes in real-time. "Many times the authorities don't announce the modified policies or the new rules, they just let things happen. For example, they didn't announce that stores could open during prayer, they simply held off from cracking down on people who chose to do so. So reality keeps changing while many people don't realize it. In the past, you could do many things in the confines of your own home, behind closed doors, like throwing parties and drinking alcohol, and even having mixed-gender events with people dressed in modern clothing. But now all this is gradually creeping into the public sphere. Women go out to work, whether they are married or not. They no longer have to a male minder."
The biggest project of them all
The northern city of Tabuk, which lies just 100 km (62 miles) from the Jordanian border, has recently been in the headlines after a video emerged showing camels in a snowstorm that supposedly hit the kingdom due to climate change. Residents dismissed the headlines as "fake news" because "we have snow here practically every year; the weather here is very different from other parts of the country." Indeed it gets cold in the evening in that town. The way from Tabuk to the futuristic city of Neom – the crown jewel of Vision 20230 – passes through breathtaking desert scenery. Rocky mountains dot the sand dunes and the dry streams. The desert here is far from being homogenous. The red, green, pink, brown, and almost-black boulders give it the look of a never-ending work of art. Neom, shorthand for neo-mustakbal ("new future"), is going to be built on the intersection between the desert and the Red Sea.
The city lies just across the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula, not far from the Jordanian border. The route to the city-in-the-making is mostly on a road that has seen better days. But upon arriving at the massive construction area the road is much wider, much more maintained, and adjacent to it are convoluted lines of street lights that are powered by the sun. The future is already here. Almost. The adverse environmental impact on the desert is supposedly going to be offset by the plan to have Neom's 9 million would-be inhabitants live in a fully-green city that would rely solely on renewable energy.
Despite bulldozers being everywhere, not much has been built. Signs asking to keep the city clean, with its hexagon symbol, appear on roads. The blueprints, it seems, are taken right out of science fiction movies. The small airport serves domestic flights as well as flights to Dubai. Two temporary communal settlements that are designed to house the massive contingent of construction workers are almost complete. Upon entering the first settlement, there is a big structure spelling out the words "I love Neom". You can see that beyond the barbed wire, there are large studios that have already produced 25 movies and television shows. There is also a hospital, with a helicopter nearby. But access to these communities is limited to those who work there or have otherwise received a permit. Foreign workers already live in the first communal settlement. They seize every opportunity to flee to the nearby cities and the real-life they offer.
Neom, the grandiose project that some say is too far-fetched, is supposed to combine the Saudi desert and the Red Sea with such innovative technology that would turn Saudi Arabia into a global trailblazer in future urban planning. Its size will span some 26,000 km (more than Israel). No fewer than 500 billion dollars will have been invested once it's up and running (almost five times Israel's annual budget).
Two colossal structures that are parallel to each other will dominate the city. "The Line" as they will be called, will rise to 1600 feet and have an exterior covered in glass. Each of the two structures of the line – 656 m apart – will stretch some 100 miles.
The Line won't have cars or streets. High-speed rail will take you from one end to another in 20 minutes. Power consumption for Neom will originate solely on renewable energy – especially solar – and the city will operate on artificial intelligence based on data collected from the denizens so as to optimize their lifestyles and they will be paid for their consent to give data. The cost of construction is estimated at anything from 100 billion to 1 trillion dollars.
bin Salman announced the project "The Line'' in January 2021 on live television more than a year ago. The project got up and running some nine months ago. This involved relocating residents of various towns who had been living in the areas earmarked for the city. The first phase of construction is set to be completed in 2030, although this appears to be much too optimistic. Last summer, bin Salman presented a visualization of The Line once it's complete, calling it a "civilizational revolution that puts humans first, providing an unprecedented urban living experience while preserving the surrounding nature. It redefines the concept of urban development and what cities of the future should look like." The website for the project envisions a structure that will have "no roads, cars or emissions'' and that " it will run on 100% renewable energy and 95% of the land will be preserved for nature." The description goes on to say that "people's health and wellbeing will be prioritized over transportation and infrastructure, unlike traditional cities."
Once one of the most boring places in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia has become one of the most fascinating and promising countries in under a decade. From being an exporter of radical Islam and oil, it has become a vibrant hub of ideas, creation, and sky-high ambitions. All this, under the leadership of one young man – however controversial – who has yet to become king. Will Saudi Arabia manage to survive the minefield that lies between yesterday and tomorrow? Haste is from Satan, they say in Arabic. But after so much stagnation, perhaps speed can in fact be a blessing.
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