Job Discussion Forums

Housie · Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 10

What is the price of a pack? And does anyone know how many I can bring (duty paid) from Indonesia? I would appreciate any info as I am moving in a couple of weeks.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

5 sr a pack. (3.75 sr = US$1.00)

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Using them will arouse the wrath of the bearded ones. Buying them will have you disbarred from 500 Club membership and activities.

Housie · Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 10

Thanks for the info. What do you mean that using them will incur the wrath of the bearded ones, and what is the 500 club? Sorry I am very unsure what these things are. I am new to all of this terminology.

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

The bearded ones are the religious zealots with beards and short thobes. They are also known as the 'Mutawa'een' or "Religious Police' or the "Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice'.

The 500 Club is a select band of foreigners in the Kingdom who have sworn a solemn oath to live on less than 500 Saudi Riyals a month. Profligates, spendthrifts and women are not admitted. All applications are carefully vetted.

Housie · Joined: 06 May 2007 Posts: 10

Thanks for that. I have travelled in the middle east and smoking has never been a problem, in some places it has semmed to be positively encouraged.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

Hey Scot... do the mutawwa actually try to stop public smoking? I hadn't heard that one before.

Careful... you might make me start to agree with these fellows on something!!

VS

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

VS

I find that I agree with the Bearded Ones on quite a lot. Well Jean Calvin, John Knox.......Need I say more ?

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

I bet you weren't such a prude in your younger days. Cool

VS

trapezius · Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 3:25 pm Post subject:

I have never seen or heard the mutawwa saying anything about smoking.

That's the thing about the mutawwa, they never tell people not to litter public places and streets, to drive like humans, stand up for the rights of the SR. 300/month foreign workers, stand for women who are abused, their salaries taken by fathers/brothers/husbands, prevented from studying, forcibly divorced, etc.

All they give a damn about is whether women are covered or not, and shops close for prayer or not. Ensuring those things sure has made a lovely society!

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

I hear that smoking in public in Buraidah and Qassim will get you in trouble. As it once did in Riyadh.

007 · Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 6:47 pm Post subject:

Bob Gorn · Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:06 pm Post subject:

I know that men smoke everywhere in the Kingdom, but what about women? I don't think I ever saw a woman smoking openly in public. Is there a law against it?

trapezius · Posted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 11:01 pm Post subject:

It is taboo, as in China, India, Turkey, etc, where the majority of adult men smoke in public, but you will hardly ever see women smoking.

I am sure lots of them smoke at home.

What you DO see women doing in public, and in sharply increasing numbers, is smoking shisha. Young Arab women are all about some shisha, starting at the age of 15 or so. Of course, this is only in the cities, and only women who are from upper middle to upper classes.

veiledsentiments · Joined: 20 Feb 2003 Posts: 17644 Location: USA

I'm thinking that it would be difficult to smoke a cigarette with a facial veil... without setting it on fire. Shocked

Shisha would be easier since there is a mouthpiece...

VS