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Green Acres
Joined: 06 May 2009
Posts: 260
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 Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 10:33 am Post subject: Wives in KSA |
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I was reading, with interest, the expressions of some responsible posters, and don't even get any big ideas that it was any of the usual suspects, concerning foreign wives in the KSA. The conversation was "crashed" by the usual suspects into something about terrorism, and while I can understand the links...(read, "My wife is a terrorist and other sordid stories")...the conversation is locked?
I want to know more about Jumeriah Jane and Kompound Kathy. Sounds like world war radio personalities. Haven't they existed since the first days of colonialism? Isn't that where the tradition of tea at 3 comes from? Sounds like these people have a great life, despite the antipathy of a few. I wouldn't mind having a maid, or two; playing tennis all day, and enjoying a few rounds with my mates everysingledayoftheweek!! Would you, really?
And on a side note, is it really that bad a place for women to live and have a life? |
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scot47
Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343
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| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 11:06 am Post subject: |
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| It can be - but the number of jobs allowing a comfortable lifestyle to teachers is a lot less than it used to be ! |
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veiledsentiments
Joined: 20 Feb 2003
Posts: 17644
Location: USA
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| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:47 pm Post subject: Re: Wives in KSA |
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| Green Acres wrote: |
| And on a side note, is it really that bad a place for women to live and have a life? |
While many people like the lifestyle and cope with the restrictions, it depends very much on where you are and with whom the working spouse is contracted.
In my years working around the Gulf, I worked with many people whose first job was in Saudi... mostly in what is called around here "the good old days." While there was a couple that met and fell in love there... and thus had very happy memories of the place, the general consensus was that none of them would ever go back... and the most common reason why not was because their wives hated it. (not because they hated it) Even the Arab wives hated it. More than one man told me that their wives had informed them that they would divorce them before they would return to Saudi. When I was first in Oman, one American fellow put me on the phone to talk his wife into coming by assuring her that it was nothing like Saudi (where I had never been...  ). They had been in Riyadh for years and she hated every minute of it. But it was to assure her that I could drive and not wear an abaya and how safe and pleasant Oman was. (BTW, she came to Oman, loved it, and they are still there) What I heard through the years was what convinced me to NOT take a job there.
We probably have a number of posters on this board whose marriage crashed and burned in Saudi. How much life there was the cause of the divorce is, of course, open to debate. 
The key is your wife and your relationship, of course. She needs to be warned of the mine fields and given some input into the final decision to go there. And knowledge that she also has input about when you get out.
VS |
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Cleopatra
Joined: 28 Jun 2003
Posts: 3657
Location: Tuamago Archipelago
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| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Sounds like these people have a great life, despite the antipathy of a few. I wouldn't mind having a maid, or two; playing tennis all day, and enjoying a few rounds with my mates everysingledayoftheweek!! Would you, really? |
Personally, I can think of no worse fate than being 'a wife' whether in KSA or anywhere else in the world.
But yes, for those of a certain disposition, 'compound life' certainly has its perks. Many people become so spoilt by it that they cannot contemplate going home, despite the obvious restrictions of Saudi life. There are many cases of people leaving KSA, swearing that they're well rid of the place and will never come back, and within a year or so.... there they are back again, often in the same job they left not so long ago. Life in the 'real world' was just too harsh.
BTW in my seven years here I don't think I've been witness to one marriage breakdown. And I would say that if it does happen here, it was sooner or later probably going to happen anyway. |
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lazycomputerkids
Joined: 22 Sep 2009
Posts: 360
Location: Tabuk
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| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 5:54 pm Post subject: |
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| Cleopatra wrote: |
| Personally, I can think of no worse fate than being 'a wife' whether in KSA or anywhere else in the world. |
I think I just fell in love with you. |
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Never Ceased To Be Amazed
Joined: 22 Oct 2004
Posts: 3500
Location: Shhh...don't talk to me...I'm playin' dead...
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| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 6:21 pm Post subject: |
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Get a cyber-motel room, you two...
NCTBA |
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007
Joined: 30 Oct 2006
Posts: 2684
Location: UK/Veteran of the Magic Kingdom
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| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Personally, I can think of no worse fate than being 'a wife' whether in KSA or anywhere else in the world. |
That's why men pay to stay married and women pay to get divorced!
A woman without a husband is like a fish without water!
(VS, yes I know, the feminists will fire their missiles towards me! ) |
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Cleopatra
Joined: 28 Jun 2003
Posts: 3657
Location: Tuamago Archipelago
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| Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2009 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
A woman without a husband is like a fish without water!
(VS, yes I know, the feminists will fire their missile towards me! |
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