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Susie of Arabia
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This is a daily photo blog from an ex-pat living in Saudi Arabia. The photos range from ordinary to extraordinary and try to show snippets of life in this exotic land.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'clothing'
Roadside Stand
There are roadside fruit and vegetable stands everywhere in Jeddah. You can just pull over and buy fresh tomatoes or cucumbers without having to go into a store or even getting out of the car if you don’t want to. The two men are wearing the...
MyWorld: Peddling Panties
Because of restrictions on women working in Saudi Arabia, men hold nearly all sales positions in this country, which means that men sell women’s undergarments and lingerie. This is yet another example of the contradictions that abound in this...
My World: Confusing Contradictions
In a strict Muslim country where men actually hold paying jobs censoring books and magazines by applying black marker to photos of women showing exposed skin, I can only shake my head in disbelief when I see something like this window dressing in an...
Tom and Jerry Costumes
This country is always full of surprises. Halloween is not celebrated here at all because its roots are “based in evil,” so to see a child’s costume on display in this mall window was a bit startling. However, the cartoon show &#...
Holiday Decor
With the climax of the annual Hajj comes one of the two religious holidays celebrated by Muslims. I saw many shops in the mall with what appeared to be symbolic Christmas decorations of large shiny ornaments and gift boxes in yuletide colors. Here...
Clothing Embellishments
Hindawiya is an area of Old Jeddah where you can find the sewing and crafts souks. One can find an abundance of beads, sequins, trims, buttons, and other types of embellishments for clothing. Women often have their fancy dresses custom made, so th...
Hi-Tech, Old Fashion
Saudi Arabia wholeheartedly embraces state-of-the-art technology. It seems that everyone here has the latest electronic gadgets from cell phones and bluetooth to huge flat screen TVs and laptops. New businesses are sleek and clutter free environme...
Lifting the Skirt
When out in public, proper Saudi men and women dress modestly, wearing loose floor length clothing that doesn’t reveal their legs or body forms. But when it rains and there are big puddles, what to do? As this man demonstrates, just lift up ...
Hajjis
Every year Saudi Arabia welcomes millions of religious pilgrims from all over the world. Muslims are required to travel to Makkah for Hajj at least once in their lifetime, if they are able to physically and financially. The official Hajj dates thi...
Bag Lady
There are many African men and women who travel to Saudi Arabia for the religious pilgrimmage, called the Hajj, and then end up staying on in the country in search of a better life than they had back in their native countries. For many, it is a mea...
Colorful Clean Up Guy
Many of the foreign workers in Jeddah hold menial labor jobs, such as cleaning up the streets of the city. The workers are dressed in colored uniforms which match the color of the large wheeled trash cans they escort along the streets. One of the ...
The Thobemaker
The long white traditional dress that Saudi men wear is called a thobe. Thobes are custom made to fit each individual. Consequently there are hundreds upon hundreds (or more like thousands upon thousands!) of shops in Saudi Arabia that specialize ...
Modern White Oddity Sculpture
There are so many public works of art in the form of sculptures in Jeddah, which sits along the Red Sea and is the second largest city in Saudi Arabia. This is a modern piece that I don’t have any information about. You can see men walking i...
Under the Abaya
Even though women in Saudi Arabia wear the floor length black cloak called abaya when out in public, in private settings Saudi women can be very fashionable, sexy and stylish. This typical dress shop displays what many Saudi women might choose to ...
Happy Face
Posted in Clothing, Culture, Life, Photo, Saudi Arabia Tagged: business, Clothing, dress, ghuttra, Jeddah, thobe, traditional, workers ...
SkyWatch: Let’s Go Outside!
Many buildings in business sections of Saudi Arabia house businesses on the ground floor and then apartments above. Enjoying the outdoors can be a challenge here where much of the year it is just too hot to spend much time out of doors. Most buildi...
CDP Theme Day: Contrast
Saudi Arabia is a land of many contrasts, but perhaps nothing is quite as glaring as the contrast between what men and women wear in public here. While women are clad in black cloaks called abayas, scarves and usually veils, revealing only their han...
Tea at Night
These two men were sitting outside a bedding shop. They each have a mug of tea, a very popular drink here in Saudi Arabia. Note the thermos on the ground, ready for refills. These men look as though they are brothers to me – they look quite...
How About a Date?
We were driving along the streets of Jeddah the other day when suddenly traffic slowed to a crawl for several blocks. The reason for the traffic slow-down turned out to be a block long array of date stands where vendors sell an astonishing number of...
Ramadan TV: Tash ma Tash
“Tash ma Tash” (meaning “No Big Deal”) is the name of a very popular TV comedy show which runs exclusively during Ramadan in Saudi Arabia. It is shown right after Iftar, the meal at sundown when the fast is broken. It has be...
MyWorld: Surreal
Amidst the women cloaked in black from head to toe and the men strolling the mall in their traditional long white thobes and red and white checkered scarves, I spied this clown walking briskly carrying a couple of shopping bags. Now the mall is ultr...
MyWorld: Game Show – Saudi Style
A couple of nights before the start of Ramadan, we happened to be at a local mall and noticed that a stage was ready within the mall for some type of entertainment. Later when we walked back by, a type of contest, or game show if you will, was in pr...
Old Jeddah at Night
Proving once again that this is indeed a man’s world here in Saudi Arabia, the ratio of men to women in this typical night scene in Al-Balad, the oldest section of Jeddah, is about ten men to one woman. Men are mostly dressed in white or in re...
Shoe Shop
Small shops in Jeddah make great use out of every inch of space. This is a tiny shoe shop that offers quite a selection of shoes to choose from. The men customers in white are wearing the traditional long white Saudi dress, called thobe. Underneat...
Waiting for Customers
These two men are sitting outside a small restaurant on a hot day waiting for customers. The restaurant offers take-out only of fresh large round flat bread, called tameez, and mashed beans, called fool. They also offer spiced sauces, similar to sa...
Saudi Headdress
The man in this photo is wearing the traditional Saudi headdress, called shemagh. It is a large square lightweight scarf in a red and white checkered pattern. It is usually folded in half to form a triangle and the long folded part is worn facing t...
Headless Mannequins
Store mannequins in Saudi Arabia do not have heads, and I’ve seen some mannequins without arms as well. I believe it has something to do with the religion and idolization. I wonder if the mannequins can be ordered headless/armless or if there...
Mall Entertainment Area
This is a scene from a mall entertainment area. Most malls have a family friendly area where rides and games are available. Most children in KSA wear typical kid’s clothes worn around the world. Women at the mall are almost always dressed in...
Typical Dress
Men dressed in white long dresses, called thobes, and women decked out in black abayas from head to toe – this is very typical of the way that men and women appear in public in this society. In the brutal heat of the summer, wearing black does...
Men in White
The men dressed in the white thobes in this photo are customers waiting for their orders in a local fisherie. Saudi men traditionally wear the thobe with long white pants underneath, a scarf or small white cap on their heads, and sandals. The fishe...
