Tour of Saudi Globalization

December 2, 2008

This video clip is part of the longer documentary Saudi Solutions (full video here) filmed by Bregtje van der Haak. The documentary itself deserves commentary, but it is the world glimpsed in the video that interests me now. In the above clip a Saudi woman walks us through her home in a neighborhood that she describes as upper middle class. Because she is appearing on video the Saudi woman wears her 'abaya and keeps her face hidden.. and it is tempting for a moment to think of this as a view of traditional Saudi life.. but then getting a look around the house it is evident that she is every bit as modern and every bit the participant in global culture as Americans or Europeans.

A few things that I think are worth noting. The Saudi woman speaks flawless English.. which is easy to take for granted. She is surrounded by recognizable brands such as Raisin Bran or the makers of the electronic gadgets. She speaks easily about the advantage of the wife having a job to bring in a second income. Since she works for a Saudi newspaper she participates fully in the kind of knowledge exchanges that characterize our time. The elements of her world, from the kitchen to the dining room, are all recognizable to us. There is almost nothing that in itself an American would call foreign or strange.

That said, this is nevertheless a way of life that on its face appears strange. The woman at the center of all these "normal" elements is fully covered with her 'abaya. All we see are her eyes. Her house is filled with strategic spatial additions that would befuddle us: she has a special door placed so that she can go to the house of her in-laws without having to cover herself. There is a majlis or sitting room where visiting men are received.. but separate from the living areas of the house. Managing life here takes a deep knowledge of the social system. An American set down in this house would recognize all the elements.. and be able to prepare breakfast with ease.. but the spatial configuration of everything would be mystifying.

So how do we make sense of the normalness of the elements and the overall strangeness of the lifestyle? It's tempting to think of all oddities as elaborate work-arounds for a modern lifestyle, meant to satisfy religious sensibilities but not actually restrict anything. One could make the argument that technology is easing this process tremendously since this woman is able to work from home and send articles via e-mail. Sure she is not allowed to drive.. but perhaps she has enough money to hire a servant.

The lifestyle as a whole can be thought of in a way similar to Islamic banking, which also consists of elaborate work-arounds designed to allow Muslims to follow Islamic law but get all the benefits of modern banking. Here is an example of Islamic banking from Wikipedia:

Bai' al-Inah (Sale and Buy Back Agreement)

The financier sells an asset to the customer on a deferred-payment basis, and then the asset is immediately repurchased by the financier for cash at a discount. The buying back agreement allows the bank to assume ownership over the asset in order to protect against default without explicitly charging interest in the event of late payments or insolvency.

A point of Islamic law is respected, but in actuality bypassed. It would be pointless to talk about Islamic banking or the life of this Saudi woman in terms of medieval Islam.. or in terms of anything like tradition. The most important thing to grasp is the way this is to its core a modern way of living, fully connected to global culture.

The video brings out an important point about globalization: the elements that compose this life are all recognizable, but it is their arrangement that strikes us as strange. That is an important point about what we should look for in other cultures. Yes, if we visit Japan or India or Saudi Arabia we will see lots of familiar brands and gadgets. But if we miss the way these elements are re-arranged into a new whole that fits each particular culture, then we miss something essential about how globalization allows for external continuities with the past.