![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Big oil companies were allowed into the country in the first place, in the 1930s, only because the Great Depression had cut into revenues from the hajj. The resulting article in Vanity Fair is one part travel romp and one part history lesson—with a healthy dash of moxie thrown in.ĭowd explores Saudi Arabia’s historically “veiled,” closed-off nature. Maureen Dowd found the allure irresistible, and was determined to see Saudi Arabia on her own terms – or as many of her own terms as she could negotiate. It’s a fundamentalist-Islamic state—the Koran is the constitution—where alcohol is forbidden, and even Western women must cover themselves the way Saudi women do, and cannot move about without a male escort, much less drive a car. (‘No backpacking stuff’, warns the Saudi tourism minister.) The Kingdom is likely to be a tough sell. Saudi Arabia is slowly cracking open its doors to embrace tourism, albeit only for small, ‘high level’, and ‘fully educated’ groups of visitors. Aaaargh! Photo: Ashley ParkerĪh well, the full article by New York Times columnist and Vanity Fair contributor Maureen Dowd may materialise later. Dowd on the shore of the Red Sea in a government-issue Abaya. ![]()
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