City of a Thousand Malls

---

"On your left, you see a popular mall. On your right, there's another one people like to visit...also there's a mall attached to your hotel. It has a great sushi place." In the twenty-minute ride from the airport, I counted no less than eight megamalls in Riyadh. In a place where there's no public cinema and few music/cultural event venues, where restaurants are divided into men's and family sections, where few people walk outside (especially in the summer when temperatures can be over 140 degrees F), what is a young Saudi to do? Go to the mall! Hey, they are air-conditioned and allow for flirtatious glances at passing members of the opposite sex (even if the women are often covered head to foot).

In our progression through Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, the capital, was fittingly our last major stop. It is a sprawling city set deep in the arid heart of the Najd, the desolate region that gave rise to the Saudi family. The Najd was largely ignored by the imperial powers that came and went in the Middle East (including the Ottomans), as it only supported a few oasis towns and a handful of tough beduin. Now Riyadh is a glittering Las Vegas - sans alcohol and gambling (and most other public vices!) - with a population approaching 5 million. Desalinated water from the coasts flows hundreds of miles through pipes following the oil lines to keep the thirsty city hydrated. Iconic buildings like the Fasialiah (where we teachers got pampered with five-star service) and the Kingdom Tower thrust into the sky - while the sounds of new construction echo throughout the city, promising new, over-the-top showcase structures. And more malls, of course.

Everyone we met in Jeddah kept warning us about how much more conservative Riyadh was compared to the rest of the country. Poking into the malls seemed to verify this, at least in terms of outward form. Standing on the top level of the Fasialiah Mall, looking down through the cross-section provided by one of its atriums, I could watch the shoppers coming and going, stopping at windows, sipping their Starbucks lattes. Typical mall sights, right? Well, except for the fact that the women admiring the Victoria's Secret lingerie were more often than not enshrouded in black, not even their faces showing. The men checking out Adidas footwear were decked out in thobs and ghutras and frequently sported large, bushy beards. Any ad with a human figure and any mannequin posed in a shop window had its face blurred or pixelated. That muddle of modernity and tradition I mentioned when I was frolicking with the camels? It was in full glaring view in Riyadh's malls. Disconcerting and fascinating.

Of course, being the capital, Riyadh is more than just malls and fancy buildings. It's not only the present center of government - including the seat of the Majlis as-Shura, a consultative body of appointed members from all over the kingdom - but it is also an important symbol in the Saudi nation-building project. Riyadh, a historic home of the Saudis, was (re)taken in a night-time raid by Abdulaziz, who would become the founding king of Saudi Arabia. The reconstructed fort of al-Musmak, which Abdulaziz stormed, tells the story of this event with nationalist gusto. A relatively minor skirmish transformed into the birth of a nation. Similar themes are expounded at the state-of-the-art National Museum, which traces the history of the Arabian Peninsula from the moment of creation to the present.

But I still think Riyadh is best understood through its malls, not its museums and majlises. They are where the social and political contradictions of the Kingdom collide most visibly. Most importantly, they are where the young people hang out. Considering that more than 60% of the population is under the age of 25, these mall walkers will be a forced to be reckoned with in the not so distant future.

I suddenly feel the urge to shop....

---

Comments

[chants]

cool
I just read the girls of riyadh and was really wondering what it looks like there...its fascinating how advanced they are yet...not. strange.