Remember that stupid hospital thing? A similar stupid thing happened to me today.

This morning, I went to the court to sign some papers. I was supposed to meet my little brother there. I arrived earlier, and when I tried to enter the building, the soldier on the entrance told me he can’t let me in because I’m not wearing a shmagh. I was just like “are you serious?” “I’m wearing a thobe, what the shmagh is for?” I asked him. He told me “these are the rules.”

While I was cursing the rules and the people who put them, my brother arrived from college, wearing a navy pair of jeans and a lab coat. I told him what happened, and when he turned his face toward the soldier, and before saying anything, the stupid soldier with his stupid cold smile told my brother “you can get in.”

I could not believe it. “He can get in but I can’t because I’m not wearing a shmagh?” I asked the soldier, and he said “yes!” I did not want to go back home just to put that ugly piece of clothes on my head, so I borrowed one from another man. It was really unpleasant to have someone else’s shmagh on my head, but I was so angry to think about it.

I never have been to the court before. I was thinking about something like Alley McBeal. However, the real image was shockingly different. It was an old, dirty, smelly, small building. The walls were filled with strokes of blue ink from people dirty enough to clean up their fingers on the wall after they used them to stamp the papers. In addition to that, some girls shamelessly wrote their names and phone numbers on the walls. What kind of a girl that is looking for love in such place?

I was there for only 40 minutes, but it was an awful experience. I hope I’ll never need to go there again.

While we were on the way back from Zara, my friend Mo sparkled this discussion. I will put some blasts from this discussion here. I don’t want to go on details about who said what. I will just try to write down what impressed me the most.

Why can’t I have a lifestyle that is similar to other students’ lifestyle? They will never miss a chance to go to coffee shops between classes, they will finish the classes and go to spend the few remaining hours of morning in malls, and they usually have some plan to meet later in the evening at the fancy Attahlia street (This is the street’s old name. The government has named it after some prince now, but this name still sounds way much better and it’s actually more popular) or somewhere else where they can hang out and have a good time.

I do nothing here. When I was back home in Hassa, I used to go out every other night or so. Maybe Hassa does not have Starbucks or Olaya St., but at least somehow I could manage to have a good time. Is it because I’m a bit different? Or is it simply because I don’t know how to fit in with Riyadh boys? I know being Shi’ite in a city like Riyadh is not helping, but I don’t think it is a major reason for this situation.

I could think of plenty of reasons. I come from a socially different background. Also, I come from a different class. I belong to the middle-class, and I can say I always had a good life. However, it seems to me that the mid-class here in Riyadh has much better level of living than the one I had back in Hassa.

Sometimes, my class-mates invite me to go out with them, and even without all the above in mind, I tend to say “sorry, I can’t come with you guys.” There is always something deep inside me that tells me not to join them. Is it because I’m really different and it will be really hard for me to fit in, or is it just better not to enter a world that could be not suitable to a boy like me?

Sometimes, it is really hard to find answers.

During my first months in Riyadh, I noticed a lot of things that were unusual to me. As time passes by, everything is becoming more usual and nothing seems to be awkward or surprising. However, there are some behaviors here that I still cannot understand.

One thing is why/how most of the young women here never leave home without their maids. They take their maids everywhere. When I saw this for the first time at Al-Azizia Market, I thought “maybe those spoiled girls of Riyadh are just too lazy to pick up goods and push the trolley themselves.”

Then I started to see that everywhere. The maid will open the car door for her lady, and walk behind her in the shopping malls like a dog just to carry the bags. Meanwhile, her lady will be shopping recklessly at all the high street retailers, buying the ugliest pieces for the most expensive prices without taking a moment to think what the hell is she doing.

OK, I said everywhere, but here’s a place I never thought a girl will take her made to. Some girls cannot come to the university campus without their maids! A student told Asharq Al-Awsat that bringing the maid is “necessary to carry the abaya.” Moreover, some students will come with more than one maid “to open and close doors, carry the bags, the cellular phone and the sunglasses.” Yeah, sure, all these impossible missions will take more than one super maid to be done!

Ironically, the maids have one advantage at the campus, where they can wear whatever they want. Meanwhile, the ladies/students are obliged to wear some kind of uniform, “to prevent discrimination between the different classes of the society.” Really?

I was talking with a Syrian classmate/friend of mine this morning, and he assured me on some viewpoints I had in mind for a while but I wasn’t sure about.

When someone visits Riyadh for the first time, he could be fascinated with how a huge city this is. A city that was built to be XL at everything; huge streets, two high skyscrapers and one of the biggest universities in the world. However, deep down, Riyadh is a weirdly divided city. When you get to know people and experience the lifestyle of this city, which is unstylish at all, you will come to understand what my earlier description was all about.

Before going into some details, I want to make it clear that whenever I use the word “conservative” in this post, I don’t use it as opposite to the word “liberal” but as opposite to who I like to call “anti-conservative”. Anti-conservatives are people with no traditions; no principles, no values, and all what concerns them in life are the little stuff. Those people who I’d like to call “empty souls“.

The majority of population of Riyadh is extremely conservative. This is no wonder if we kept in mind that this city was the starting point and the main center of Wahhabism. Those people are in control of almost everything in the city, from shopping malls to social events.

In contrast, the remaining minority is extremely anti-conservative. I don’t know how this kind of people could grow up in such an environment and educational system, but they exist, despite all the odds. And yes, they are minority, but you can easily recognize them.

In this city, you have the chance to run into the extremist fundamentalists, and the in the same time you have the chance to run into the empty souls; the smuttiest boys and the sluttiest girls. Sure, there are some people in between. But to me, these people are not interesting enough to write about. They are just so… ordinary.

My friend, born and raised in Saudi Arabia, agreed with me on the above, but he was arguing that some freedom could be dangerous to this city. He says that if the conservatives loosen up a little, the chaos and confusion will be overwhelming. Maybe, but freedom does not come without a price, and I think no matter how expensive it is, it will be worth it.

Prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal, the chairman of The Kingdom Holding, and the richest man in Saudi Arabia, announced that his company recruited the first Saudi woman to work as a pilot. Prince Al-Waleed told the press that captain Hanadi could be the pilot of his private jet someday.

Earlier this year, the first Saudi female pilot tried to get a job at the government-owned national airline, but they rejected her.

The first elections ever in Saudi Arabia is becoming more and more visible. Take a quick tour in the streets of Riyadh and you will see all the ads that promote the coming municipal elections and urge citizens to register, because “unless you register, your voice will not be heard,” the ad says.

However, I don’t expect a high voting rates. It is the first time Saudis have the chance to vote and participate in making decisions. Plus, Saudis never seemed to be, at least to me, interested in politics.

I don’t know if there’s any Saudi readers for this blog, but if you are Saudi citizen, 21 or older, and want to know the important dates and places, please head to Elections.gov.sa.

I will be voting in the second stage, scheduled after three months, and I’m only worried that when time to vote comes, I may not find any candidate good enough to vote for! Let’s wait and see.