Don’t be frightened of arriving

Pity poor Lisa Ashton, recently fired by British airline BMI. They wanted her to fly to Saudi, told her she had to wear an abaya at all times and to make sure she walked behind men when in public.

She thought the place was too dangerous; her opinion was based on travel advice from the Foreign Office at the time, and refused to go. She also felt, ‘as a proud Christian woman’, that being made to wear an abaya and walk behind men was offensive to her.

The dispute went to court, and she lost.

BMI were wrong and Lisa Ashton was wrong. A quick conversation with anyone familiar with Saudi Arabia would have clarified what the rules really were, or, if there were no rules in particular, what was generally accepted practice. At each stage of this sorry saga, the people involved weren’t getting good advice.

To be fair, when visiting the Gulf for the first time as a Westerner, it can be hard to know what to expect.

I’m sure the same applies to someone from, say, Saudi, visiting England for the first time. Anyone expecting to encounter the normal stereotypes is bound to be confused or disappointed.

Arriving at Heathrow, the first time Saudi visitor will be surprised to find a complete absence of tall thin Englishmen in pith helmets, administrating vigorously, running a tight ship of an airport, with fair play and efficiency oozing from every part of the immigration process. Instead, they might think they’ve landed in India or Pakistan, as they’ll be hearing a lot of the local staff speaking Punjabi or Urdu. Immigration control will not consist of smartly dressed chaps in uniform — instead they’ll be confronted by Big Dave from Hounslow, who couldn’t be bothered to shave that morning, let alone do up his top button and fasten his tie properly.

Once ensconced in a London hotel, a quick stroll around town in search of a cup of tea and scones will prove fruitless. Eventually, the only options will be to have a Starbuck’s coffee and a Big Mac. Asking directions will be difficult, as everyone will be a tourist. Should he drop into a public house for refreshment (of a non-alcoholic variety, naturally — visiting a pub is simply an English thing to do and doesn’t mandate drinking copious quantities of booze), he will find himself served by someone from Poland.

An evening promenade at around eleven in the evening will likely involve having to dodge legions of drunken yobs — elegant ladies and gentlemen taking the air will be scarce on the ground.

Drunken yobs aside, none of these things is bad — London is a vibrant, multicultural city, enriched by people from all sorts of cultures from all over the world. The typical English stereotype is simply rather out of date these days.

Likewise, the first time English visitor to Saudi will have similar stereotypes. He will be worried about accidentally showing the soles of his feet to anyone, terrified of being forced to drink gallons of strong coffee if he wobbles his empty cup the wrong way and mortified at the thought of being obliged to eat the eye of a goat at the business dinner planned for later in the week.

His experience will be rather different, of course. During my first trip to Dubai, my expectations of the region were peppered with similar worries.

On arriving, I too was surprised to be surrounded by people who mainly seemed to come from India. Initial business meetings did not involve having to wobble my coffee cup in the slightest. I simply had to ask the office boy for a cup of water and managed not to offend anyone in the process. I also discovered that showing someone the soles of your feet or shoes accidentally was rather difficult. Short of putting my feet up on someone’s desk or standing on one leg whilst waving the other in someone’s face, my feet tended to stay pointing firmly downwards, so no social faux pas was incurred. Goat was never on the menu. I ate a lot of sushi.

Travelling to other Gulf countries for the first time had me filled with similarly unmerited concerns.

At Kuwait airport I had a choice of several fast food joints to choose from. In Jeddah our business lunch took place at Chili’s, accompanied by the Best of the Beatles playing in the background. Not a goat’s eye in sight.

During my first regional trip outside of Dubai, I found myself meeting the owner of the partner company I was visiting. A tall, serious, bearded man wearing a dishdasha, he sat behind a large desk, observing me with apparent disdain.

‘Mr Chris,’ he said, in excellent but strongly accented English. ‘You must be careful here — if you break the law, we will chop off your head!’

I looked a little nervous and made sure the soles of both my feet were planted firmly on the ground.

Suddenly his face lit up with a broad smile. He guffawed and started speaking in a flawless American accent.

‘I’m only kiddin’ with ya, man, it ain’t like that!’ He grabbed a photo off the shelf and showed it to me proudly. ‘This is me with George Bush Sr! Welcome to my country!’

Ms Ashton should take a trip to the region. She’ll find it a lot less frightening than she thought. If she likes, she can walk in front of me all the way through the airport.

Christopher Saul regularly writes blogs on different aspects concerning the countries in the Middle East.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Goats Eye!!!!
Posted by Steve, Dubai on Monday 8 June 2009 at 08:25 UAE time


Oops...bulls eye. Nicely written.

Some of the perceptions people have of Saudi Arabia are far from the truth. KSA is not certainly as liberal as Dubai but many of the things I have heard are really silly. I have been a frequent traveller to KSA over the last 5 years. The requirement to wear an Abaya in public is correct but that women need to walk behind the men is only BMI's imagination.

Lisa
Posted by friendsoflisa on Tuesday 2 June 2009 at 04:50 UAE time


Sir you miss the point. Miss Ashton was instructed by BMI that “It is expected that female crew members will walk behind their male counterparts in public areas such as airports no matter what rank.”

This as far as we know, having contacted the Saudi Embassy, was not a requirment of Saudi, but blatent discrimination by BMI.

The demands seem to be based on nothing more than BMI’s racially stereotypical interpretation of their own perceived Islamic/Saudi rules, laws, customs and culture. BMI seem to be blissfully unaware of the irony that they have instructed the crew to remove their crucifix yet they don’t seem to have a problem operating to Saudi with the St. Georges’ cross emblazoned on the back of their aircraft the size of an Airbus 330 tailfin”.

This is typical of the BMI managment style, this is why she made a stand

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