New in Riyadh!

Welcome to Riyadh!

All of the women I see in the airport make sure they are wearing their abayas before the leave their planes, and while you can walk around the airport without covering your hair, it is still preferred cover it to avoid any unnecessary attention.

I'm sure the ladies on the forum will provide even better asnwers to that, I'll leave the other question for them as well

welcome again!

dnt go there
i insure you very boaring time thanx god i had leave riyadh 2years ago after 10 years of working there
best regards

Welcome to ze Kingdom in advance.

Jills54 wrote:

a] How covered do I need to be on arrival, do I need to cover my hair?

you dont need to, but if you would like to out of recpect to the locals or just to give your self the extra comfort.
normaly your husband should get you a abaya and a head scarf so you could wear it leaving the AirPort. but while your still inside the airport its completely normal to not cover your hair.

Jills54 wrote:

b]Is it easy to meet up with other women, to socialise, play cards, mahjong, does the UK embassey have coffee morning etc

if your compound has alot of families I guess you wouldn't have a problem. a few gutsy members of Expat.com got to know plenty of friends through this great forum.

Jills54 wrote:

c] Any ladies of my age who would like to play cards, play Mahjong,have a coffee.

I'll leave this to the ladies to answer


Salman

HI Jills - Welcome to Riyadh!  Hopefully you will have an abaya when you arrive in country and as mentioned wear it off the plane.  Although you really could come through the airport without it, you will feel much more comfortable with it on.  Don't worry about covering your hair - its not necessary as an expat.  Ive never had anyone give me a hard time at the airport.   
As for women your age, there are many of us.  LOL  PM me and we can discuss having lunch or getting together for coffee.

Jills54 wrote:
a] How covered do I need to be on arrival, do I need to cover my hair?

you dont need to, but if you would like to out of recpect to the locals or just to give your self the extra comfort.

I have to disagree with Salman here.  No need to cover your head.  It has nothing to do with respecting or not respecting the locals.  Rather, it has to do with the fact that you're not Muslim so this doesn't apply to you.

Welcome to the sandbox

Gosh I hate to be obtuse, but this question has yielded so many answers...

Here's what I usually get told and what I THINK I'm going to do. Hope the women living here correct me/us about this if I'm way off.
For my young daughter, I will probably not buy anything but one abaya for days when she might feel like wearing it, to conform. (She does not look 13, she looks 10. When that changes, I'll respond accordingly).

For women/me: I plan to play it safe upon arrival and-
1)Buy an abaya here in the USA at a local mosque. Wear that as I get off the plane.

2) be prepared to cover my head/hair, in case...(and not just at the airport but in general be prepared for it).

3) Ignore the need to cover my face, unless odd circumstances arise, in which I feel being hidden or blending in would be better. As I have blue eyes and blond hair, I am not sure this would work. So I will probably take CAF's advice to forget about covering the face b/c you can't really cover the blue eyes anyhow and may as well let them know i'm western and don't know enough to do their customs right, (but I'm trying).

So ---are there really 3 levels of covering for  women?
-1) Cover the body neck down, which  is more or less a given;
- 2) covering  the hair/head is optional; assuming you are not Muslim, and
-3) for a western woman, covering the face is almost Not done at all??

Yikes, I thought this part of my "orientation" would be easy. FYI our start date has again been delayed for no given reason, although could Ramadan delay it already?   June was our original date.  Our daughter is SO NOT  happy to have to start a new school during the year rather than at the beginning. It'll be tough on her. The ambiguity is hardest on kids I think. Makes it tough as to what to tell the schools here (and there), too.
Oh well, patience is a virtue.  I'll remind her of that again, tonight...and tomorrow...At least we know we have housing on a compound and there are kids on it! We've moved places where our kids, were THE kids, and that was UN fun. THis will be better than that.

b/c you can't really cover the blue eyes anyhow

Actually some Syrians are very fair and have blue eyes so it isn't necessarily a dead give-away that you're not an Arab.

Here's the thing: I've been here a year.  I've only been hassled twice (in the same shopping trip!) at Sahara Mall to cover my head but it was during Ramadan.  During Ramadan, it's best to try  to lay low! lol

Other than that, nobody has ever approached me and I have blonde hair/blue eyes, too.

Oh, and being approached doesn't have to be some traumatic confrontation; you can just turn and walk away without covering or you can cover and two minutes later, remove the scarf.

I know a woman here in Riyadh who is from Colombia.  On the occasions she's been approached to cover her head, she talks to them in Spanish and, baffled, the Mutawa end up just walking away   I've decided that will be my new strategy if approached! 

All I can say is that when you get here, you'll discover your comfort level and go from there.  I think that's what we've all done

CHECK THIS LINK...for sure will give you some ideas..

abbyinarabia.blogspot.com/2010/06/black-couture.html

My personal view and advice is to cover your hair when you are out in public and not defy it for no reason at all when it doesnt cost you anything.

No doubt you dont care about what the SArab men and women would think of you or your apparent modesty levels that are displayed.

Yet, when in Rome do what the Romans do.