Hidden Normalcy in Riyadh
Discovering Riyadh's surprising normalcy amid conservative tradition and rapid change.
This article is part of the Travelogue series on the Arab States of the Gulf. Travelogue aims to bring together travel memoirs with history and politics.
There are small things in life that, at the same time, cause complete indifference to most people and intense happiness to a minority. We all have such things that touch us in a childlike way that it’s difficult to explain. Personally, I have a few. One is snow. Being raised in Europe’s most snow-adverse capital, I now love the yearly snowy days where I live. Fireworks also thrill me in a special way. The loudness and brightness make me happy. And… airplanes. Seeing a rare airplane captivates me. Once I flew on a Sukhoi Superjet 100 from Copenhagen to Brussels, and I swear I spent two hours just looking around this Russian-made jet that only sold seven units in the West.
That same childlike thrill returned as I started this trip, boarding a beige-and-blue Saudia Airbus A330-300R. For you, the reader, it might mean nothing, but for me, the traveller, it was extremely exciting. The A330 is a European-made long-haul airplane, but the Saudi national airline refitted them with extra seats for shorter flights. This flight from Cairo to Riyadh, similar to Brussels-Lisbon or Madrid-Warsaw, could have been done in your typical Ryanair 737 or easyJet A320, but here I am entering a 300-passenger airplane.
Flying into a new country, in its national airline is in itself a unique experience. Flying is, in many ways, the most standardized way of entering a country, where rules are followed globally and behaviour is expected to be similar. But that uniformization makes the small differences come out quite quickly.
This time, the destination is Saudi Arabia. My expectations are not broad, as the country is a mystery to me and mostly based on stereotypes. The flight itself is the first time I’ll be confronting those expectations and prejudices. Some flight attendants don’t speak Arabic, most of the female ones don’t wear a hair-covering veil. The flight entertainment seems as normal as everywhere else, except for the constant Trump real estate ad.
As we find our seats, a group of three niqabi women ask to move so no man sits in their row’s fourth seat. Gender segregation is one of my expectations of Saudi Arabia, yet the flight attendant answers in this Saudi plane the same I heard countless times in so many airlines: seat where your boarding pass allocated you, and after takeoff you can look for any free alternatives. My first impression of Saudi Arabia is thus its sheer normality.
The flight is not long, but enough for a movie. Quareer, a Saudi award-winning movie, is an anthology of five shorts by five female Saudi directors, each starring a Saudi woman protagonist. And the stories are those of their fights against a patriarchal conservative society in their own Saudi Arabia.
Women in Saudi Arabia experienced one of the quickest processes of legal recognition of rights. Only in 2005 were forced marriages banned. In 2017 women got the right to drive and to enter sport stadiums. In 2018 the public enforcement of the hijab ended. In 2019 women got the right to apply for divorce and to apply for a passport without their guardian’s permission. In 2020 they gained the right to work at night. In 2021 the right to live independently without a male guardian if they are unmarried. By 2023 Saudi women who have children with foreign men became allowed to pass their nationality on.
Sometimes in politics it is difficult to appreciate genuine progress in a context of deep injustice, especially when it happens in places we see as culturally distant. Women in Saudi Arabia have gained more rights since Mohammed bin Salman took over as Crown Prince in 2017, than in several decades before that. This progress is undeniable. For all criticism one might have of Saudi leadership, it would be a deep mistake to dismiss the progress that has been achieved.
If before I thought gender segregation in Saudi Arabia was still heavily enforced, and then I understood it is way more relaxed than I expected, nothing prepared me for my first eventful moment in Saudi Arabia: a woman handing me her baby so she can more easily put her things in the security conveyor belt at the exit of the airport terminal. If you can imagine a White guy with arms locked at 90 degrees holding a Saudi baby, then you’ll get it.
The Empty Streets of Riyadh
The metro itself is clean, white, empty, fresh. To be fair to metro systems around the world, this one is less than one year old. From the airport to the city it’s a nice ride, with the big-windowed metro showing you the suburbs. The architecture of most stations is eye-opening. The city is expansive, low-rise. The tall modern buildings are mostly focused in a core area of the city.
Entering Riyadh gives a feeling of emptiness. There is no music around, there is no noise or chaos typical of cities. It feels like the city was designed for way more people than it has. Nonetheless, Riyadh has grown immensely. In 20 years, it went from 3 million inhabitants to almost 8 million, and the expectation is that by 2030 it could be near 10 million.
In the metro, there is segregation. There are three types of carriages: one only for single men, one for families together with single women and one for… 1st class. For 6 extra riyal - around €1.50 - you can mix without problem. There’s no religious conservatism that capitalism can’t break.
Saudi Arabia, the Gulf and the making of nations
Saudi Arabia is a unique country in the Gulf region. It’s not only the biggest by far, it dominates the region: 51% of the GDP, 62% of the population, 84% of the territory. Even its deep green flag is an outlier.
The national myth of the country establishes the birth of modern Saudi Arabia with the House of Saud conquering Riyadh in 1902 and establishing the third Saudi State. For the first 30 years of the new Emirate, King Ibn Saud conquered the territory we today know as Saudi Arabia and in 1932 the modern state was proclaimed. Since King Ibn Saud’s death, several of his sons have ruled the country.
Like the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia, the other Gulf states are monarchies ruled by different Arab dynasties. The House of Khalifa in Bahrain, the House of Sabah in Kuwait, the House of Al Bu Said in Oman, the House of Thani in Qatar and the Houses of Nahyan, Maktoum, Al Nuaimi, Al Qasimi, Al Mualla and Al Sharqi in the United Arab Emirates.
Eleven royal families rule the Arabian peninsula. For many Europeans this might seem old and antiquated, yet it’s not fundamentally different from the House of Glücksburg ruling Denmark and Norway, the House of Orange-Nassau ruling the Netherlands or the House of Bourbon ruling Spain. The big difference here is the power: in Saudi and Oman the monarchy is absolute in its rule over the country while in Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait the monarchies are semi-constitutional but the monarch still takes most power. Western European monarchies lost grip on power by the mid-1800s, while Eastern European monarchies retained it until World War 1, yet the modern Gulf states were mostly founded in the early 1970s after decades of Ottoman and British rule - and their foundation was led by the ruling families and their tribal ties. These ruling families have led a period of independence and intense development which has brought a better life to its citizens, based mostly on oil money and low-wage migration from South Asia.
Saudi Arabia is the exception here. A Saudi state has existed since the early 1900s and by 1932 the unification of the territory was mostly complete. Oil was only discovered in 1938 and mass commercial exploitation started after World War 2. Since the 1970s the Saudi economy boomed. The power grip of the ruling family can be argued to have been the strongest in the region. While other Gulf countries opened themselves to foreign investment, Saudis were kept so under control that non-religious tourism was only open to foreigners in 2014.
📍Deera Square and the Al Masmak Palace Museum
From central Riyadh we head south until Qasr Al Hokm Metro Station, walk through Souq al-Zal, and get to Deera Square. This open square, lined with palm trees, kids playing and third wave cafes is known by many names: Deera Square, Alsafat Square, Justice Square, Chop-Chop Square. Until 2022 this is the square where public executions were done. Chop-chop, heads rolling. Saudi Arabia is one of the 53 countries in the world where the death penalty is still applied, which includes supposedly thriving democracies like the United States and Japan. After China and Iran, Saudi Arabia is the country with the most capital punishments per year, mostly due to the harsh prosecution of its war on drugs. These days the beheadings are not done in public anymore, so as you walk around and enjoy a good coffee, you get to admire the beauty of the square while imagining other, darker scenes.
Next to the square is the Al Masmak Palace Museum. Here in 1902 the forces of Saud took over Riyadh, the foundational moment of today’s Saudi Arabia. The palace has traditional architecture, made of clay and mudbrick, and has a small exhibition showing the history of Riyadh and the foundational basis of the country.
📍National Museum of Saudi Arabia
Heading north and getting out at the National Museum station, we are welcomed by the Riyadh Water Tower, a small but imposing structure built in 1971 to guarantee water supply to the rapidly growing city. If you’ve been to Örebro, in Sweden, you’ll find it familiar as the architect Sune Lindström clearly didn’t care much for uniqueness.
A few steps further north and we get to the National Museum of Saudi Arabia. Here you can learn with detail the entire history of Saudi Arabia, its leaders, its religion and its people. It’s a well designed museum that allows you to spend a couple hours learning about the country. For a non-Muslim, the section about the history of Islam, of prophet Muhammad and of the holy city of Mecca is particularly interesting.
A City of Modern Tradition
Even during winter, in the heart of the Nafud desert which surrounds Riyadh, the heat is still strong and you feel it around the city. Walking around is clearly not something urban planners planned for and Riyadh clearly gains the award of the most unwalkable city I’ve been to. Crossing a simple road can take up to one hour walking simply because of the lack of a proper crossing. It’s a car-first city, where walking paths came as an after-thought.
Malls are a constant fixture. With the heat outside, the air-conditioned buildings offer a much-needed oasis. From more traditional souk-like malls to the uniformized western big malls, Riyadh has plenty to offer. America is clearly the model, and European brands are only visible in fashion and cars. So don’t be shocked that “Italian cuisine” actually means American food.
📍Diriyah
A 20-minute drive west, we get to the At-Turaif District, an UNESCO World Heritage Site. If you follow politics, you’ve probably heard of Saudi Vision 2030. It might be best known for huge projects like NEOM and The Line, but it also includes places like Diriyah.
Diriyah is the original home of the House of Saud and the first capital or the first Saudi state from 1727 to 1818. Today it has been fully rebuilt with funds from the Vision 2030 plan for tourism, and was developed with a full cultural offer and plenty of luxury shops and restaurants. This place offers a duopoly of vibes that feels quite local: there’s the tradition that feels new, recovered fully as if built yesterday, next to the luxury of modern capitalism, a full catalogue of luxury brands that offers little to those not within the elite. It is worth a visit though, the open museum gives something unique and you can learn about the earlier history of the region.
📍Saqer Al-Jazirah Royal Air Force Museum
If you still remember how we started this story, you won’t be too surprised with how we finish it. The Royal Air Force Museum is situated in a heavily militarized and undeveloped part of Riyadh, and displays the history of Saudi Arabia’s Armed Forces. With western eyes it’s also a museum to US-Saudi relations and how since the post-World War order was born, the United States built a strong ally in the Gulf area, strengthened around oil and regional dominance. Since the western powers, mainly the English and French, started to leave their colonies behind, the United States have invested heavily in having a strong presence in the area, first with the dictatorial Imperial Iran until 1979 and then with Israel. In between the US’ loyalties, has been Saudi.
The museum showcases the evolution of Saudi military air power, from the first airplanes it ever used to more recent US-made F-15 fighter-jets that the US has only sold to Japan, Singapore, South Korea and its major Middle East allies: Qatar, Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Good Coffee.
Some recommendations of good coffee places while you travel around Riyadh:
DRAFT Café at the King Abdullah Financial District offers a large but calm space, ideal for reading or working.
% Arabica is a Japanese-chain that you’ll be able to recognize all around the Gulf. The Riyadh The Zone location offers a very clinically white and glass vibe, but if you find yourself in this area it’s a good place to have a coffee.
Sip1 Specialty Coffee is a small cafe right inside the chaotic Taiba Souq.
Elixir Bunn Coffee Roasters offers great coffee in Deera Square (or Chop-Chop Square, if you prefer).
This was the first article in the Travelogue series, which aims to bring together travel memoirs with history and politics. If you enjoyed it, please let me know what you enjoyed and what can be made better:
Next stop: Kuwait.