On my very first day in Riyadh, hubby took me to a shopping mall. As I wrote before, it felt a bit extreme because of the homogenous dress code. Apparently Saudi men are very much encouraged to wear the traditional dress, which is a white thobe and a red and white headscarf. Women all wear black. There is actually no rule that an abaya should be black, but so far I’ve seen one lady in Saudi Arabia (at the airport) wearing an abaya that was not black. Foreign women often wear abayas that have decorations on the sleeves and back, but most Saudi women seem to favor plain black.
In the spring, hubster and I flew over to Dubai for a weekend. One of the things that you notice immediately upon arrival in Dubai compared to Riyadh is the colorful crowd. There is a whole different feeling to a place when you see people wearing so many colors and types of dress instead of the ever-present black abaya. The other thing we noticed in Dubai is music. Saudi shopping malls are quiet during the day because a.) most people flock to shopping malls in the evenings after the last prayer of the day so that they don’t need to worry about salat closings and b.) shops are not allowed to play music.
Here's a picture from a shopping mall in Riyadh:
In the spring, hubster and I flew over to Dubai for a weekend. One of the things that you notice immediately upon arrival in Dubai compared to Riyadh is the colorful crowd. There is a whole different feeling to a place when you see people wearing so many colors and types of dress instead of the ever-present black abaya. The other thing we noticed in Dubai is music. Saudi shopping malls are quiet during the day because a.) most people flock to shopping malls in the evenings after the last prayer of the day so that they don’t need to worry about salat closings and b.) shops are not allowed to play music.
Here's a picture from a shopping mall in Riyadh:
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