The Lives of Saudi Women: A Sketch

I work at the male branch of a university in Saudi Arabia. Some of us on occasion go over to the women's branch after hours when the women are gone to do various kinds of work: set up computers, deliver exams etc. A couple of months ago, one of the male teachers was at the female campus after hours one day and was setting up a computer in the computer lab. He looked down and noticed that one of the girls had left her art pad/sketch pad under one of the computers. Her name was written on the front of the pad in Roman letters. The male teacher started looking through the sketch pad and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the sketches and at how talented the girl was.

The teacher was even more surprised when in the middle of the sketch pad he saw a sketch of a man and a woman in the middle of a very engaging coital bout: in formus caninus to be precise, and drawn expertly in minute and exquisite detail. Bulging veins, sweat covered limbs, entwined torsos and faces showing bodies mired deep in the raptures of pleasure were all captured in the finest and most skilled detail.In Saudi Arabian universities for women, women are allowed to uncover their faces and take off their black cloak, known as an abayya, as long as they are indoors. The female teachers who work there tell me "it's a fashion show." And that the students are nearly always better dressed and are more fashionable than their teachers.

Are Saudi women are more normal than we think they are, and as they appear (or don't appear) in public? It seems their fantasy lives and aesthetic sense are about as well honed and active as they rest of ours are.The particular male teacher who saw this sketch was an American. There was a very pious Muslim, who happened to be Somali, standing next to him who was horrified at the picuture and immediately started ripping it out of the sketch pad and ripping it to shreds. The American asked why, and was told, wisely, that the girl's name was on the outside of the pad and that if the picuture was found by the wrong people she might find herself in a lot of trouble. So, the strictures on pleasure that exist in a conservative country like this come from all directions, and are both opposed and supported from all directions as well. While there is a lot about this place that is black and white, and very annoyingly so. But there is much that is gray as well. Salam Alaykum