Hello everyone,
I need to ask the ones who live in Jeddah and know abt its places, a question i think concerns all of you wanting to spend their entire summer in the wonderful city of Jeddah... the only problem i have is that i don't really know about the beaches in Jeddah so every Friday i spend hours searching for the right ones and end up somewhere i don't really like so my question is what are the names of the beaches that don't require a month registration. I would like places i could enter directly and spend a day there, i mean pay only for the day i'm spending in them. Thank you very much. Oh one more thing i need places i can go to and be able to wear a bikini and not have people stare at me like i'm an insane (i'm sure you get what i mean right? hehe) some place nice to enjoy my day...

Saudi men arrested for 'flirting'
Young men in a shopping centre in Saudi Arabia (archive)
Relations between the sexes outside marriage is against the law
Prosecutors in Saudi Arabia have begun investigating 57 young men who were arrested on Thursday for flirting with girls at shopping centres in Mecca.

The men are accused of wearing indecent clothes, playing loud music and dancing in order to attract the attention of girls, the Saudi Gazette reported.

They were arrested following a request of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.

The mutaween enforce Saudi Arabia's conservative brand of Islam, Wahhabism.

Earlier in the month, the authorities enforced a ban on the sale of red roses and other symbols used in many countries to mark Valentine's Day.

The ban is partly because of the connection with a "pagan Christian holiday", and also because the festival itself is seen as encouraging relations between the sexes outside marriage, punishable by law in the kingdom.

The Prosecution and Investigation Commission said it had received reports of such "bad" behaviour by 57 young men at a number of shopping centres in the holy city of Mecca, the Saudi Gazette said.

The guardians of some of the men defended their actions, however, saying they would regularly get together at the weekend to have fun without ever violating laws governing the segregation of the sexes, it added.

Click

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Hey Everyone! Gosh, it’s been over 2 years since I’ve posted something on Jeddah-Elite, and I’m back, excited and energetic!
This thread’s topic is something that is quite personal, but I think it would be beneficial to share with the rest of you. My guess, I’m not the only one who’s going through this.

I’ll make this brief, I grew up with a certain "Idea" about non Hijazi people, and to be more specific, Saudis from the central region *Najdis*. Funny enough, here I am, standing before my future and destiny leading me to a life with a husband and a family, in what I consider, simply, Hell On Earth, a.k.a Riyadh . Of course, if it wasn’t for love leading me there, I wouldn’t think twice about moving there or even stepping a foot there, and with that I learnt my most valuable lesson, Never say Never!

To comfort myself I decided to weigh the pros and cons of living in Riyadh, I’ve never been there, but I do have friends who are either from there or lived there when they were younger. I went to them, desperate to hear some good things about Riyadh.
So is it true? Is it true a woman can’t even go to a mall alone? Is it true you’re beaten to death with a stick if you don’t cover up your face, hands, feet & toe nails?
All these rumors or facts about this mysterious extremist citymakes me think I’ve been living in a completely different country.
So, what is the truth about Riyadh?
Who is out there that can actually stand up and give me real facts about living in this mystifying city?
Who can solve me this enigma?
I have posted this thread to share my thoughts with you. Discuss and weigh Riyadh’s Pros & Cons together.
It would help me and many others to get the right information and idea from those of you who have actually seen and been there!

Thanks all for reading

Discuss Event here.

Arab News


JEDDAH, 5 February 2008 — The Jeddah Municipality yesterday announced its readiness to make available SR20,000 in loans to the owners of old buildings in the historic district of Jeddah to renovate them immediately. The municipality’s offer came after an historical building (Baashen House) in the area caught fire recently as a result of an electrical short-circuit.

Dr. Adnan Adas, director of the department for developing and renovating buildings in the historic district, said property owners were responsible for the recurrent fires.

He raised objections against renting old buildings to large number of Saudi and expatriate tenants, saying the buildings lack the capability to hold them.

“A special panel has been formed to identify buildings that require immediate renovation and the eviction of their occupants,” the official said. “A technical directory has been prepared for the renovation of these buildings,” he added.

Brig. Mohammad Al-Ghamdi, director of Civil Defense in Jeddah, attributed the recurrent fires in these old buildings to their occupants.

“Some people use these buildings to store clothes and other goods,” he pointed out.

He also emphasized the need for spraying the wooden scuttles with special paint to prevent them from catching fire. He also proposed the setting up of a special fire-fighting network in the area to put out fires quickly.

There are about 550 historical buildings in the district. Fifty of them are listed as Grade One buildings, 250 Grade Two and 250 Grade Three.

During the last 25 years some 60 buildings have collapsed. The last two years have seen some 10 to 13 buildings in the district either collapsed or burned.




Good News,but i wonder if the 20 000 is enough,lets see what dr.sami angawi will say!

Raid Qusti, Arab News


RIYADH, 5 February 2008 — A Saudi mother of three, who works as a business partner and financial consultant for a reputable company in Jeddah, didn’t expect that a trip to the capital to open the company’s new branch office would have her thrown behind bars by the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.

Yara, a petite 40-year-old woman, was in tears yesterday after she narrated to Arab News her encounter with a commission member that ended in high drama.

Yara, who has been married for 27 years, said she spent several hours in the women’s section of Riyadh’s Malaz Prison, was strip-searched, ordered to sign a confession that she was in a state of “khulwa” (a state of seclusion with an unrelated man) and for hours prevented from contacting her husband in Jeddah.

Her crime? Having a cup of coffee with a colleague in a Starbucks.

Yara said she arrived in the capital yesterday morning from Jeddah to check on the company’s new office.

“The minute I came into the office my colleagues told me that we have an issue with the electricity company and that we do not have power but that it would be back on in half an hour,” she said.

As they were waiting, they decided to go to the ground floor of the building to have a cup of coffee in the family section of Starbucks. Family sections are the only places where men and women can sit together in establishments in Saudi Arabia. Officially, these sections are for families only, but in practical terms these sections — usually in international chains like Starbucks — become the only places where unrelated men and women can be comfortable that they won’t be harassed by commission members.

But yesterday Yara and her colleague found themselves in trouble with the commission. One moment they were sitting together discussing brand equity and sovereign wealth funds; the next moment she found herself in commission custody.

Shortly after they took their coffee and Yara opened her laptop, a member of the commission approached the two and demanded the man step outside.

“Then (the commission member) came to me and said: ‘You need to come with us. This man is not a relative,’” she said.

When she told the commission member that she wanted to contact her husband by phone, he refused.

“I am the government,” Yara quoted him as saying. He then ordered her to come with him.

Yara described how the commission member had to wave a taxi down to begin the hours-long process of punishing the woman for having a cup of coffee in a public place with a colleague. When she hesitated about entering the taxi, she said the commission member threatened her.

“I am the government and you have to get in,” she said, recounting the words of the commission member.

Inside the taxi, Yara said the commission member snatched her phone from her as she tried to call her husband. She told Arab News that even the cab driver felt uneasy but, knowing the power of the commission in Riyadh, refrained from interfering.

Eventually the cab approached a GMC Suburban, the vehicle of choice for the commission members, parked in front of one of the commission centers. Yara pleaded with the cab driver not to leave her.

“I was begging him to stay with me,” she said. But the taxi driver was ordered to move on and Yara found herself locked in the back of the GMC.

Time passed, she said. Commission members came and went. She said they preached to her about the grave sin she committed.

“Your husband is no good,” she said, recounting the words of the commission members. “He should not have let you do this.”

She said she was admonished for traveling alone. The commission members told her that her colleague admitted that they always went out together. (Later, she learned that her colleague, a Syrian national, was also arrested. He still remains in detention.)

“I told (the commission member) that I am a good Muslim, a mother of three, and a God-fearing person who would never do shameful things,” she told Arab News in tears.

Last year, the Interior Ministry issued a ruling that the commission cannot detain people and must pass them on to the police.

Yara said that she was handed a confession.

“He told me I needed to fingerprint this paper stating that I got my mobile phone and bag back,” she said. “When I told him my phone was still confiscated, he threatened me: ‘Just do it!’”

She said that she fingerprinted the paper under duress.

“I had no other choice ... I was scared for my life ... I was afraid that they would abuse me or do something to me,” she said, as she broke down in tears again.

Then another person got into the GMC and switched on the engine.

“The next thing I saw from the window was that we were approaching a place with a sign written on the outside: Malaz Prison,” she said.

Inside the prison, Yara recounts being taken to a cell with a one-way mirror. On the other side was a sheikh.

“I could not see him because there was a dark window,” she said, adding that each time she paused he would reprimand her, telling her what she did was wrong. “He kept on telling me this is not allowed.”

Yara told the sheikh that her husband knew where she was and what she was doing. He then started writing a report. Another pre-written confession was fingerprinted, she said. She pleaded with prison authorities to contact her husband.

“They would not let me contact my husband,” she said. “I told them... please... my husband will have a heart attack if he does not know what has happened to me.”

She was not given a phone to call her husband. She was not given access to a lawyer. “They stripped me,” she said. “They checked that I had nothing with me and threw me in the cell with all the others.”

Meanwhile, Yara’s husband Hatim, an executive director of a prominent company, was in Jeddah when he received a phone call. “My friend contacted me and told me that the commission had captured my wife,” he said.

He booked the next flight to Riyadh and, after some strings were pulled, Yara was out of jail.

“I look at this as if she had been kidnapped by thugs,” said Hatim. “There’s really nothing else to it ... I know this has nothing to do with the country, but these (people) are thugs. Unfortunately, they told her that they are ‘the government’ so she could not resist.”

The Syrian colleague was still in custody by the time Arab News went to press. He is a senior financial analyst, who is described by acquaintances as a devout Muslim whose mother teaches Qur’an recitation to children.

And we still have hope in the society accepting women driving...

Qouted from Al-Quds Newspaper (received by email forward)

أمير منطقة في السعودية يوبخ مدير جامعة علي مباريات نسائية
25/01/2008


الرياض ـ يو بي آي: وجه أمير المنطقة الشرقية في السعودية توبيخاً شديدا لمدير جامعة الأمير محمد بن فهد الأهلية علي تنظيم مسابقة رياضية نسائية.
وكانت الجامعة اختتمت المسابقة الأربعاء بمباراة في كرة القدم بين فريقين نسائيين من جامعة الأمير محمد بن فهد بالخبر وكلية اليمامة بالرياض، وانتهي اللقاء بفوز فريق اليمامة 4 مقابل 3 بركلات الترجيح.
وكان الأمير محمد بن فهد تلقي العديد من رسائل وخطابات الاستياء من قبل مسؤولي وأعيان المنطقة بعد انتشار خبر المباريات النسائية في جامعته.
وقالت مصادر مطلعة ان الامير محمد بن فهد طلب من مدير الجامعة أن يكون محل ثقته وألا يشارك في قرارات مخالفة كهذه خصوصاً وأنه وضع ثقته الكاملة في شخصه، كما وجه بمساءلة بقية القائمين علي تنظيم الدوري النسائي .
وكانت منابر جوامع المنطقة الشرقية ضجت مطالبة أمير المنطقة بإيقاف ما وصفوه بـ المهازل التي يشرف عليها أكاديميون، ويقصدون بذلك المباريات النسائية.
ورغم تبرير مدير الجامعة بأن الدوري كان نسائيا بحتا ولم يحدث خلاله اختلاط إلا أن رجال هيئة الامر بالمعروف والنـــــهي عن المنكر والشرطة اثبتوا وجود زحام شبابي لأكثر من مرة بالقرب من الموقع الذي شهد المباريات.
يذكر أن جامعة الأمير محمد بن فهد بدأت بإقامة هذا النشاط منذ ما يقارب السنة ونصف السنة.
وكانت باحثة سعودية قالت انه يجوز احتراف المرأة السعودية في الألعاب الرياضية التي تمنع السلطات السعودية ممارستها في مدارس البنات بحجة أنها حرام.
وقالت الباحثة في علوم الشريعة نهلة الرديني في رسالة ماجستير قدمتها في جامعة الملك فيصل بالدمام انه يجوز للمرأة الاحتراف في الألعاب الرياضية وجواز أخذ العوض في المسابقات الرياضية المفيدة، ومشروعية مشاركة المرأة في المسابقات الدولية والمحلية ضمن ضوابط شرعية.
وكان الشيخ الدكتور عبد الكريم الخضير عضو هيئة التدريس بجامعة الإمام محمد بن سعود الإسلامية أفتي في موقع المسلم ردا علي سؤال عن المطالبة بدراسة اعتماد التربية البدنية في مدارس البنات بأن القيام بهذه الخطوة في مدارس البنات إتباع لخطوات الشيطان .
وقال ان ممارسة الرياضة في المدارس بالنسبة للبنات حرام، نظراً لما تجر إليه من مفاسد لا تخفي علي ذي لب، ولا تجوز المطالبة بها فضلاً عن إقرارها.
ووصلت نسبة البدانة بين السعوديات إلي 51%، ولا تزال أسر سعودية تمنع بناتها من المشي .

Discuss the Event Here.

This Thread is just to give a short notice about the events happening in jeddah that would be rejoiceful for our members to attend.
be informed that this is not an invitation for any,and u have to contact the administration for more info about each event.

Saudi Arabia to lift ban on women drivers

By Damien McElroy in Riyadh
Last Updated: 1:02am GMT 21/01/2008

Saudi Arabia is to lift its ban on women drivers in an attempt to stem a rising suffragette-style movement in the deeply conservative state.

Government officials have confirmed the landmark decision and plan to issue a decree by the end of the year.

The move is designed to forestall campaigns for greater freedom by women, which have recently included protesters driving cars through the Islamic state in defiance of a threat of detention and loss of livelihoods.

The royal family has previously balked at granting women driving permits, claiming the step did not have full public support. The driving ban dates back to the establishment of the state in 1932, although recently the government line has weakened.

"There has been a decision to move on this by the Royal Court because it is recognised that if girls have been in schools since the 1960s, they have a capability to function behind the wheel when they grow up," a government official told The Daily Telegraph. "We will make an announcement soon."

Abdulaziz bin Salamah, the deputy information minister, said the official reform programme had been dogged by debate over the issue.

"In terms of women driving, we don't have it now because of the reticence of some segments of society," he said. "For example, my mother wouldn't want my sister to drive.

"It's something she cannot grapple with. But there is change on the way. I think the fair view is that one can be against it but one does not have the right to prevent it."

If the ban on women driving is lifted, it could be years before the full impact is seen. Practical hurdles stopping women obtaining licences and insurance must be overcome.

Mohammad al-Zulfa, a reformist member of the Saudi consultative Shura Council, which scrutinises official policies in the oil-rich state, said reversing the ban was part of King Abdullah's "clever" strategy of incremental reform.

"When it was first raised, the extremists were really mad," he said. "Now they just complain. It is diminishing into a form of consent."

Saudi Arabia maintains a strict segregation of the sexes outside the family home.

An unaccompanied woman must shop behind curtains and cannot hail a taxi.

Critics believe allowing women to drive would be the first step towards a gradual erosion of the kingdom's modesty laws. A woman would have to remove the traditional abaya robe to get a clear view behind the wheel.

"Allowing women to drive will only bring sin," a letter to Al-Watan newspaper declared last year. "The evils it would bring - mixing between the genders, temptations, and tarnishing the reputation of devout Muslim women - outweigh the benefits."

Saudi women have mounted growing protests. Fouzia al-Ayouni, the country's most prominent women's rights campaigner, has risked arrest by leading convoys of women drivers. "We have broken the barrier of fear," she said. "We want the authorities to know that we're here, that we want to drive, and that many people feel the way we do."