I live in Saudi Arabia. AMA!

[Shmithecat]

I still hear so many daft claims about certain aspects of living in KSA. Happy to confirm or deny what you've been told!

But passive aggressive snidey comments about my morala, ethics and parenting is ok? Whatever

I am not being snidely, I will tell you clearly.

I think taking money from and paying money, via taxes, to one of the top ten human rights abusing regimes in the world is morally questionable.

Living in the KSA requires accepting homophobia, misogyny, a total lack of due process and the torture, execution and desecration of innocent people as part of the package.

I can't accept that. Being passive and not protesting is acceptance. Supporting tacitly and by implication is accepting. Implied consent.

We all make compromises in some aspects of our lives, the compromises required to take money from this regime are way, way beyond what I could do and I think it does raise questions about your ethical standards.

You feel able to live with these compromises and standards. Your decision.

Oh btw if you think the previous post contains personal insults report it and see if it is deleted.

Sorry, I didn't mean to post twice, I didn't think the first one had posted so I had to type it out again

Windows you need to stop it now

OP seriously thought she'd successfully side-stepped any uncomfortable realities in choosing, well, husbands money over and above the well-being of her DC, and what atrocity goes on beyond the enclosure walls which she's so conveniently shut out all this time and taken the money

The only person that's been throwing insults around is the OP, and her foul posts have been deleted.

Sorry WTF is happening here??? The OP isn’t saying any of it’s alright - she just describing how she navigates through it. For gods sake stop being so judgemental of her.

e questions. At least here, apart from the sexism, racism and dirt, there's no stabbings, gang culture, acid attacks etc 🤷‍♀️ I think here you could actually be describing the Saudi regime!!!
I think compound living must be totally stifling, I like my freedom of movement and I think my mouth would get me into serious trouble. No where in the world should women be treated as second class citizens

Maybe there has been some judging, but not from me - I've only been asking questions that I wanted to know about living there, which is what the thread was about.
Unless you count my comment "that comes across a bit as I'm alright Jack", I did say that when OP said if her ds did turn out to be gay or the regime started to affect her personally in any way then she'd be straight on a plane home.
Which is kind of a privilege afforded to rich Westerners, I'd presume?
Assuming it was a scenario that wouldn't prohibit you from leaving easily that is.

No, it doesn't. I don't accept any of that

Surely you kind of do though if you have no problem with it happening to other people as long as it's not you?

I reported your treatment of people and it was deleted.

Ooookay, it seems OP is the only one throwing personal insults around.

@justrestinginmybankaccount

The OP (when she isn't insulting people) is indeed agreeing that the human rights abuses are 'a bad thing'.

However, by choosing to live in the country, and pay taxes to the regime she is supporting the country and the government.

By not opposing these abuses she is accepting them.

If you are born in to a country you are not responsible for the choices the government makes as you are there by an accident of birth.

But if you make an active decision to go to a country when you are fully able to research and understand the wider implications of your decisions then it seems that you offer a degree of acceptance and support to that country.

@Shmithecat2
These are not 'my' standards I am referencing Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. When did these standards become the standards well when the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights was published and agreed in 1948.

Very true @LimeKiwi you have done no judging that was me being judgmental.

As a matter of interest when did being 'judgmental' become an insult? Judging that something is (in your opinion) wrong is not necessarily a bad thing.

I suppose when someone is unfairly judgmental it is a bad thing. Just pondering.

@fikel

e questions. At least here, apart from the sexism, racism and dirt, there's no stabbings, gang culture, acid attacks etc 🤷‍♀️ I think here you could actually be describing the Saudi regime!!!
I think compound living must be totally stifling, I like my freedom of movement and I think my mouth would get me into serious trouble.

That's what I thought, but its not too bad, and getting better.

No where in the world should women be treated as second class citizens

Agreed! But its still happening, all over the world.

Bloody hell @Shmithecat2 you have more patience than me

WEVE ALL HEARD ABOUT AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL!!!!!

Notice no one has yet responded about whether they feel so strongly about 'supporting the regime' that they are going to boycott the list of companies provided provided by OP. I guess that's because they aren't.

@showmethegin my patience is wearing thin. Did you get to see my last post that was deleted? It was a belter.

I already did...your mistake there.

@Windowsareforcheaters

What are you trying to achieve here? Your post above doesn't even have a question in it. You have seriously derailed the thread and are looking petulant and silly. You have pointed out the human rights abuses in Saudi Arabia in quite a few posts now. The OP has acknowledged these and also said that despite it being morally questionable, she will continue to live there for the foreseeable future.

Your ongoing posts are you whinging at her telling her why, in your eyes, this is the wrong thing to do. You're being tiresome and incredibly judgemental.

If this were a thread titled "AIBU to live in Saudi Arabia?" then I could understand your multiple repetitive exhortations. However, this is an AMA and not AIBU.

Bugger off already.

Notice no one has yet responded about whether they feel so strongly about 'supporting the regime' that they are going to boycott the list of companies provided provided by OP. I guess that's because they aren't

I think it has been addressed tangentially by a number of posters. But here goes again.

We all make compromises, no one can be entirely morally pure. Ideally we would boycott or avoid any company or country that did bad things. To avoid every country and company that traded with the KSA would be very difficult.

We all draw our line in different places. I still use some of the companies listed, not ideal but that is my compromise.

Lots of countries have issues with human rights it is difficult to avoid them all so where do you draw the line?

I would say - and this is my compromise - don't go to one of the top 10 countries for human rights abuse in the world. I don't think that is actually setting the bar too high.

What I would also choose not to do is to go and live and pay taxes to one of these regimes I think that is several steps way over the line and far too much of a compromise.

Bugger op I missed your post before it got deleted!

Honestly, op some posters will not be happy until you’ve taken out a full page ad in guardian stating how wrong you were and that you and 8 million other expects are all decamping back to honest, drug free, gang free uk!!

Incidentally what do you family and friends back home feel about your expat life? Have you had mixed reactions?

You are goady in the extreme OP. You hardly help yourself do you by being so peraonal and nasty to people who genuinely feel sicks to their stomachs about the human rights abuses.

Boasting about trying to attack peoples mental well-being is gross and far from something to be proud of.

I seriously wonder about your intentions here, and now it doesn't surprise me at all that you prioritise money above.

Your treatment of people is truly abhorrent.

You can't see that though.

Attacking peoples mental health is gross, end of

@MoreCookiesPlease

It's very interesting the way posters who object to human rights abuses in the KSA are described, whinging, bleating, nagging, hysterical etc all words with more than a whiff of misogyny about them.

A fascinating thread posters presented with the facts about a country are now 'bored' with human rights. They have heard about Amnesty once and don't want to be bothered with it any more. Once one point has been made about torture why the need to keep going on about it?

I keep going on about human rights and how they are abused in the KSA because I think they are more important than how hot it gets and how much you pay your maid.

Clearly other posters don't place the same value on them and would much rather chat about the compound.

Interesting thread OP. Haven’t read to the end yet but we had some neighbours when I was a kid who lived in SA for a while for their Dads job and the Mum was very traumatised by the beheadings that went on just yards from their compound walls. I’m not sure I could live like that.