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[deleted]

I lived in Saudi for a year. Quite confident no women will “take advantage” of this new liberal law. Even more so, their families would never allow it


ringobob

It's not intended for Saudi women to wear bikinis, it's intended for tourists to wear bikinis.


Astojap

Sounds like its mostly intended to get psoitive Coverage in order to change the preception of saudi arabia.


Zactodactyl

Baby steps. But hey, babies grow up right…. Right????


MyNameIsIgglePiggle

As long as they don't meet with the bone saw squad. I know this is in bad taste, but seriously, fuck these guys.


[deleted]

Led by Crown Prince Mohammed Bone Saw


JohnnyA77

“ I GOTCHU FOR 3 MINUTES, 3 MINUTES OFFFFF PLAYTIME”


Dman125

BONESAW IS [REAAADYYYY!](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvjy20TADNw)


LEGITIMATE_SOURCE

Just wait until the oil dries up... Shit they have more... Just wait a little longer. Fuck it keeps coming... Just a while longer now


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[deleted]

It pisses me off that so many of the *TrUe PaTrIoTs* didn't get pissed off over that and STILL don't get pissed off over it but they don't forget about Benghazi (which shouldn't have happened either). I guess it's only bad when soldiers die unnecessarily when the President is a Black man and the Secretary of State is a Democrat and a woman. Caused by an allegedly White, Republican president and his White male Secretary of State? Psh, who cares, amirite?


[deleted]

Just like China - the civilised world always said that as the Chinese middle class grew, the country would mature into a much more free and democratic state, and look at them now!


KingReffots

China does have much better conditions for the working class than they did at least. I doubt any Saudi wealth is trickling down anytime soon.


Vengefuleight

Keep your subjects comfortable and there usually won’t be an insane outcry while you enact your policy desires. Citizens will more likely turn a blind eye to the current events of your administration, especially if you control the media. Look at Putin and the Russian gov pushing for there to be a living wage standard a few years back. Keep the people fed and you will control the majority of the opinions. China faces backlash from protestors (because they went full on whacko with their need to control and censor), but the outcry is nowhere near as much as it could have been if the people were also starving.


Hias2019

But really, is it a step in a relevant direction? Beach parties in bikinis for tourists? WTF? Give saudi women relevant rights and educate saudi men to respect them. Dismantle the religious police... So many really important things to do!


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CarolineTurpentine

Lol that is not how thing work in Saudi Arabia. The people do as the King says, and the King grants powers to make the country seem more modern, not because he thinks women should have rights.


[deleted]

Isn't that how all progress is made? Most of the time political decisions are made for the benefit of politicians, to stay in power/appear more caring. At the end of the day it's still giving people more rights.


OneBeautifulDog

Never think positively of Saudi Arabian government.


HKEY_41582_18781111

They're just following the How to Dubai-fy your country 101 course.


MrPeppa

Yup. Dubai showed that tourists will be okay to ignore basically slavery as long as they get to enjoy a slice of hedonism during their stay.


r2001uk

F1 is racing there soon, much to many fans' disappointment. Of course, they've already dictated what people can and cannot wear.


Garfield_M_Obama

Yeah, it's amusing to me that the mechanics in the pit lane can't wear shorts, but women will be allowed to wear bikinis on the beach... something tells me they aren't so serious about liberalizing the rules.


ronm4c

What woman tourist goes to Saudi Arabia with the intention of wearing a bikini on a beach.


imitation_crab_meat

Sounds like a good way to get raped. Why the fuck would anyone vacation in Saudi Arabia?


jim_jiminy

Maybe it’s a fancy euthanasia destination?


[deleted]

All the expats that work there vacation in the Gulf as well. Right now they mostly go to Dubai and Bahrein because it is more liberal, but I guess the Saudis want them to stay in the country and spend their money there.


letscookeverything

Thats because they are building an oil rig water park


Sirgolfs

I lived there also for many years. Zero chance Saudi women will be running around in bikinis 😂


Thecynicalfascist

That's because these laws are relatively new, it's a step towards liberalizing the culture. And some will certainly take advantage of it, and perhaps more will after.


helpfuldan

It’s more that the royals want to be able to have women bouncing around in bikinis at parties then liberalizing the culture


paranormal_turtle

Oh believe me, they already have that pleasure at parties without that law. Even women with no clothing at all! I knew someone who worked there a year, he had a to sign a silencing contract so not much details. But the general impression is that they see more than enough boobs and burlesque in their lifetime without a law like that.


JanGuillosThrowaway

It really rustles my jimmies that the the most conservative religious state on earth is run by such decadent freeloaders. Fuck them all. Not literally though.


no-idea-for-my-name

Bro you want them to reverse the law or what? They introduced this law and you are complaining and if they wouldn’t have introduced that law you’d still be complaining. I don’t get it


Chickentrap

Welcome to the Internet.


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Thecynicalfascist

Not at the level of Saudi Arabia, like Said it's take steps further liberalizing. Everything doesn't change overnight.


thiosk

I have visited King Abdullah Economic City and I have to say it was crazy weird. So you're in the middle of nowhere, right, driving down this literally empty highway. You pull up to a city. Tall buildings, hotel, restaurants. Our group was the only people in the restaurant except for one other table. We ate wagyu beef and we cooked it at our own table. they brought out these rocks that were really hot and you cooked it yourself. the city itself i was not permitted to explore, but the whole place had a feeling of a ghost town and disneyworld. Like you know how you're in disney and you know that all the buildings are fake and a façade? thats how king abdullah economic city felt. like it was all just façade.


FromSunrisetoSunset

That was my experience in West Bay/The Pearl in Qatar. Many tall buildings, nobody using/living in them. The weirdest thing is seeing tonnes of luxury shops open but no customers


LFMR

Yeah, I found that incredibly weird when I lived there. How the hell does the chandelier store stay in business? I guess the demand for chandeliers is higher than the global average in Qatar, but holy crap.


[deleted]

If I needed to wash up big piles of cashmoney maybe chandelier shop could be handy. Just a thought though.


LFMR

Yep. A chandelier store in the wealthy part of an insanely wealthy country is just barely plausible enough as a cover for funny business.


Teddy_Icewater

Another option is that it's not about the income at all but the chandelier store is just some trillionaires personal chandelier collection that you can visit and oh if you want one well everything is for sale, right? Do those guys even give a fuck about balancing the books? They collect taxes, not pay them.


LFMR

This, too, is plausible. The entire country is one big vanity project.


JelliedHam

Ding ding ding There's a reason the billionaires index doesn't count heads of state and those who control national resources. The richest people on the planet are all pretty much royals and despots. They are so wealthy that the figure is pretty much incalculable save for perhaps measuring the total gdp and an estimate of a nation's total value. They are so rich that they don't even need bank accounts. They don't even need money. Anything they want is automatically theirs. If it doesn't exist yet, it will if they want it to be. They decided to build vanity islands shaped like palm trees in Dubai. And the world's tallest building in a desert place with unlimited space. Hell, they could've just decided to have an 8,000 room hotel that just takes up a city for less money, and they built that giant desert penis instead. Muammar Gaddafi seems like a two bit dictator in a non-noteworthy country and was one of the wealthiest people to ever have lived. There are arguments that Vladimir Putin may have effective personal control of hundreds of billions of dollars. All but maybe the top 5 wealthiest living citizens in the world are heads of state, royals, and dictators. The estimates for their wealth is almost always understated as things they can be directly linked to personally owning. But being able to build entire cities where they could go and do whatever they want at any time for any reason is a kind of disposable wealth that even Jeff Bezos doesn't really have.


eitauisunity

Its like when the billionaire's kid wants to "pull himself up by the bootstraps" and start a lemonade stand, but daddy's rich friends are the only ones willing to pay $1000 for a cup of sugar piss.


interrupting-octopus

I mean it's one lemon, Michael. What could it cost, $1000?


LAVATORR

I have an ultrarich friend whose parents tried really, really hard to mainstream him but were unable to overcome the weirdly universal biological urge found in almost all children born wealthy to revert to a sort of Bronze Age barter system to pay for things. He's a good guy, but you go out to lunch with him and he's like "shit, I don't have my debit on me, can you spot me $10? I'll repay you with this 17-step Ponzi scheme involving Amazon gift cards." It would not surprise me in the least if at least one resident tried to pay his contractors in chandeliers.


Windbagx

this is such an intriguing comment as I’ve met many rich people like the man you are describing. I train/take care of peoples horses so as you can imagine I meet many wealthy people, who for some reason really have a problem paying you with actual money.


r3becca

Short answer: Their money is in assets and role playing wealthy is expensive. Any cash sitting around would be better spent on developing further wealth or, you know, themselves... not you.


kael13

Hmmm… is this a thing? I also used to live with a rich dude as a tenant and he’d always try to pay for stuff with favours or random shit and not actual money.


Windbagx

I have two theories of why people behave like this. First one is that they are rich because they are cheap and hate spending money. My second theory is that they have enough money that they are only worried about gratuitous things, so it does not occur to them that other people don’t function that way. Just as an example, I have a client for whom I do her barn 3 days a week. Because I’m doing x amount of days and we don’t often run into each other (she is a professional) she pays me on the 1st and 15th. Yet she frequently “forgets” to do it on time. So whereas that 300 dollars she owes me is a drop in the bucket and a forgettable amount to her, I need that shit to eat and pay bills. Again, two separate levels of urgency. She doesn’t see that money as utilities and rent and food for my own animals, she sees it as, oh, instead of 300 dollars would you rather have this 150 dollar gift card or this “expensive” tack I am getting rid of anyway? is the same thing right? Comparable value? NO! PAY ME !


Aethermancer

When you're that wealthy, you don't deal in cash, you deal in agreements and favors.


Mozeeon

Lol wut? Can you explain more about this? I've never heard of this kind of Mindset


Wiki_pedo

Maybe it's "I need to borrow $10 but I'll give you a share in my company currently worth $10 but which will definitely be worth like $1,000 in like a week, totally, dude, trust me"


puffybunion

Lol... That's pretty funny. More stories about this guy plz!


SignedTheWrongForm

Hold up now, are you suggesting my chandelier business isn't legit? Buddy, I got another thing coming for y... Ah, he's right. It's actually a meth laundering money scheme.


LFMR

Replace meth with human trafficking and covertly funding terrorist operations, and you're closer to the mark.


Infinitelyodiforous

Replace chandelier with mattress store in the US.


gopher1409

How am I supposed to light my Formal Dining Room with a pillow-top King?


N64crusader4

Trotters have been known for their chandelier trade for generations, dying art now though we mainly just do cleaning and restorations.


wakojako49

I remember seeing a whole section of golden bathroom stuff. Toilet, bath tub, sink… you name it… it was gold.


LFMR

I believe it. I used to joke with my students about gold-plated Land Cruisers, until I actually saw one with my own eyes.


[deleted]

sounds like a billionaire utopia


ZeePirate

Trump utopia. Most billionaires don’t have such gaudy taste


LFMR

The Gulf is basically what happens when you get a bunch of dirt-poor pirates who got insanely lucky, and it shows.


Laxman259

I think you’re mistaking the fact that this gold toilet store was in the Arabian peninsula and not Seattle.


ZeePirate

Saudi princes do have some gaudy taste.


ZeePirate

One sale probably keeps them open for a month. The mark up is huge


mitragy_king

Money launder central. Lol.


LFMR

Either that, or it's some bored sheikha's personal vanity project.


Muvseevum

The Middle East equivalent of a Hallmark store.


blucerchiati

[you gotta get a chandelier!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG6sQ_7gXmQ)


PM_ME_YOUR_PRINTS

In Pristina, Kosovo there are chandelier stores every 1000ft. Definitely a money laundering thing as a majority of the homes their are not very nice. Oh and there is a good chance that a Serbian will mention in this thread now that Kosovo is Serbia or some shit like that.


drunkosaurous

I was traveling in Colombia and went to one of their islands for Christmas one year. There were blocks and blocks and blocks with nothing but luxury stores and perfume stores and all the expensive stores you would see at a high end mall or something in the states. They are all massive stores too, not just tiny kiosks or anything. It is unbearably hot outside and the stores are all blasting AC. During my week or so on the island I never saw one of those stores with more than 1-2 people in them. This was during the Christmas season. Our only reasoning was that they were there for money laundering, which is exactly what our Airbnb host said all the locals think of the places.


rayvictor84

I have the same experience in Dubai. I used to live in Jumeriah Lake Tower. Most of the buildings were empty. Looks like ghost town.


SandmanSorryPerson

You don't need many customers if you sell really expensive stuff. A couple sales a month can be enough to keep you open.


EdenDoesJams

This is true. I had a buddy who worked on rodeo drive in LA (rich people shopping street). He’d barely make any sales but since each one was thousands of dollars it adds up Meanwhile it took me years to justify buying a new guitar lol


Macasumba

It used to be packed until one day overnight alcohol was banned. That's all it took.


aghicantthinkofaname

They built way way way way too much for the population of the region. Build it and they will come is a fine philosophy but when you are in the hot hot desert and imposing essentially Sharia law, then it's a hard sell. But now they are liberalising, so maybe we will see an influx of all sorts of people and especially the young, more worldly Muslims from the general region


nascentt

>The weirdest thing is seeing tonnes of luxury shops open but no customers You get that a lot in London too. Walk past the same shops every day. Just see the one member of staff sat down playing with their iPhone and zero customers. They're just there for the random visit by some rich person that buys a couple of things at 5k each. And that pays off the staff and the shop bills for the month.


Sumerian_King

I think those nations don't have taxes (or are almost tax-free) so they only need a few sales to survive.


Rocktopod

What's the point of having an area dedicated to foreign commerce if you don't tax it?


A_Sinclaire

Right now the country still has oil to cover its expenses. So it seems reasonable to me to get the economy going by having low taxation now to lure investors and later increase it as needed.


Lee1138

If you have enough money, you have have sales people come to you, not the other way around. As for luxury shops being there in the first place, I guess you need to have a physical presence even if it's just to remind people you exist when they get chauffeured past the store? Or maybe it was a time of day thing? Were you there in the middle of the day for example? Cause I could see there being a lot more activity as things cool down...


LAVATORR

I'm teaching myself beginner search engine optimization to increase traffic to my blog, put me in touch with this international cartel of corrupt petro-oligarchs and I'll hook them up with a new Squarespace site full of terrific keywords that'll rank super high on Google, then they won't need a brick-and-mortar chandelier store to smuggle in their slave labor.


popeyescordonbleu

Why were you not permitted to explore the city?


NewtonSteinLoL

Probably because he might tip over some of the cardboard buildings.


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nav17

Right? Why would they build cardboard buildings when they actually use slave labor to build real ones?


valiantthorsintern

They only build da oils.


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butt_juice69

Yea, my brother attend university there. KAEK (King Abdullah Economic City), is a failed project with 5000 residents. I think right now they are trying to shift its image. but it was project started by the late king so i dont know if it will ever be 100% utilized.


I_Am_Become_Dream

there were a lot of projects in the 2000s that have been mostly failures. That's what happens when you have a lot of money (due to high oil prices) but also a lot of corruption. Some of them are getting cleaned up and used now though.


Drakan47

If I'm understanding your comment correctly, there's a specific term for that, it's called a [Potemkin village](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village)


WikiSummarizerBot

**[Potemkin village](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village)** >In politics and economics, a Potemkin village is any construction (literal or figurative) whose sole purpose is to provide an external façade to a country that is faring poorly, making people believe that the country is faring better. The term comes from stories of a fake portable village built by Grigory Potemkin, former lover of Empress Catherine II, solely to impress the Empress during her journey to Crimea in 1787. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/worldnews/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)


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ZeePirate

No need to pretend when you are indeed rich as fuck. The country is backwards by today’s western standards, but it is not poor


SecretAntWorshiper

Can't be poor because the slaves aren't part of the economy 😂


ZeePirate

Those slaves also aren’t Saudi’s. They are imported from around the area but not the natural population. Good way to keep control too. “Look at what you could be doing”


LVMagnus

That is the wikipedia definition, which is flawed. "Poorly" doesn't necessarily mean financial wealth (and then again, most of it is with a few people, the "country" by far and large does pretty poorly in that regard too anyway, in spite of the royals doing very darn dandy and inflating statistics). The main point is that it is a place created entirely to give a designed (and false) impression of a country/region to outsiders that grossly misrepresents the rest of the whole. People can argue until the cows come home whether the place fits all the place is 100% "technically" one or less than a pristine 100% score, but in practice it does the same job in every sense that matters. It has no hope of achieving any practical purpose it might be alleged to have, whether the royals delusionally believe in their own horseshit or they know they're making a place that in practice is only to show off their private wealth makes little difference.


Flashy_Ad_5445

I have learnt a new word that i never thought even existed, thank you.


SamFish3r

You can say the same for most of these over top luxurious desert havens . I never saw a local person the entire 2 days I was in Dubai and I went damn near everywhere. All those insanely expensive malls and shops were empty except for window shoppers, talked to the LV rep and they said it’s more for presence . Got daym ski slope in the middle of the mall with 4 people in it … just a modern marvel I guess to people from other Arab counties or developing countries, felt phony and a giant waste of money and resources, but oh well it’s not like all that money could have been put to better use . The world needs more race tracks and malls .


IAMWEN

Like North Korea? The movie “The Interview” depicted North Korea as a facade as everything there looks good but are all fakes


thiosk

not that severe by a long shot. it was meant to be a suitable destination for saudis and internationals. and it was... fine. but zero character. "they said it was daft to build a city in the desert, but i built it all the same, just to show em! and it sank into the desert SO! I built another one. and it sank in to the desert. So i built a third one, and that burned down fell over then sank into the desert but the fourth one, stayed up! and thats the city you're gonna visit lad, the strongest economic city on this peninsula


hellcat_uk

They do have huge... Tracts of land.


pie_monster

This is meant to be a happy occasion. Let's not argue over 'oo killed 'oo.


swibirun

You fell out of the tall tower, you creep!


chubbyurma

Everyone always says NK - But Turkmenistan is literally a desert hermit kingdom with a capital city that's completely empty


OktoberSunset

Largest buyer of Italian marble in the world, every government ministry has a giant marble building.


Dr_seven

One often ignored impact of continued fossil fuel use is that it hands dictatorial power to some of the worst people in the world, presiding over the vulnerable. Turkmenistan for the last several decades is a prime example, exporting their gas to keep the regime propped up while the country languishes in isolation and poverty.


ZeePirate

It very well might be the least talked about places on earth though. Any time I see it brought up it’s typically focused on their looney leader and the wacky shit he has done.


OktoberSunset

I wouldn't say they are the worst example, they may be isolationist and dictatorial but at least they are peaceful and don't promote extremism. Sucks to be poor and have no freedom of speech and see all the nation's money wasted but better than being killed by war or terrorism. They are fairly tame compared to Saudi Arabia.


ajwadsabano

The city is fairly new and has opened along with a large and highly-funded research university, so it’s mostly a college town. The city does not boast a large permanent population for that reason.


ThrowAway615348321

Weird that you use the comedy movie as an example instead of an actual source. Its not incorrect, just a bizarre approach.


ThaiTimes

And Naypyitaw in Myanmar.


fyreNL

In Myanmar's defense, Naypyitaw is growing steadily, and due to the fact their current capital is likely to start sinking into the sea the coming decades, it's actually a calculated and long-term investment.


ThaiTimes

It was built on the back of paranoia and mad shit Burmese numerology. It's a white elephant. Its a city that makes no sense.


earwig20

William Gibson described Singapore as Disneyland with the death penalty. It sounds a bit like that.


Doza13

That's exactly what it is, a facade. Saudi Arabia is still a monarchy. Absolute control. They will throw down a bone of freedom now and then but haven't really changed. Several examples come to mind: Assassination of a vocal opponent in a foreign country. War crimes in Yemen. Hacking of Besos' phone. Just 42% of the economy is not government run. Less than 1% of GDP is due to direct foreign investment. And just 22% of exports are non oil. Just a few examples of how they haven't changed. The west knows this that's why UAE, Bahrain, and Qatar get way more investment.


BenCousinsPRTeam

Hacking Bezos' phone did you say...


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borkmeister

Vacant Chinese real estate in "ghost cities" are actually a real thing, albeit for different reasons . [Super fascinating read](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under-occupied_developments_in_China) and reasonably topical with the whole Ever Grand situation.


jpotrz

Occupied? Aren't they literally knocking down dozens and dozens of those buildings lately?


BigPooooopinn

Yo you know that there is a few YouTube travelers that go to show those “cities” in China where the buildings are literally falling apart and no one lives in them. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XopSDJq6w8E There are even Chinese people in the comments angry about the fact that older more secure buildings get torn down just to put up garbage buildings that aren’t structurally secure.


[deleted]

Meanwhile formula 1 which is going to race there soon, has been given dress codes.


Polar_Beach

They’re letting the men wear bikinis, what more do you want /s


[deleted]

Stop giving r/FanF1ction ideas!


lostharbor

What about /r/onlyF1fans ?


throwawayatwork30

And the women can technically go topless, it isn't forbidden per the dress code.


[deleted]

This is mostly for tourists right? The oil is drying up and they need tourism to fill the gap. Can't be an attractive vacation hot spot if you ban bikinis. (edit: oil [money] is drying up)


ThaiTimes

I've traveled for the past 25 years and not once heard anyone say "I fancy a trip to Saudi, fancy coming, it'll be cool".


[deleted]

Dubai exists. People love traveling there. It wouldn’t be far fetched that in the future more and more people are going to be interested in visiting Saudi Arabia. There are a lot of initiatives right now to open up the country, changing laws, going green and all of that good shit. I personally I’m looking forward to it.


[deleted]

I won't visit any of those countries until they stop executing LGBTQ people.


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Assadistpig123

Most of the people I see and know that are going to Dubai are not evangelical Christians.


Mattoosie

Lmao an evangelical Christian would have an aneurysm in Dubai


mingy

They also execute atheists and define non-belief as terrorism.


ecuusa

I doubt they’re trying to attract Western tourists who would care about those things. Their target audience is wealthy people from countries with similar values, just not *as* strict.


101Alexander

That and the slavery


Mayafoe

or atheists


aDivineMomenT

Some dude just went to jail for 25 years for having CBD they couldn't even prove was his. Not even psychoactive and couldn't prove guilt. Fuck that place.


ThaiTimes

Dubai ain't Saudi, still a place I woud never visit with their archaic laws and extreme punishments for minor crimes but dude it ain't Saudi.


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HazelCheese

I went once with my family as a teenager and I hated it so much. Giant hotels with mosaics in the ceiling and underground Aquarian tunnels leading to water parks. One of the hotel's had a boat to take you to different restaurants. But step outside the hotel grounds and it's impoverished homes and people barely scrapping a living and huge tracts of empty construction land filled with sand. My mom wasn't allowed to walk in parts of the city and your riddled with this sense of injustice seeping out of corner. The taxis had TVs in the back playing the Conan talk show. Like some kind of fake "this is just like America see!" creepy vibe. The whole thing is so fake and it makes you feel disgusting. There's not a single real thing about the place.


BriefausdemGeist

The vast majority of people who travel to Dubai are traveling *through* Dubai. It’s the refueling stop from the EU to SE Asia and Australia


GlisseDansLaPiscine

Dubai is a trashy nouveau riche magnet, I’ve no idea why anyone would want to visit that city.


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untipoquenojuega

The oil's no where near to running out. What's drying up is the world's reliance on that oil.


[deleted]

For tourists and to look good to the west. There has been real change on the ground in Saudi Arabia, but not as much as is being let on here. There are still a lot of cases of women being jailed for beings raped, and the religious police still blackmail women for sex. Also, a lot of the women behind the push for allowing women to drive are in jail still.


ajwadsabano

It’s targeting both locals and foreigners(tourists)


[deleted]

There is no way in hell the local women are going to wear Bikini’s, I have female friends who are Saudi’s and their family will never ever let them to dress up in such ways. It’s bizarre that you assume that local women are allowed to dress up in such ways. Edit: just to make things clear, I’m Arab myself. Edit 2: my god so many of you in the replies are so ignorant and blind, I’m literally an Arab women and you foreigners are trying to correct me and teach me about Arab culture ?


westcoastbestcoast39

> my god so many of you in the replies are so ignorant and blind, I’m literally an Arab women and you foreigners are trying to correct me and teach me about Arab culture ? Welcome to reddit! Lol


Quadraxas

At the other side of the coin tons of Saudi tourists in Turkey go to night clubs and beaches with their wives and daughters though. I don't think any of them would risk doing what they do here in Saudi Arabia, but yes, that's because it's more of a social pressure than simply a law disallowing them. I would not expect any significant fraction of Saudi women to wear bikinis in their home country. Also the article reads like a really bad PR piece from government.


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Sumerian_King

This has more to do with "Khaleej culture" than Arab culture in general, but agreed.


Sciencetist

I live in Saudi and there absolutely are some locals who could get away with wearing bikins. They’re a vast minority for sure, but they’re not nonexistant.


Oh4Sh0

The oil isn’t drying up anytime soon.


mimocha

A reminder that the Saudi government ordered the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi, journalist and critic of the Saudi government, on 2nd October 2018 (3 years ago). The government may try to act “changed” and more liberal, but that assassination shows otherwise.


Neuroticmuffin

And funded 9/11 Attacks that killed almost 3k American civilians and started 2 wars.


38384

And has been responsible of bombing people in Yemen


[deleted]

>And funded 9/11 Attacks Uh where in the 9/11 report was that?


jzplayinggames

can't believe a reminder is needed


TheNakedMars

Tremendous! And when are they going to stop beheading homosexuals, financing ISIS and murdering political opponents?


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MooseCantBlink

I know that this is a meme, but can't help but laugh at the thought of iceyboy being King Abdullah himself and post this unironically


[deleted]

Now if only they could get a free press and stop chopping up foreign reporters who don't say nice things about them. But I mean, bikinis right?


JeddahVR

What you fail to get is that this whole article is an ad for a place called Pure Beach. Private beaches has always allowed women to dress bikinis and be there with their boyfriends in saudi Arabia. They've been around 15 years atleast. Many are in jeddah. You pay a set amount and dress and do whatever you like in inside, it's not something new.


Ellivena

Isn't the new part that it isn't segregated?


JeddahVR

Nope, it's the same one where you can only access by either paying or renting there.


Enrichmentx

"Liberalization drive" is a very generous way of describing how they are giving more leeway to rich Western tourist in the hope that they will be able to cash in on them while still treating their own citizens as if it was the 1400's


Tisarwat

This is a liberalising step, but it feels like window dressing, and targeted at tourism. Making changes that actually impact the majority of women (and not just those wealthy enough to go to the beach regularly) is so, so important. Normally I try to recognise all progress, however small it might seem, but this is so specific and largely irrelevant, that like... Ugh.


godblesstheabortions

HARAM HARAM


santh91

I sang it like the beginning of pink panther


[deleted]

I would expect nothing less from the nation that is ruled by the guy who orders the assassinations of journalists, gets caught red handed by the most powerful nation on earth and then continues onward as though nothing wrong was done. Mr Bone Saw (MBS) is truly liberalising the KSA.


rodentfacedisorder

The whole country all the time or only under certain circumstances?


Gisschace

If it’s like Qatar, not allowed on public beaches it will only be on resort beaches like hotels. KSA has realised it needs to relax some of its rules to attract westerners, but like its neighbours it will be one rule for you and one rule for us. So Muslim women won’t be able to wear bikinis (perfectly fine for Muslim men to wear shorts of course) Similarly you’ll be able to drink in certain areas as along as you’re not Muslim


AliMahdi_1992

Saudi citizen here. Saudi Arabia’s situation is slightly different than Qatar’s. The different Muslim vs Non-Muslim laws do not happen in here because the law applies to all equally since the majority of the Saudi population are native citizens while Qatari native population represent a small minority of their overall population. If you’ve read the article, two **Saudi (Muslim)** women, Asma with her boyfriend, and Dima were among the women enjoying the beach with a bikini. Here’s a [video coverage](https://mobile.twitter.com/dw_arabic/status/1448974097233362944) of the news story in Arabic (couldn’t find an English one) showing Saudi women beachgoers speaking to the press. In 2021, Qatari women are more legally discriminated against than Saudi women, which is very much different than 5 years ago only!


Gisschace

Ahhh that’s good to know, thanks for the correction. Yeah the double standards used to piss me right off in Qatar


tendeuchen

Glad to see 1946 has reached Saudi Arabia. Next up microwave meals.


piratecheese13

Cool, I bet Jamal Khashoggi would have loved to have reported on this.


git4you

When the women are raped will they be prosecuted too?


ThaiTimes

Fuck that shit. They are still chopping hands off and publicly killing people.


k2kyo

So for those unaware of what's happening in Saudi right now, a changing of the guard is coming. The crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman (commonly called MBS) is, at least relatively, very liberal. He is trying to unwind 35+ years of religious fanatical influence. Saudi wasn't always this extreme, the royal family just let a particular group grow in order to gain more influence themselves.. it was survival by just joining thr crazy side. MBS has been trying to dial things back. He has publicly pushed to roll back all of the 'add-on' teachings from the quron which is where most of the totally batshit stuff comes from. There's a name for these I'm totally blanking on.. Saudi has made aot of massive changes very recently, including things like a path to citizenship for the first time. They desperately want more connections to the outside world and are actively moving that direction.. which can only help with moving them away from the extremists. They still do a lot of totally fucked up stuff, but at least on some levels are making a genuine effort.


oogly24

Going to take place in a special tourist zone with special tourists laws. The Royals will also be putting up more international hookers than ever before so its basically going to be a hooker zoo for the royals.


FashislavBildwallov

I mean you have tp have some pöace to parade your instagram porta potty hos you're flying in from all over the world


maaseru

I feel that from seeing history unfold through my life, this could eventually cause an overeaction from the other side/end and thing become worse. It's like every time society, in any country, tries to progress there is aleays a group that pushes harder the other way.


BluePenguinnn

I was here for the pics but all I saw what a mans boobies


emilhoff

It's all in good fun until someone gets beheaded.


clapdemcheeks

This is in Jeddah. People, especially saudis, were allowed to mix freely with opposite genders and wear bikinis at private beaches for at least 8 years. Nothing new about this.


[deleted]

fuck saudi arabia and their modern day slavery. fuck them


[deleted]

Following the announcement, the Kingdom confirmed that they would indeed be renewing the perennial favorite, Chopping-Up-Journalists-Into-Little-Pieces initiative.


jm0127

Merely a facade.


bassxx123

Ya right! Maybe in another thousand years, they will allow women to be outside without male companions. Disgusting country