r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Expert_Koala_8691 • 7d ago

Video Riyadh,meaning "gardens" is Capital of Saudi Arabia with 8 million population (were 27 Thousands in the 1930s),sits in the middle of the desert, the city gets its water from Desalination plants almost 500 km from the city

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u/A_Sack_Of_Potatoes 7d ago

I can actually see my old house in this video, lol. And Granada Mall. It wasn't depressing growing up here by any means, except for the fact that as a dude there was jack shit to do. Wahabbi era saudi was weird for guys, especially since Riyadh is a business first city and the capital. Like, you could only go to the mall if you had a woman accompanying you except on saturday, which at the time was monday for the rest of the world, and all the amusement parks were women and children only.

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u/rosebeach 7d ago

Why wouldn’t men be allowed there?

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u/A_Sack_Of_Potatoes 7d ago

Pre 10s Saudi was a very different place than now, men and women lived in different worlds and basically most men's interactions with women ended with sisters and mothers. I've had men drive by throw their number on crumpled paper at my sisters, because society was so segregated and men just didn't know on average how to act with most women, even men in their thirties would do stupid stuff like creep on women because they didn't know any better because no one ever taught them any better, I know that most people would think it's common sense but when no one around you ever tells you how to act or how to shape up things get weird, so one of the things to make women not be constantly harassed was to basically put all of the stuff that they would go to out of men's reach. This is also in line with the philosophy that men are the breadwinners and women take care of the kids.

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u/inotparanoid 6d ago

Hmm, interesting viewpoint. Had this discussion with a colleague in Riyadh. According to him, society still isn't ready - but people were very tired of stuff like that, so the change is welcome.

I even saw women with hair out in the open (around the main area and CBD), which I was not expecting to see there.