On Saudi Arabia: Its People, Past, Religion, Fault Lines - And Future - Plot & Excerpts
So you should not be extremists, but try to be near to perfection and receive the good tidings that you will be rewarded. —PROPHET MUHAMMAD, SAHIH BUKHARI HADITH, VOL. 1, BK. 21, NO. 38 Lulu, invisible in her black abaya, tugs open the heavy steel door of the high wall that surrounds her Riyadh home in the poor district of Suwaidi. The dusty street is empty, but she is careful to avoid exposing even a glimpse of herself to any passerby, as she ushers me onto a tiny concrete courtyard leading to the modest two-story home she shares with her seven children and her husband—every other day. On alternate days he is downstairs with his first wife of nearly forty years, with whom he shares another eight children, all older than Lulu’s brood, who range from ages five to twenty. As we climb the bare tile stairs to her home, Lulu nods toward the ground-floor door as we pass and says simply, “That is her home, and up here is mine.” Lulu is a gentle woman in her early forties who speaks halting but passable English, learned as a student at King Saud University.
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