Misrepresented or misunderstood

Editor,

I read the article "Saudi Arabia, Iraq work: Cultural eye opener" that tells of Mr. Terry Janeway's experiences in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Being a citizen that was born and lived in Riyadh most of my life, I was amazed at the misrepresentation of the facts — or at best, misunderstanding — of the Saudi culture.

I know that right now, Saudi Arabia is the country that everybody loves to hate, but using pure fiction to convey the point is inappropriate. I understand that the article's author might not have visited Saudi Arabia, and might have just believed whatever was conveyed to him, but many of the "facts" presented would have been very easy to debunk.

I don't mean to say that everything in the article was fictional, but most of the shockers were. Religious police will not arrest you if you walk on the curb during prayer times, Riyadh does have a sewage system, and there is a garbage collection service.

Segregation is based on religious beliefs, and is nothing like the "pre-civil rights days in the southern United States." That segregation was based purely on racism, while this segregation is insisted on by both genders in observance of their religious belief (of course … there are always the less religious/non-religious people who object to it … but that's a different story that reminds me of many debates I witness here in the United States).

Women don't have to ride in the back seat of a car (but it is religiously and culturally unacceptable for a female to sit next to an unrelated male … a driver included).

Homosexuality is not the way of life. There are homosexuals of course, as there are in the United States, but that is not "the way of life" in either country.

In addition, I have no idea what tea-rooms are.

I wrote all this because I assume that you care about the authenticity of the information presented in your articles. Just as you would be upset if I went back home and wrote about how police arrest all Chinese restaurant goers in downtown Chicago after 6 p.m. (total fiction, of course). I was annoyed by the lack of authenticity in the part in the article about Saudi Arabia. I will not discuss the Iraq part of the article as I have never been to Iraq.

Mohamed Taibah

Chicago

(Editor's note — The Dec. 8 article contained Terry Janeway's observations based on living there for six months).