European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 28, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A. A saudi officials have asked women members of the . Military to cover their Heads while working so they done to violate local traditions. Saudi Way cultures clash in desert kingdom by Don Tate. Staff writer Shock Waves Felt from americans move into saudi Arabia will Likely go beyond the thud of explosives if War Breaks out. Even if a shot is. A never fired in anger considerable culture Shock seems certain to be Felt by the Ydung american Mert and women flooding into the desert kingdom. Not to mention the shocks awaiting the desert kingdom itself. This highly traditional religious fundamentalist. Male dominated society has been almost fanatically protective of the old ways despite the enormous wealth and rapid economic development brought on by the Oil Bonanza As Well As the influx of Western workers and technology in recent years. Thirty years ago most saudis had no education and still lived in Goat hair tents and Straw and mud houses. Though the housing has improved vastly the average saudi s View of the world remains close to the Sand and the Koran. Hopping from a Camel to a porsche can be a. Long hop. A Western innocent dropping into the huge modern King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh might think he had arrived in a Mecca of worldliness. The worldliness is mostly surface. In a land caught in mid leap Between the medieval and modernity the medieval largely rules in everyday life. Indeed Public beheading and hand chopping based on the 7th-Century Law of Mohammed still take place in Quot judgment Quot Square in Riyadh. If the innocent happened to have a sports illustrated swimsuit Issue in his baggage it would probably be confiscated by a Prim faced customs official. One american remembers a fellow with a Playboy Magazine in his Luggage being put Back on an air plane going the other Way. The Prospect is that soon burned out soldiers with too much Quot Sand on the brain Quot looking for a Little rest and recreation could find themselves with no place very exciting to go. The saudis idea of recreation is hardly in the robust go tradition Quot soldiers might have to work out a lot sweat it out you know or set up something in the desert. Or go on leave to another country Quot says Doug Hunt an american contractor and teacher who spent two Tours in saudi Arabia during the building Boom of the 80s. Quot unless things suddenly change  have no watering drinking holes no women no movies not much fun downtown at All Quot says Hunt. At least not the kind of Good time a typical single go blowing off steam looks for. Quot and there s no belly dancing unless a wife does it for her husband in the Home a almost certainly there la be none of the wide open bars and girls that overflowed Saigon s rocking to do Street during the Vietnam War. The burgeoning american presence that overwhelmed Saigon with Western ways and Money would be in for a titanic culture clash in saudi Arabia. Even though me saudi Nyel family has been accused of All kinds at High living King in if u j is a  liberties behind it scenes and abroad the masses in this quantum cow i y is Liam s two holiest places Mecca and Medina take then  most seriously. Quot they take their  seriously too Quot says Hunt now living in Germany in a saudi jail there s Only the jail and the guard. No food no water no tweet paper. The toilet is a Hole in the floor i a Unes such As food and water have to be brought by a Friend or relative. I had a Friend who made a a turn and spent three Days in jail. Down there they done task you it you had an unhappy childhood. Justice is like a bang very direct i also found them very honest. Things like leaving my keys in my car for a year and not worrying about  if saudi ways seem restrictive on men it could tie mind blowing Tor Young american women dam used to the ways of the West. Quot a liberated woman in saudi Arabia Quot says Hunt Quot is one who leaves the  he remembers the Street packed thursday nights in Riyadh before the Friday moslem holy Day. Quot All men everywhere. You could t see a woman. Its a place where women walk behind maybe 50 feet behind their  Quot they done to treat women As actual people Quot said the Young woman Soldier in the arabian desert with american troops this was on a television news show a few Days ago. She was discussing her encounters with saudi men a much different Breed of male from what she was used to Back in the Quot enlightened Quot Usa. As hot As it is in the sizzling Sun she was already learning the guidelines a no a Blond woman in uniform smelling of Jet fuel and driving a truck in a potential combat zone and doing it As Well As a Man could rank As the most unnatural sight a saudi male has Ever seen. Sleeves rolled up no uncovered hair no legs on View around saudi men. Indeed women Are seen As a very Dif Foien species by these aral moslem men when saudi women Are seen in Public at All it s in veil and Long covering garb called the am a a usually Black so that Tom a distance women sometimes seem like apparitions or Black blobs float no. Owaid each other covered up and out of sight is  the average saudi keeps his woman. His highly sensitive Honor is wrapped up in her total virtue and obedience. The code says that because other frail body and psyche she must be protected from both herself and less than honorable males on the prowl. A Blond woman in uniform smelling of Jet fuel and driving a truck in a potential combat zone and doing it As Well As a Man could rank As the most unnatural sight a saudi male has Ever seen from All reports they tend to stare women Aren t even supposed to drive in their country. Rut both species seem to have struck an accommodation thus far because of the iraqi menace Quot the saudis Roq Aid women As such m Milos creatures that i was Able to ask questions without raising much suspicion Quot wrote political scientist and journalist Sandra Mackey. As the wife of an american doctor Mackey spent four years there in the �?T80s before writing her Book the saudis. Some of her other observations a Quot the typical male attitude toward women As primarily sex objects whose destiny is to serve and obey men is instilled  a Quot the Worth of a woman in saudi culture is As Breeding Stock to increase the size and strength of her husband s family a a Quot no saudi experiences More Joy than at the birth of a son for a son is the supreme statement of a saudi Man s virility. The society a preoccupation with male children is so inbred that the birth of a girl often results in nothing but shame for the Mother and . A Quot sex is such a taboo that it is ironically the prime preoccupation of the culture. As a result the air is charged with sexual tension that engulfs All women saudi and Western. Most saudis actually fear that any Man and woman of suitable Ages will be irresistibly driven to have  Intercourse even if they have never seen each other before and regardless of the  punishment for adultery very difficult to prove Quot is death by stoning for a woman and beheading fora . These Are a few of the rigorous attitudes americans military women will surely encounter in the desert kingdom if they stay around for a while. Ironically the american woman a growing Equality and shooting starts. Though she Many not to Quot going into Quot combat with offensive units the equal Opportunity of the Battlefield is that combat could quickly come to her in the form of a missile bomb artillery Shell or a slashing iraqi tank column what will the  reaction be if groups of female soldiers Are captured and tortured7 tales of what women have gone through in some past Middle East wars Are not pretty. What writ the u 8 perception be if americans Young women Start flowing Home in body bags such hard questions Long subjects of debate May seen  to be answered in the fresh Page 16 k k a the stars and Stripe tuesday August 23. 1990