Local traditions and culture in Jiddah

Many have asked me and even let their imagination drift away, " are women being kept in isolated corners?" as if men are, supposedly, not kept in another corner! To save you a headache, there's no such a thing and there is too:D In restaurants, there are 2 sections; 1 called Family Section & the other called Single Section. The first is tailored 2 serve men and women respectively, even pretending to be family. In other words, if you grab yr boyfriend w/ u and say he's my brother if asked, no one would bother to check on you! you are family:) In the latter section, it's for single males who r 'condemned' not to enter the mixed section. Some shopping malls hire security guards only to disallow single men to enter the mall which *** off the poor guys really! So what happens is...usually these guys wait by the mall gate, until they see a bunch of girls getting in, ask them 2 let them in as family. Well later, usually they start dating,lol. In banks & hospitals, there are 2 separate waiting rooms and departments serving each. Yes, but they are catered solely 2 provide different services. eg, the women's section provides credit card services with cosmetics discounts while the men's offers discounts on computers and so on. This separation actually has arisen because many many women have demanded to have 'privacy' and the society was just responding to this strange request! sometimes older-generation women yell at the security when they let guys slip in the mall..quite funny:D However, in the private life of the saudi family, this so-called segregation widely varies from one family to another. Conservative family will always have two different guest rooms, but open family always mixes. On my side, it's a bit funny. Since my mother's family is conservative, usually we separate. But my father's side is QUITE open, we go jetskiing together,lol. I know my mother hates this but sorry I enjoy it;^) so this is the story of the segregation myth and it's up to you to decide if it is or it is not errr..a segregation!