get off so lightly,
despite the Saudi embassy’s claim that she was protected by diplomatic immunity. Police charged
her with aggravated battery, then tacked on grand theft for snatching $6,000 worth of
electronics from her former chauffeur.
But I was talking about sex.
THE SAUDIS ARE PROBABLY the most sexually repressed people in the
world. Women are kept out of reach of men until the day they marry. After that joyous occasion,
the husbands keep their wives locked up at home until the day they die. Only 5 percent of women
work. A woman cannot drive. If she needs to go somewhere, a male first cousin, brother, or
father has to chauffeur her. Even then she is allowed to go only to gender-segregated malls,
restaurants, and swimming pools. If she’s ever unfortunate enough to be caught in the act of
adultery, she’s stoned to death, along with her lover. It’s easier for a young Saudi man to
hitchhike to Afghanistan than to hook up with a young Saudi girl.
Like men anywhere, though, Saudi men won’t take no for an answer. One
desperate trick they’ve resorted to is writing their cell-phone number on a piece of paper and
taping it to the back window of their car. It looks as if the car is for sale. But the owner’s
fantasy is that some brazen Saudi girl will call to introduce herself. With something like
380,000 young unemployed Saudi males, you can imagine all the cruising going on, waiting for
that lucky phone call. Filipina and Indonesian servants in the kingdom live in constant fear of
rape. Since foreigners work and live in the kingdom at the whim of their Saudi sponsors, the
servants are afraid to go to the police. No one has any idea how much rape goes on in the
country. Those statistics aren’t published, but if sexual frustration were gold, the Saudis
wouldn’t need all that oil.
Saudis with money also don’t have to take no for an answer. In the
early 1970s, when the petrodollars started flooding in, enterprising Lebanese began smuggling
hookers into the kingdom for the princes. Since the women were posing as Middle East Airlines
flight attendants and were driven directly to the royal palaces, the muttawa couldn’t do
anything about it. Having established a beachhead in the kingdom, a lot of the Lebanese pimps
branched out into interior decorating and construction. Since no one in the royal family knows
how to balance a checkbook, the Lebanese became fabulously rich. More than a couple went back
to Lebanon and built political careers with their fortunes.
Saudis who can’t tap in to the stream of royal prostitutes take
multiple wives, the younger the better. It’s common for seventy-year-old Saudi men to marry
girls in their early teens. Other rich Saudis simply go whoring abroad. You need only take a
flight out of the Gulf to see the robes come off and the cigarettes and the liquor come out:
These gentlemen are on their way to a party. Spend a night visiting popular clubs on France’s
Côte d’Azur or in Monte Carlo, and you’ll find young Saudi men (and women) staying up all
night, enjoying every moment of their freedom. London’s red-light districts and call-girl
services cater largely to Saudis and other Gulf Arabs.
Stories about Saudi whoring get a snicker in the American press and
preachy editorials about women’s rights, but everyone seems to be missing the point: Saudi
Arabia spends a staggering percentage of its GDP on sex. If we’re donating a dollar to the
royal family’s bodyguards every time we fill up the tank with gasoline that began as Saudi
crude, we’re probably donating half again as much for Saudis to get laid.
Needless to say, the royal family spends the lion’s share. You can find
their rutting palaces along the Mediterranean, all built to entertain prostitutes. Being of
royal blood, a Saudi prince couldn’t make do with some drab garçonnière; he needs all
the comforts of
despite the Saudi embassy’s claim that she was protected by diplomatic immunity. Police charged
her with aggravated battery, then tacked on grand theft for snatching $6,000 worth of
electronics from her former chauffeur.
But I was talking about sex.
THE SAUDIS ARE PROBABLY the most sexually repressed people in the
world. Women are kept out of reach of men until the day they marry. After that joyous occasion,
the husbands keep their wives locked up at home until the day they die. Only 5 percent of women
work. A woman cannot drive. If she needs to go somewhere, a male first cousin, brother, or
father has to chauffeur her. Even then she is allowed to go only to gender-segregated malls,
restaurants, and swimming pools. If she’s ever unfortunate enough to be caught in the act of
adultery, she’s stoned to death, along with her lover. It’s easier for a young Saudi man to
hitchhike to Afghanistan than to hook up with a young Saudi girl.
Like men anywhere, though, Saudi men won’t take no for an answer. One
desperate trick they’ve resorted to is writing their cell-phone number on a piece of paper and
taping it to the back window of their car. It looks as if the car is for sale. But the owner’s
fantasy is that some brazen Saudi girl will call to introduce herself. With something like
380,000 young unemployed Saudi males, you can imagine all the cruising going on, waiting for
that lucky phone call. Filipina and Indonesian servants in the kingdom live in constant fear of
rape. Since foreigners work and live in the kingdom at the whim of their Saudi sponsors, the
servants are afraid to go to the police. No one has any idea how much rape goes on in the
country. Those statistics aren’t published, but if sexual frustration were gold, the Saudis
wouldn’t need all that oil.
Saudis with money also don’t have to take no for an answer. In the
early 1970s, when the petrodollars started flooding in, enterprising Lebanese began smuggling
hookers into the kingdom for the princes. Since the women were posing as Middle East Airlines
flight attendants and were driven directly to the royal palaces, the muttawa couldn’t do
anything about it. Having established a beachhead in the kingdom, a lot of the Lebanese pimps
branched out into interior decorating and construction. Since no one in the royal family knows
how to balance a checkbook, the Lebanese became fabulously rich. More than a couple went back
to Lebanon and built political careers with their fortunes.
Saudis who can’t tap in to the stream of royal prostitutes take
multiple wives, the younger the better. It’s common for seventy-year-old Saudi men to marry
girls in their early teens. Other rich Saudis simply go whoring abroad. You need only take a
flight out of the Gulf to see the robes come off and the cigarettes and the liquor come out:
These gentlemen are on their way to a party. Spend a night visiting popular clubs on France’s
Côte d’Azur or in Monte Carlo, and you’ll find young Saudi men (and women) staying up all
night, enjoying every moment of their freedom. London’s red-light districts and call-girl
services cater largely to Saudis and other Gulf Arabs.
Stories about Saudi whoring get a snicker in the American press and
preachy editorials about women’s rights, but everyone seems to be missing the point: Saudi
Arabia spends a staggering percentage of its GDP on sex. If we’re donating a dollar to the
royal family’s bodyguards every time we fill up the tank with gasoline that began as Saudi
crude, we’re probably donating half again as much for Saudis to get laid.
Needless to say, the royal family spends the lion’s share. You can find
their rutting palaces along the Mediterranean, all built to entertain prostitutes. Being of
royal blood, a Saudi prince couldn’t make do with some drab garçonnière; he needs all
the comforts of
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