JEDDAH, 4 January 2004 — The Passports and Immigration Department is enforcing a decree issued by the Ministry of Interior requiring all Saudis with business there to wear a thobe, the Saudi national dress. According to a source at the Jeddah Passport Office, the decree was a result of inappropriately-dressed citizens coming to conduct their business.
“We were faced with the problem that people were showing up here in their sleeping thobes, in shorts, in tanktops, even in futahs (a full-length cloth wrapped around the waist). Some were dressed like they were going to a chalet in Obhur and not coming to conduct government business,” the source told Arab News.
Arab News saw Seif, a young Saudi as he entered the Passport Department’s Jeddah branch in Al-Kandara on Sunday. He was dressed in blue jeans, a T-shirt and sports shoes.
Arab News also saw him walk out three minutes later. When asked what happened, he explained: “They didn’t serve me because I wasn’t wearing a thobe. They told me to go home, get changed and come back. I showed them my Saudi ID and they just waved me away.”
Determined to finish his business the same day, Seif went to his car, fetched his mother and accompanied her as she marched straight into the supervisor’s office. “My husband is dead. I dragged my eldest son from work and made him drive me here so that I could get a permission letter to visit my sister in Kuwait.
“When I came in, you told me to bring my son. When he came in, you told him to go put on a thobe. He can’t wear a thobe at work. He is not being paid for the time away from his job and it would take him around an hour to shower and change, and then change again and go back to work,” she told the supervisor.
According to her, the Passports Department supervisor made an exception — but only after making her son turn completely around in order to inspect his clothing. According to Seif, he was checking for pictures. “I wanted to get my mother’s permission letter signed today, so I was willing to do what he wanted, but as I was turning around, I thought to myself, ‘This is insane’” he told Arab News.
Once the exception was made and Seif was allowed in, there was a problem with the paperwork and he found himself having to return another day. “I think I will have to take the whole day off work tomorrow to get this done.”
According to the Passports and Immigration Department, it is not aware of any decrees forcing citizens of other countries to wear their own national dress or forbidding non-Saudis from wearing thobes. This decree appears to be another case where everyone is affected by a total ban based upon the actions of a few. Mobile phones with cameras were banned for a long time until someone weighed the advantages against the disadvantages. Next thing we know, five ministers requested the ban be lifted, mobile phone prices have been slashed by half, and 3G mobile technology is set to come to Saudi Arabia in 2006.
This practice of imposing outright bans seems to be the preferred way to solve many problems with relatively simple solutions by officials who don’t want to devote too much thought to a particular problem. Often, quick and thoughtless ‘solutions’ bring with them even bigger problems.
