Does the Abaya have to be all black? Did you cover your hair?
How do women get to work? Are they driven? Bused? How do women end up on a professional track? Are they unmarried? Or do married women work too?
(Sorry for the third degree.
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Well, I can see Martha is captivated!
Abayas can be any color, but in Saudi Arabia (to quote Henry Ford) you can have any color, so long as it's black. They can be very pretty with lots of embroidery and decorations. The operating specs are: black, covers ankles, sleeves cover wrists. Abayas come with a shayla, which is a rectangular scarf, often georgette, with trim matching the abaya. This is meant to be draped in any number of ways that satisfy hijab (covering hair which is required for Muslim women) but can be draped anyway you want if you are not Muslim. I wore mine around my neck except when meeting with people who might expect more, in which case I covered my head but made no attempt to cover all my hair....similar to Laura Bush on her visit to KSA to promote breast cancer awareness.
Below would be a typical hospital scene:
Getting to work: if you are an expat living in a compound, there will be a bus to your place of work. Otherwise you have a personal driver, or you get your close male relative to drive you.
There are professional schools in education and health specifically for women (no co-eds here!) Once they graduate, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc, have to work alongside men. Some female doctors from other Middle Eastern countries have admitted to me that the opportunity to meet men and work as equals with them is a big attraction to medical school. There is equal pay for equal work and no obvious obstacle to married women working.
