Arabia's Hidden America: A Saudi Woman's Memoir

"In those days of random destruction, and trigger-happy militiamen, one never knew what to expect to see on the streets. I was doing my grocery shopping one afternoon when two militia boys rushed past. One had three revolvers stuffed in his belt and the other had two bullet-belts crisscrossing his chest, and two Kalashnikovs slung over his shoulder. Both were carrying bouquets of red roses. It was Mother's Day." (from "Arabia's Hidden America") --- Author Fadia Basrawi, a Saudi Arab, grew up in the strictly circumscribed and tailor-made 'desert Disneyland' of Aramco (the Arabian American Oil Company). This slice of modern suburban middle-class America was located in Dharan, one of the leading cities of Saudi Arabia, a theocratic Muslim kingdom...