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The New York Times has a fascinating article on the collision between romance and traditionalism in Saudi Arabia. The whole thing is an interesting read -- though it's more vivid and persuasive on the brutal and domineering relationship between Enad and his cousin Nader than it is on any broader observations about the country -- but this bit was particularly striking:
Enad’s father agreed to let Nader marry one of his four daughters. Nader picked Sarah, though she is not the oldest, in part, he said, because he actually saw her face when she was a child and recalled that she was pretty.[...]Nader said he expected to see his new wife for the first time after their wedding ceremony — which would also be segregated by sex — when they are photographed as husband and wife.“If you want to know what your wife looks like, look at her brother,” Nader said.I guess Saudi Arabia isn't big on monetizing the results for humor, but imagine what our sitcom writers would do with a culture where "there are many stories of young men and women secretly dating, falling in love, but being unable to tell their parents because they could never explain how they knew each other in the first place. One young couple said that after two years of secret dating they hired a matchmaker to arrange a phony introduction so their parents would think that was how they had met."
