Think you’re being treated unfairly? Try life in Saudi

I WOULD like to take issue with Sarah Khan (Letters, August 8) where she states: “Many of these women wear a hijab and nobody bullied them into doing so.”

In the early 1980s my husband worked in Saudi Arabia for some years. I joined him with my son, who was two-years-old at the time.

I am neither Arab nor Muslim, so I felt no need to wear the same clothes as local women but even so I did wear a kaftan which covered my arms to the elbows and dropped to my feet. I was covered except for my face and lower arms.

But even this was not enough for the fanatics. When I went to the shops, usually with my husband or a bodyguard, I was sworn at, spat on and generally abused.

Did I complain to the police or the authorities? No, because I’d have been told in no uncertain terms that, “if you had not been in our country you would not have been subject to such abuse.” That was their answer to everything.

I also found it very offensive that some, mostly men, thought it perfectly acceptable to touch my son’s hair, which was blond, or his face because he was white. Can you imagine the outcry if the reverse happened here? Maggie Walledge, Broughton, Flintshire