Alberta- born author writes about beauty and horror of working in Saudi Arabia
Author ran from divorce, landed in Saudi Arabia
Shelly Anderson “ran away” from a bad divorce, half way around the globe to a place where it felt like she was “falling off the edge of the world.”
In Saudi Arabia, this Albertaborn farm girl was beaten by religious police; got typhoid after eating street food; and, as a woman, wasn’t allowed to drive herself.
And yet, she says, her two years working at a hospital in Tabuk, a military city in the northwestern corner of Saudi Arabia, were a mix of “wonderful things, horrible things, beautiful things. Saudi is unpredictable; the only thing you can depend on is change.”
Anderson, who now lives in Texas, has self- published a book, Falling Off the Edge of the World, about her experiences in Saudi.
“It was what I felt as a strong woman, going to a place I knew little about. It was that step off the edge of the earth.”
It is a country she fell in love with, despite its tradition of silent and hidden women.
Growing up on a farm in Taber, working for the former Alberta Government Telephones and then as a medical transcriptionist in Calgary, world adventure was not a part of everyday life.
But after a difficult divorce, the then- 33- year- old Anderson remembers sitting at her kitchen table reading the Calgary Herald, and seeing an ad for medical transcriptionists in Saudi.
“My life had come to a complete standstill. I went to work and then came home. Looking back, it was all about running away … and I ran quite far.”
She says everyone, including her parents, thought she was crazy when she got the job. Her own commitment was tested when just before departure in August 1990, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.
“Every day, every minute I had second doubts but as a Canadian, I don’t think I grasped how much danger there was.”
She stayed home but, in June 1991, after the end of the Gulf War, arrived in Saudi Arabia where she was to work for two years.
Her most vivid memories, many recounted in letters home, were about extreme heat, culture shock at not seeing female faces as only Saudi women’s eyes remain uncovered, the pervasive smells on the streets, and the different tasting foods.
And while many foreign workers went only for the tax- free pay and stayed within their compounds, “I stepped out of my comfort zone every day. I tried new things; it must have been always in me.”
She taught herself to swim so she could enjoy the reefs of the Red Sea, viewed stunning desert landscapes and centuries old tombs, and enjoyed the gracious hospitality of some of its people.
But her enjoyment ended just seven months into her secondyear contract.
Downtown alone just before Christmas, she was not wearing a headscarf — they were not mandated for foreign women. But a wave of ultra- fundamentalism had swept the country, ferociously monitored by Mutawa, Islamic religious police.
She turned to see a Mutawa in white robe, carrying his stout club, shouting “cover your head.” She escaped but later found her exit blocked by a crowd of men including two Mutawa who beat her repeatedly.
Only with the help of a courageous Pakistani man — a hospital co- worker — who grabbed her did she survive. “He endangered his life to save my life.”
In her book, she describes what follows — a trip to hospital for stitches and treatment of bruises covering her body; and, to a police station ( where a young man was chained outside, ready for execution the next day) to report her assault to uncaring officers.
It was time for Anderson to leave, as she watched other friends exit the country.
When she finished her contract, she moved to New Mexico, and married a Syrian man she had met in Saudi Arabia.
Anderson worked for two years in the United Arab Emirates while her husband waited to immigrate.
In 2008, Anderson realized she was finally ready to write a book.
She took a creative writing course and continued to work full time while writing.
“It took me four years. I was so naive ... so green. I thought I would put all the letters I wrote in order and bind and publish them. I soon realized I had to start from scratch and base it on the letters.”
She published the book last year ( available at amazon.com, lulu.com. Go to shellyandersonbooks.com for more information).
The now 58- year- old, who is hoping to move back to Calgary with her husband ( both have dual citizenship), is planning a second book — this time fiction — based in the Middle East. Part of it will be a fictionalized account of her husband’s life growing up in Syria.
While being married to a Muslim, Anderson says she and her husband have endured prejudice from people who know nothing about the Middle East, particularly now, with the global media coverage of terrorism.
“There are horrible things that happen but I talk about the good and the bad. I want to educate people — it’s not all terrorism, beheadings, the repression of women. Most of the people are like you and I, trying to raise their families and do their jobs.”