There are co-ed schools in Saudi, but those are American or British. My dad, of course, believed in the good old CBSE Indian school system and thus, my younger brother Ishmeet and I were put in an all-boys CBSE school. My mother could move out only if she wore a burkha.
I speak five languages besides mine. I went to school in Egypt because girls weren’t allowed to go to school in Saudi Arabia. It’s very restricting, especially for girls; we’re not allowed to go anywhere.
Saudi Arabia has been commended for allowing women the right to drive; the opening of cinemas and other entertainment establishments; ending the power of arrest of the religious police. In parallel however, there have been arrests of the activists who for years had advocated for these changes.
Obama has created a new world where countries ignore the U.S. without consequence. It’s so bad that Saudi Arabia doesn’t even want to serve on the Security Council with the U.S. because it might ruin their reputation.
I worry that there are financial ties between the Trumps and the Saudi royal family.
The Taliban, broadly speaking, are Afghans – farmers, subsistence farmers. As I say, most of those people can’t find the United States on the map. Al Qaeda, traditionally, are much more educated, middle-class people, often from Egypt, from Saudi Arabia, North Africa.
After a proposal made by us, Saudi Arabia has had a major government reshuffle. Ibrahim al-Assaf has replaced Adel al-Jubeir as foreign minister, and the Saudi ambassador to the U.K. has been recalled to advise King Salman.
Saudi Arabia is the mother and father of political Islam.
The U.S. economy will tank if either China withdraws its money from the U.S. Banks, or Saudi Arabia stops depositing its oil money in U.S. bonds, or even if the oil trade goes off the dollar.
I was born in Karachi, where my father used to work in the sales department of a pharmaceutical company. The nature of his job required him to travel, so we moved to Athens, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Riyadh and then went to Manchester during the Gulf War, moving back to Lahore closer to my father’s retirement.
I want to state clearly that I am a humanitarian, not an activist. I do not follow any agendas – only that of humanity, not only in Saudi Arabia, but all over the world.
The crowd and the energy is incredible. I love going to Saudi Arabia because the energy is just awesome.
The Saudi ideal of a woman is a religious mother who rarely ventures out: She shouldn’t work with men, she should be completely covered, and she shouldn’t go out alone to run errands.
I don’t want anything to affect my freedom, and we don’t want Saudi Arabia to be another Iran.
Saudi Arabia has stability. The social contract and the political contract between the king and the rulers and the royal family and the ruled people in Saudi Arabia is very strong and the bondage is so solid.
I’m rooting for Saudi Arabia getting a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council.
My own center, my Kingdom Center, which is the highest priced tower in Saudi Arabia, was vacated twice because of terrorist attacks, terrorist threats.
