Behind the Veil: An Australian Nurse in Saudi Arabia

214 Pages·2013·3.45 MB·English

by  Laube Lydia

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B A y f u n a r n
‘wChaord wiaacs rfeassut sacsilteaetpio. nT hwea hs aopftleesns a vpicptliimed w too kae p farotimen at eh w ic k e edllle r’s y
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peaceful slumber to find somebody, often an infidel, i tr a
jumping up and down on his chest.’ n
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Lydia Laube worked as a nurse in Saudi Arabia in a

society that does not allow women to drive, vote, or t
speak to a man alone. h
Wearing head-to-toe coverings in stifling heat, and e
battling administrative apathy, Lydia Laube kept her

sanity and got her passport back. V
Behind the Veil is the hilarious account of an
e An Australian nurse in Saudi Arabia
Australian woman’s battle against the odds. It will
i
keep you entertained for hours. l
LYDIA LAUBE

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ISBN 978-1-86254-929-6
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9 781862 549296
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Wakefield Press
Behind the Veil
In twenty-five years of nursing, Lydia Laube has delivered
babies on her knees in New Guinea, tended clinics in
dug-out canoes in Papua, worked on a junk in the Hong
Kong harbour, served the poor in the slums of Naples and
flown with the Australian flying doctor service. She has
been marooned by floodwaters in rugged mountains, cut
off by cyclones on a tropical island, cast adrift in a disabled
boat in a typhoon. None of this prepared her for her experi-
ences as a nurse in Saudi Arabia. She is resting in her home
town of Adelaide.

Behind the Veil
An Australian nurse in Saudi Arabia
LYDIA LAUBE
Wakefield Press
1 The Parade West
Kent Town
South Australia 5067
www.wakefieldpress.com.au
First published 1991
Reprinted 1991 (twice), 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2002,
2004, 2009
This edition published 2010
Copyright © Lydia Laube, 1991, 1998
All rights reserved. This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing
for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as
permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced without
written permission. Enquiries should be addressed to the publisher.
Design by Ann Wojczuk
Cover design by Bill Farr
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Laube, Lydia, 1948– .
Behind the veil: an Australian nurse in Saudi Arabia.
978 1 86254 929 6 (pdf).
1. Laube, Lydia, 1948– – Journeys. 2. Nurses – Australia –
Biography. 3. Saudi Arabia – Description and travel. I. Title.
610.73092
Contents
1 Eyeless in Riyadh 3
2 The desert song 6
3 White-knuckle flying 12
4 Behind the veil 15
5 Forbidden city 21
6 Barely possible 28
7 Uniform disaster 32
8 The great baggage hunt 39
9 In bad repair 44
10 The mythical beast 51
11 Servants of the king 61
12 Lost in a lift 73
13 A little airing 84
14 Alone at last 88
15 Mosques and marvels 100
16 I become Sid Vicious 112
17 Florence of Arabia 118
18 A patient interlude 132
19 Riches and resuscitation 138
20 Servitude and ‘suicide’ 148
21 The lowest ebb 159
22 Escape to Egypt 167
23 Back in custody 173
24 Spitting images 178
25 Killer doctor 189
26 Good morning, Sir 192
27 The great camel race 199
28 Freedom 202

1 Eyeless in Riyadh
Riyadh airport is magnificent. Designed to represent a
traditional Bedouin tent, its roof billows high overhead,
lofty and cool. Beneath are wonderful gardens and foun-
tains lit by enormous skylights. Just like Lawrence of
Arabia, I thought, seeing for the first time the Arab’s
fascination for water and green, growing things.
My appreciation was rudely cut short: the immigra-
tion officer, after discovering that I was alone, took my
passport and summoned a guard who hurriedly bundled
me away from the queue of passengers. The guard,
dressed like a policeman, led me to a place labelled
‘Women’s Room’ in Arabic and English. He knocked on
the door and gestured to go in. The room was presided
over by two large apparitions covered, eyes and all, in
black shrouds. I presumed them to be women, only
because of the legend on the door. They could have
been gorillas in there for all I could see, and they were
about the right size.
They opened the door a crack and had a lengthy
conversation with the guard. No-one spoke English.
They kept asking me questions in Arabic, but eventu-
ally the guard got tired of this and went away leaving
me in the charge of the women, who shut the door and
turned to scrutinise me. I was convinced that I had been
arrested: with visions of ghastly prisons before me, I sat
3