Violation:	Penalties:
Running a Red Light	SR 900 or 3 days in jail
Wrong way on a one-way street	SR 900 or 3 days in jail
Speeding	SR 900 or 3 days in jail
Parking in a no-parking area	SR 500 or 3 days in jail
Parking on the sidewalk	SR 500 or 3 days in jail
Failure to carry a license	SR 300
Driving with an expired license	SR 300
Driving without a valid license	SR 900
Expired Vehicle Registration	SR 500 or 3 days in jail
Passing in no-passing zone	SR 900 or 3 days in jail
Leaving the scene of an accident	SR 900 or 3 days in jail
Failure to stop for police	SR 300 or 3 days in jail
Reckless Driving	SR 1500 / 20 days in jail and/or 20 lashes
Accompanying a Reckless Driver	SR 1500 / 20 days in jail and/or 20 lashes

Driving a Car - No Women Allowed to Drive !!

Women are not allowed to drive a motor vehicle in Saudi Arabia.  This is a cultural/religious law and the people try to explain this as a thing of reverence toward women, but it seems like just another way for men to exert control over women.  Ladies, If you think about this, you just get angry.  

Prayer Time - Shops are Closed for Prayers

 Muslims are compelled by law to pray 5 times a day.  The times for prayer are determined by sunrise and sunset times at your particular longitude.  The prayer times are published in the local newspapers.  Generally, the prayers last about 30 minutes.  During this period, all of the stores in the area will close their doors and stop business.  If you are inside a restaurant or grocery store, they will let you stay, but you can't leave until after prayer time ends.

For the exact Muslim Prayer Time in your location, check out this website: 

 Muslim Prayer Time Calculation

(For Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, use the times for Medina)

The " Mutawa" or religious police drive around during prayer times in search of stores that have not closed.  So the store owners are rather strict about closing for fear of being shut down.  So beware of the prayer times to be sure your business is completed.  If not, you will be forced to wait about 30 minutes for prayer to end before finishing.  If you need to go several places, plan to drive between the various locations during the prayer time.  This is why traffic is really bad at and during prayer time.

This is not all the Mutawa look for...

Dress Code for Men and Women

    Women - as long as a western woman's arms and legs are covered, the Saudi religious police are generally satisfied.  However, women draw less attention if they wear a traditional Saudi Abaya.  The abaya is a thin black robe that covers the whole body and drapes to the ground.  There is some leniency at the airport, but if your arms and legs are covered, you're OK.
   In certain places like the Main Souk downtown, some mutawas (zealous religious police) have been known to ask western women to cover their heads with a scarf (standard for Saudi women).  This should only happen if a woman draws attention to herself by beauty or interesting dress.  This can be humiliating, but there is no law that requires this.  The mutawa may be sincere, but we usually find that he is just trying to exert his power.  'Stay inconspicuous' - is the best advice, even at the pay beaches, where abayas are not usually required..

    Men - even men are generally expected to be completely covered.  If men wear Bermuda shorts, the Saudis generally stare at you in somewhat disapproval.  Long pants and long sleeve shirts are the standard for men.  However, at dive stores and near the beach, men can get away with short pants and short sleeve shirts with no problem.

During Ramadan, public dress tends to be more conservative, and the mutawas tend to be more interested in foreigners during this time.

Internet Censorship and Limitations

    The internet is "policed" by the government to restrict content to what they believe is acceptable.  Many innocent websites are blocked if not for religious reasons, then for political reasons or just by random choice - who knows?   Many sites are "forbidden" for apparently no reason.  America On-line service is not available in Saudi Arabia because the internet police found they were unable to filter the content.  However, all web pages are filtered and examined for "forbidden" content. 

Official decree

1. Islam is the official and only religion in the country.

2. All Saudi citizens are by definition Muslims.

3. Anyone renouncing Islam is an Apostate. Apostacy is punishable by the death sentence. (Which is why Saudis discourage their rebellious teenagers from going around saying "Hey, I'm not sure about this religion thing...etc." It could be hazardous to their health. Better to just to keep quiet.)

4. Shia Muslims are just about tolerated, as long as they don't carry out their particular practices such as self-flagellation. (In practice they, and indeed the Eastern province where they mostly live, suffer a variety of forms of discrimination.) We will later discuss the different sects of Islam.

5. No non-Muslim public worship is permitted. It is permitted in private, as long as it is not "obvious" (in practice, any "gathering" is dangerous.)

6. Religious symbols such as crosses, stars, are forbidden (and obviously these days are bad for the health).

7. No non-Muslim may enter any mosque.

8. No non-Muslim may enter the cities of Mecca and Medina. (However there is one unpublicized exception. The Saudi national bus company, SAPTCO, runs Mercedes buses. Naturally, being a nation of managers and civil servants, they haven't learned to maintain them theirselves. So they import German mechanics. What happens when a bus breaks down in one of those cities? They send in an infidel German mechanic to fix it, under cover of darkness.  Saudis are not stupid. If they didn't, then over time, years, perhaps decades, every SAPTCO bus in the country would eventually end up broken down in Mecca or Medin. 

9. The Muttawa protect our religious values by looking for symbols of infidel idolatry and symbolism being sold in shops. They have lots of fun around Christmas and St Valentines Day. However for $10 you can always buy a cheap-and-nasty plastic mosque alarm clock, that wakes you up with a muezzin call. Somehow, that's not "symbolism".

10. Any foreigners bringing in Bibles, Prayer Books, Crucifixes, Rosary Beads, Icons or similar will have them confiscated by Customs.

11. Foreign workers must give their passport to their employer for keeping. In return they get a residency permit, the Iqama. The Iqama of a Muslim is green, that for an infidel purple. I kid you not. This color scheme was obviously designed with future events in mind. Now terrorist captives are color-coded for easy selection of murder victims.