Abaya or Not in al Khobar

When we first got here we went to Hyper Panda without abayas and felt pretty conspicuous. I have a post on here about that expereince. Of course with three pretty girls we would have gotten attention anyway. We got abayas and wear them to the malls and downtown Khobar. In the summer an advantage was we could wear next to nothing under them and have some relief from the heat. (For that purpose get an abaya that closes in the front or have it sewn closed like we did) Some ladies never wear abayas in Khobar. They wear a long dress with long sleaves or a long top that covers the hips and long sleaves. Yesterday I went to town with two ladies who did not wear abayas and as I had on long jeans and a big sweat shirt and was traveling by taxi and just running in here and there (and it was cool yesterday morning) I felt OK without the abaya. Many ladies around here said they never wore abayas before 9/11. The abayas let them blend in a bit more and if you had a scarf (which the westerners rarely wear) you can almost dissapear if you need to. My neighbor who never wears an abaya but dresses very conservativley has been here almost 30 years and in that time has been approached by matawa only in Dammam and only 5 times. I’ll post a photo of my girls and I in our “go to town clothes”.