Pitt Law student speaks on childhood in Saudi Arabia

Sitting at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport with her family, 7-year-old Rhiannon… Sitting at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport with her family, 7-year-old Rhiannon Kelso cried at the thought of leaving her home country to move across the Atlantic Ocean to Saudi Arabia.

“I was crying so hard that I was convulsing. I felt that I was leaving behind everything I knew,” she said.

Kelso and her family set up residence in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, after her father’s company asked him to relocate and work at a small private pipe-inspection company on the east coast of the country. For eight years, Kelso lived in the Middle Eastern country, but she returned to the United States each summer.

Now a third-year at Pitt’s School of Law specializing in international law, Kelso eventually learned to embrace and love her new home. Her language acquisition and experiences abroad gave her many talking points as the guest speaker at the Saudi Open House held by the Saudi Students House in Pittsburgh.  

On Saturday night, the Pittsburgh nonprofit organization welcomed nearly 600 people to the free event in the assembly room of the William Pitt Union.

A host on the right side of the stage spoke in English, and a host on the left echoed him in Arabic for the mostly-Middle-Eastern audience intermixed with American students.

Following the Saudi national anthem, Kelso spoke about her experience abroad in one of the event’s main presentations.

On the east coast of Saudi Arabia, Kelso and her family lived in a private gated community with a large park, soccer field, swimming pool and convenience store.

Her family was surrounded by a mixture of American, Saudi, European and Indian neighbors.

Kelso, along with her sister and two brothers, went to a private American school near the U.S. Embassy. After finishing middle school, she attended a boarding school in Italy, and in her junior year she moved back to the United States to complete her high school education. Kelso later went on to the University of Arizona to earn her undergraduate degree.

As an American child, Kelso said she had to learn about the Saudi culture — one completely different from her own.

One Halloween, Kelso begged her mother to let her dress as a ninja. Her mother asked her where she would find a ninja outfit, and Kelso innocently replied, “I’ll just wear what all the Saudi ladies wear.”

Kelso was very quick to give her opinion regarding some of the common concerns that Americans have about Saudi Arabian culture, such as the illegality of alcohol and female driving.

“The lack of driving is cool, because women have a driver everywhere they go,” she said.

In terms of alcohol, she said she did not understand what the big deal is since many drugs are illegal in the U.S.   

After her speech, Kelso recounted some of her other experiences, including a difficult moment back in 2003 when she visited her brother, sister-in-law and niece who lived on the east coast of Saudi Arabia.

With the start of the Iraq War, many terrorist attacks were happening throughout the country.She said she had never seen such hostility between Saudis and Americans.

“Many [Saudis] believed the war was unjust and illegal. For the first time, I was afraid to be in Saudi Arabia,” she said.

One day in 2003, terrorists began attacking compounds near her brother’s home.

After verifying the safety of her sister-in-law and niece, Kelso and her brother remained in the compound protected by the Saudi National Guard.

She later discovered that terrorists had massacred a large number of victims in nearby compounds. They rounded them up, killed them and dragged some of the bodies through the streets, she said.

“It was a horrible day. Soon after, we packed our things and left with a police escort to Bahrain where my mom lived,” Kelso said. “I just wanted out. I just wanted to leave.”

However, Kelso said the anger against Americans subsided, and the government cracked down tremendously on terrorism.

“This was not a consensus that we hated Americans. The majority of Saudi Arabian citizens were mortified at what was going on in the country. It just took some time. Everyone moved on and recovered from it,” she said.

Overall, Kelso said she enjoyed her time in Saudi Arabia and that she will never forget the hospitality of its people.  

After the speech, the audience watched the remaining segments of the program. Students from the Saudi Students House performed several versions of the traditional Bedouin dance, Al Ardah.  

The night’s events also included videos, a fashion show and a mock Saudi wedding during which, dressed in white, a bride and groom began a procession on stage.

The couple soon made their way to the ballroom for a night of activities including henna, dress-up, photography and calligraphy.

After the activities, Salem’s Market & Grill ended the evening by serving a traditional Arabic dinner including hummus, tabouleh salad, chicken and rice.

The event attracted people from many Middle Eastern countries.

Rasha Burhanuldeen and Noora Salman, two native Iraqis who are now students at Pittsburgh Allderdice High School, attended Saturday’s event after hearing about it on Facebook and seeing a flier at school. They said that, for them, the importance of the event was that it could help combat stereotypes of the Middle East.

“People should have an idea about the Middle East. Many believe that Middle Easterners are terrorists, but an event like the Saudi Open House is an effort to give them an idea of peace,” Salman said.

Maya O’Donnell, a junior anthropology major and Arabic 3 student at Pitt, said that the event was important for the same reason.

“Many Americans have misconceptions about the Middle East, and I come to events like this in order to learn and fight those stereotypes with knowledge and first-hand experience,” O’Donnell said.