Saudi Arabia Culture

When the body of nurse Yvonne Gilford was found Dec. 11, fear rippled through the walled compounds where foreigners live in Saudi Arabia. The 55-year-old Australian had suffered a grisly death. She had been stabbed four times, beaten with a hammer and suffocated in her bed. In a country that by world standards is almost crime-free, some wondered if a maniac was on the loose. Or was the murder politically motivated, akin to the bombing of the U.S.

In her steamy native Georgia, this American woman's short-sleeved top would have been considered only sensible. On the streets of Dhahran, revealing her elbows was enough to provoke a scolding from one of the officially sanctioned religious policemen who watch for breaches of Saudi tradition. " 'You should cover your arms!' he told me. 'Does your husband know you are about like this?' " recalled the woman, the wife of an American businessman. "I thought: 'I'll never adjust to this place.'

King Fahd has good reason to worry these days as Saudi Arabia's era of easy money wanes and the voices of opposition grow. The kingdom is under fire from human rights organizations for carrying out a record 180 beheadings this year. The religious right is growing feistier, and the left is questioning the notion that development is an acceptable alternative to democracy. Shiite riots in nearby Bahrain and a palace coup in Qatar serve as reminders of the vulnerability of monarchies.