Lifestyle | Travel The Unesco World Heritage site and ancient Nabataean city of Hegra has turned a sea of pink with a group of young schoolgirls, all between the ages of 10 and 14, running up and down the sand mount opposite its most famous landmark, Qasr al-Farid. Their bright pink pinafores and white shirts are a welcome burst of colour amid a landscape of sandstone mountains and wheat-hued tombs in the vast desert. What is your name; where are you from; do you like AlUla? Within minutes, the confident and curious bunch start throwing questions at us.
Our chance encounter is probably their first time interacting with foreigners eager to experience the rich history of Saudi Arabia , a country closed to tourism until 2019. When the guiding programme launched in 2019, 28-year-old Amal Aljohani was among the first to become a rawi , meaning narrator in Arabic. Standing in a black abaya against the dramatic backdrop of tombs and rock art in the archaeological site of Dadan, she says she has seen the change first hand.
"It was exciting, especially for us as women. Our personality changed, and we were allowed to show off our skills as independent women rather than staying at home and waiting for someone to give us a job.” “If you went to Riyadh and Jeddah, you had opportunities because they are big cities, but if we are talking about the community in AlUla.
.. it was difficult.
You only saw women working in education or in the hospital. The change in Saudi has enabled us to cho.
