Ayesha Malik considers herself an American on paper, a Pakistani by heritage, and a Saudi by upbringing. But she calls herself an Aramcon.
Malik has spent most of her 28 years in Dhahran Camp, the exclusive gated community where employees of the Saudi oil giant Aramco live with their families.
Some 10,000 people live in a community about half the size of San Francisco, an oasis of tree-lined cul-de-sacs, swimming pools, and Cub Scout troops. “It kind of looks like where you grew up, if you grew up in a suburban American town,” she says. “Just imagine that, and imagine that’s in Saudi Arabia, and suddenly you’re on another planet.”It’s a planet she documents beautifully in her new book ARAMCO: Above the Oil Fields.
Aramco produces some 10.5 million barrels of oil each day and holds reserves estimated at more than 260 billion barrels, making it the world’s largest oil company. The company built Dharhran Camp soon after its founding in…
The post Inside the Surreal, Saudi Suburbia Built by an Oil Giant appeared first on FeedBox.