Riyadh parents stuck in war-time limbo - Semafor

Houthi strikes on the Saudi capital have created an eerie echo of the COVID-19 period: Schools have gone online and many businesses have sent staff home, spurring an economic slowdown similar to that during the pandemic. And like six years ago, there is no foreseeable end.

Parents in Riyadh have been stuck in limbo for almost a month, waiting and wondering when they will be able to send their children back to school so they can get on with work. The frequency of strikes on the city has not slowed over the past month since that side of the conflict started, with missile alerts still ringing multiple times a week, sometimes multiple times a night.

There was a brief moment of hope last week when authorities tried to bring students back to classrooms. The education ministry divided Riyadh into 10 zones and planned a staggered return, which would have seen schools reopening neighborhood by neighborhood. The experiment lasted just three days after which officials reversed course, sending students back online without offering a new date for schools to reopen. The decision is now up to individual schools, with the majority opting to remain online.

Meanwhile, the city’s business hub, King Abdullah Financial District, remains largely deserted, and office towers above 10 floors are still closed. Some expats who asked to work from abroad were told that there was no need to leave. The message: Keep calm and carry on — things are fine. But the restrictions have made it impossible for many to work from their offices and nobody seems to know how long this arrangement will last.

For months, Riyadh maintained a veneer of business as usual despite the war, but this has become harder to sustain with the city postponing events, from tennis tournaments to conferences, and now doing a U-turn on schools. For residents, the question is no longer just whether the Houthi attacks will stop, but how long will this suspended version of life continue.

Saudis are coping with humor, as they have throughout this war and past ones. One joke circulating online describes remote schooling as a wise precaution with one unintended consequence: The Houthis now face their deadliest threat yet, mothers trapped at home with their children, directing their prayers against them.