Saudi Arabia and France might have more in common than French people think

A few years ago, I started a research project about Saudi Arabia. I had worked on this project while I was working in advertising, and I felt there was something mysterious in the Kingdom. It felt like such a foreign culture, and that felt exciting. Some people decide to take on Mandarin, I decided to take on Saudi Arabia.

I am years into the research now, and it still feels like a foreign culture. I am trying to understand the logic of it, but a few years ago, I realized that maybe Saudi Arabia had more in common with France than I had imagined.

I realized, for example, that there seemed to be similarities in the regional dynamics. In antiquity, the main center of what we now know as France was Marseille, or Massilia, as they called it then. An active merchant city, a cosmopolitan city on the Roman Mare Nostrum. I realized Marseille is probably similar to Jeddah, especially since, to me, it might be daring, but I think the Red Sea could be seen as an extension of the Mediterranean.

And then, over centuries, France started to revolve more around Paris because that was where the siege of our monarchy was. Marseille was still strong, but people from all provinces started turning to Paris more because that was where the political action was. I guess this is what is happening with Riyadh today.

And then, at the northern tip of France, we have le Nord, which played an essential part in France’s Industrial Revolution because that is where the coal mines were and where the energy was coming from, much like the eastern provinces of Saudi Arabia.

To be fair, the east of France also had coal mines and even for a few decades, a local production of oil. You can actually visit the small but very informative French oil museum in the quaint commune of Merkwiller-Pechelbronn.

The social and economic change Saudi Arabia is going through today is similar to what France experienced in the 60s.

Although I do not feel educated enough about Saudi regional specificities, I feel Saudi Arabia has strong regional identities like France. I come from Alsace in the east of France, and our food is quite different from what people eat in, say, Bordeaux, with those regional differences making us richer and more interesting as a nation for anyone who dares to venture out of Paris and the beaten paths. I feel a similar vibe in Saudi Arabia.

I went a bit further and looked for more similarities, I realized that overall, Saudi Arabia and France have much more in common than French people might realize. Foreigners always consider what happened in Paris when they think about France, and it somehow distorts their perception of our social evolution as a country. Even as French people, we are influenced by this very Paris-centric view of our history. But when you consider France as a whole, I think that the social and economic change Saudi Arabia is going through today is similar to what France experienced in the 60s, which was part of an era we label the “Glorious 30.”

We tend to judge a situation from where we are today, but I often think that our observers would show more kindness to Saudi Arabia if they remembered that the social changes Saudis are going through today are similar to what our grandparents once went through. I have feminist grandfathers, but not every man in France welcomed the idea that women could work and be independent. Those transitions understandably take time; Rome was not built in a day.

Because of our own history and those similarities, I think France and Saudi Arabia should support each other in every way they can. I was really happy reading Saudi Minister for Foreign Affairs Adel Al-Jubeir’s comment that the relationship between Saudi Arabia and France has made a quantum leap.

I look forward to the next chapter of developments there.

• Nadine Laubacher is a French independent business and communication consultant, with an expertise in tourism, media and culture.