Following Mes Arabies ("My Arabias"), a photographic essay on Saudi Arabia today, this is the second part of a trilogy by Agence Vu’ journalist Samer Mohdad, currently based in Beirut.  Assaoudia is the phonetic transcription of an Arabic term for Saudi Arabia: a rarely photographed country riddled with the most extreme cultural and economic contradictions and functioning in two parallel time frames, the 21st century AD and the 15th century after the Hegira.  In his choice of emblematic sites – a working class district in Riyadh, Bedouin villages in the south, highly industrialised cities, and the points along the way for pilgrims heading to Mecca – the photographer, like the country as a whole, is striving to generate dialogue between generations, men and women, and the economic and cultural spheres.Texts by Samer Mohdad, Insaf Elawar Mohdad and Catherine Divorne Mohdad. Mes Arabies was published by Actes Sud in 1999.