It is a scene replicated daily in malls across the Saudi capital, highlighting how a growing interest in physical fitness in the Gulf kingdom has collided with a dearth of suitable spaces for working out
Long popular in the United States, another car-centric country with an obesity problem, mall-walking is increasingly becoming a Saudi sport.
Image: Haitham-El-Tabei / AFP©
The shops have not yet opened, but the air-conditioned concourse of a Riyadh shopping mall is crowded anyway—a haven for walkers and joggers grateful for somewhere cool to exercise.
The early-morning crowd includes 55-year-old engineer Mohammed Sultan, in a white T-shirt and black trainers, doing laps around the mall trailed by his niqab-wearing wife.