Cristiano Ronaldo wears traditional Saudi thobe and daqlah to celebrate Founding Day


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Cristiano Ronaldo wore a traditional white thobe as he celebrated Saudi Arabia's Founding Day — and at one point sported an intricately embroidered navy blue and gold robe, or daqlah, over it.

The Portuguese footballer posted a video on Instagram of the celebrations with his Al Nassr teammates. “It was a special experience to participate in the celebration at Al Nassr FC,” he said in the caption.

The video shows Ronaldo, who signed a two-year contract with the Saudi football club in December, drinking Arabic coffee and performing Ardah (a folk group dance) while wielding a ceremonial sword. It also shows him dancing with a Saudi flag over his shoulders.

Ever since the move, Ronaldo and his family have seemingly been enjoying their new lives in the Gulf, regularly embracing regional fashion and culture.

Last week, his son Cristiano Jr, 12, also wore a two-button collared Saudi thobe paired with a baseball cap, in a selfie posted by Ronaldo's mother Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro on Instagram.

Cristiano Jr wearing a traditional Saudi-style thobe and his grandmother. Photo: Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro / Instagram
Cristiano Jr wearing a traditional Saudi-style thobe and his grandmother. Photo: Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro / Instagram

A thobe, or thawb, is an ankle-length robe with long sleeves, commonly worn by men in the Gulf region. In the UAE, it is known as a kandura, while in Kuwait, Iraq and Oman it is sometimes called a dishdasha.

There are also subtle variations in style around the Gulf. The Saudi version is cut to be slim-fitting and has a collar with two or three buttons. It has sleeves with cuffs, so is designed to be worn with cufflinks. It is typically partnered with a headscarf, called a ghutra or keffiyeh, which can be worn in many colours.

His wife, model Georgina Rodriguez, has also updated her style to suit their new lifestyle and has often been pictured wearing an abaya, teamed with chic items underneath.

During the Founding Day celebrations, Ronaldo also posed wearing a navy blue and gold daqlah, a robe that is also considered a national dress in Saudi Arabia. It is designed to be worn over a thobe.

The traditional-style robe was also worn by Queen Consort Camilla at the platinum jubilee event in June last year.

The dark blue robe with silver embroidery, which was created by Saudi designer Yahya Al Bishri, was actually a piece in King Charles III's wardrobe. It's believed to be a gift to the British monarch when he visited the Gulf country in the 1990s.

Scroll through the gallery below for images of Georgina Rodriguez's style

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Email sent to Uber team from chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi

From: Dara

To: Team@

Date: March 25, 2019 at 11:45pm PT

Subj: Accelerating in the Middle East

Five years ago, Uber launched in the Middle East. It was the start of an incredible journey, with millions of riders and drivers finding new ways to move and work in a dynamic region that’s become so important to Uber. Now Pakistan is one of our fastest-growing markets in the world, women are driving with Uber across Saudi Arabia, and we chose Cairo to launch our first Uber Bus product late last year.

Today we are taking the next step in this journey—well, it’s more like a leap, and a big one: in a few minutes, we’ll announce that we’ve agreed to acquire Careem. Importantly, we intend to operate Careem independently, under the leadership of co-founder and current CEO Mudassir Sheikha. I’ve gotten to know both co-founders, Mudassir and Magnus Olsson, and what they have built is truly extraordinary. They are first-class entrepreneurs who share our platform vision and, like us, have launched a wide range of products—from digital payments to food delivery—to serve consumers.

I expect many of you will ask how we arrived at this structure, meaning allowing Careem to maintain an independent brand and operate separately. After careful consideration, we decided that this framework has the advantage of letting us build new products and try new ideas across not one, but two, strong brands, with strong operators within each. Over time, by integrating parts of our networks, we can operate more efficiently, achieve even lower wait times, expand new products like high-capacity vehicles and payments, and quicken the already remarkable pace of innovation in the region.

This acquisition is subject to regulatory approval in various countries, which we don’t expect before Q1 2020. Until then, nothing changes. And since both companies will continue to largely operate separately after the acquisition, very little will change in either teams’ day-to-day operations post-close. Today’s news is a testament to the incredible business our team has worked so hard to build.

It’s a great day for the Middle East, for the region’s thriving tech sector, for Careem, and for Uber.

Uber on,

Dara

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