Behind the Kingdom's Veil

"Take a deep dive behind the veils and walls of one of the world's most secretive countries. Learn how religious extremism and oppression of women over the past 40 years support a single goal -- preserving the power of the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia plays a key world role, yet few have firsthand knowledge of who lives, suffers, and wields power there. Now, Susanne Koelbl, award-winning military and foreign correspondent for the German news magazine Der Spiegel, unveils many secrets of this mysterious kingdom. As a journalist, for years Koelbl has traveled throughout the Middle East, and specifically Saudi Arabia, and recently lived in Riyadh during the most dramatic changes since the country's founding. She has long cultivated relationships on every level of Saudi society and is equally at ease with ultra-conservative Wahhabi preachers, oppositionists, and women from all walks of life. Chapter-by-chapter, the black box that is Saudi Arabia opens. Become an eyewitness to the inner workings of the new as well as the traditional Saudi Arabia. Learn about the not-so-obvious facts of Saudi Arabia's history, politics, and customs. Understand the intricate and often hidden power relations within the kingdom."--Publisher's description

Susanne Koelbl is an award-winning journalist and a military and foreign correspondent for the German news magazine Der Spiegel. Her stories highlight the intricate dynamics in conflict areas and wars around the world, including the Balkans, Central Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Koelbl is known for her probing reports from Syria, Afghanistan and North Korea. Her highly acclaimed book Dark Beloved Country: People and Power in Afghanistan. was published in 2009.
Always close to the people, Koelbl uses their voices to make complicated political and societal contexts accessible. For her in-depth and thorough reporting she received several industry recognitions, including the Liberty Award and the Henry-Nannen-Price award. In her exceptional interviews with state leaders, intelligence-chiefs and Islamic extremists, Koelbl repeatedly challenges the powerful, including the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir (wanted for genocide with an international arrest warrant), or the underground Hamas leader Khaled Mashal. Koelbl has excellent contacts in all political camps in the Middle East.
Koelbl is a fellow of the Bertelsmann Foundation's German-Israeli Young Leaders Program, a Knight Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan and was named a Media Ambassador with the German-Chinese Exchange Program of the Bosch Foundation at Tsingua University in Beijing. As a Knight Wallace Fellow, Koelbl gave guest lectures in 2012 on the war in Syria and the forty-year Afghanistan crisis. As a Knight Wallace alumni Koelbl is connected and tied into top influential media outlets in the US.
The author has been travelling to Saudi Arabia since 2011. Most recently she lived in Riyadh during 2018-2019. She currently resides in Berlin, Germany.