RIYADH, 17 October 2004 — The beginning of Ramadan marks the start of inconvenience for Saudi working women in preparing the iftar meal full of Ramadan special dishes and there being the maghreb (sunset) deadline to meet.
Asharq Al-Awsat met with several Saudi women working in different fields to find out the inconveniences the women encounter in doing the balancing act between preparing the iftar meal with dishes their families expect and meeting the demands of the work place.
Al-Jowhara Saad is a fulltime doctor at one of the government hospitals. She is a wife and mother. In Ramadan she employed an extra maid to take care of the cooking. Al-Jowhara said that the second maid’s salary is several times as much as her own.
According to Al-Jowhara her job is time-consuming and tiring that entails long hours outside the house which makes it impossible for her to prepare iftar meals after getting home from work.
One of her colleagues recommended an African maid adept at cooking Saudi dishes. “When I met the African woman she said she was willing to work for me but on a huge salary. After several sessions of haggling I was compelled to employ her on the huge salary she was demanding.”
Salwa Jaber is a teacher who is borrowing her neighbor’s services for Ramadan. Her neighbor and she have an arrangement: she pays her neighbor SR2,000 in return for a full iftar table. The arrangement includes preparing a daily table of various dishes that must include soup, sambousa, dessert, pastries, various main dishes. Jaber provides her with all the ingredients for the dishes.
As for Moodhy Al-Shihri, an employee at one of the national banks she can only cook at “suhour” time (the time before the fast begins). At suhour time she prepares the iftar meal because of the pressures of her working hours. However, she says that this arrangement causes heated arguments with her husband over “old food”. Furthermore, she feels awkward when one of her sisters-in-law sends them her husband’s favorite dishes. Her mother sends her the sambousas her husband favors the most while she only has to fry them before sunset.
Nihad Ahmad and four of her friends have another arrangement: They use the services of a Syrian woman who prepares iftar dishes for them and delivers them to their homes. Nihad says that she does not like takeaway food and nor does her husband because one never knows about the hygiene of those making the food. This arrangement is suitable for them all. They pay SR150 for one meal that includes seven different dishes.
Sameera Abdulwahab said that she asked her colleagues to find her a maid who can prepare the iftar meal in Ramadan because her own maid had run away. Her colleagues told her about a Saudi family whose women are great cooks. So she coordinated with them so that they would prepare the iftar meals paying them the same sum paid to non-Saudis.
Badriah Khaled admits that she insists that her husband accept invitations to iftar meals at family and friends’ houses because it spares her the trouble of preparing the meal herself.
Badriah adds that as the principal of one of the government schools it is hard for her to prepare the iftar meal and that this issue is crucial to any married woman. Furthermore, she goes through a lot of trouble to see that her children do not feel any shortage of special exclusive iftar dishes
Noura Abdullah says she is an employee at a company for electronic utilities and that has two shifts. He has an arrangement with her sisters where each takes turns each day in the week in preparing the iftar meal and the driver delivers it to their houses.
Fayza Rashed who is a professional at-home cook said her need to make a living for her and her many children was the reason why she was driven to work as a cook. She works for others as it is an honest means of making a living, she added.
