JEDDAH: A’am Ahmad, or uncle Ahmad, is a 62-year-old Saudi father of seven who has been employed as a doorkeeper for a girls’ school for the last 17 years. However, he has happily done other tasks for the school, including delivering documents to the Department of Education, letting students know through a microphone that their father or driver is waiting for them and even defending the girls from being harassed by young men. He said, “Whatever they ask me to do I would do it, would you expect me to deny the school a favor?”
Sometimes this would require A’am Ahmad to work from the crack of dawn until midnight. Yet despite his advancing years and the wrinkles on his face A’am Ahmad still looks full of energy, moving about the school to pick up any rubbish lying around and keeping an eye on maintenance workers after the girls have finished school for the day.
A’am Ahmad has developed an almost symbiotic relationship with the school after working and living in it for 17 years, during which he raised four sons and three daughters and seen some of them get married and find jobs. Prior to that he was working at another school, also as a doorkeeper, for almost seven years. When he left he managed to increase his salary from SR1,600 to SR4,000, an amount he says is enough to provide for him and his family.
What annoys A’am Ahmad the most are the “shabab” (young men), who would regularly pass by the school to take snaps of girls as they leave or try to give their numbers to students. “It seems to me that these shabab have nothing better to do, so they keep driving and walking around to annoy girls. But I am always watching them! And I would not allow girls to stay outside unless I am sure their car has arrived (to pick them up).”
He added parents and other family members would sometimes abuse him if they tried to pick up a student before the end of the day without providing an official letter from the principal.
He says he has to be firm because if anything happened to the girl the responsibility would ultimately lie with him. A’am Ahmad said one parent told him: “Who are you to prevent me from taking my daughter? You’re nothing, you are just a doorkeeper, a dog!” When asked about his reaction toward such insults he simply replied, “patience.”
A’am Ahmad says his job is exhausting, harsh, and demands patience, a quality he says young people do not possess. He added they do not want to take on such work and prefer high-salary jobs, “I got the same job for my son and he asked me what the salary was. When I told him SR2,000 he immediately said no. They now only want an easy earning job.”
