Saudi women work at home in different fields — some design clothes; some resell clothes that were brought from outside the Kingdom and some bake cakes and cook various kinds of food for sale.  “I’m married and have 4 children; I really don’t have time to work though I need the money, so I decided to start a catering company from home,” said Umm Saleh. “My children need continuous attention and my husband doesn’t want me leaving the house for work so working at home is a solution,” she said.

Fashion designer Basma Moawad seeks to build a good name and make profits before opening her own boutique.

“Right now I’m focusing on building my name; I want people to be familiar with my fashion items before I go public,” she said. “I display my items in my house since renting a boutique in a good location can cost up to SR200,000 a year. I find it expensive to start at that level, but once I make my name and people start trusting my products, it will be worth spending all that money for rent,” she added.

According to Heba Mandoura, owner of Home Bakery, starting a bakery outside her home is a really hard process for women in Saudi Arabia.” I found it a lot easier to start my business at home. Because I don’t have to deal with all the paper work for a licensed shop,” she said. “It’s now my part-time job since I teach at the University and I only bake in my free time. So I don’t need to go to two different workplaces every day. I can stay at home and bake for extra cash,” she added.

Using Facebook to market their products Wasma Bakr and Lulua Asaad resell unique vintage fashion items from Europe as a side business. “It’s currently a home business because we had difficulties in finding the perfect location for a reasonable rent. Plus we’re trying to expand online first before opening a boutique,” said Bakr.  “Everything is set up. Powder Room is a home-based professional boutique and as soon as we find an ideal location, we’ll be moving the products there,” she added.

For Salma, a private tutor, working at home is very comfortable and secure. “Students stop by every day for 4 hours and I give them private lessons,” she said.

 

“It’s a good way to put my college qualifications to use since my father will not allow me to work outside our home,” she added.