Dozens of girls have taken up jobs at Matbakh Ghalib Bani, a catering company specialized in serving food to pilgrims. The company which mainly employs men now has 108 girls to serve food and other items to American and European pilgrims in camps at Mina. They work under the supervision of Ghalib Bani whom the girls described as extremely nice and courteous to work with.

Speaking to Arab News, Haseena Abdul Sabah said she wanted to break this taboo that girls cannot work certain jobs.  “I think if given a fair chance Saudi girls can take up any job and discharge their duties with responsibility and sincerity on par with their male counterparts,” Sabah said.

These girls work long hours and have no complaints about their job conditions. They have taken up the jobs not only for monetary gains but also for heavenly rewards.

“When we joined we were a little nervous to interact with male pilgrims but then we realized that they are guests of Allah and we have a duty to serve them. And as of now we have not faced any indecent behavior or encountered any unpleasant incident during our work,” Sabah said. “We certainly have broken the social barriers if some people take it that way.”

Sabah is the only breadwinner in her family and takes care of her old and ailing father.

“To my father I am his ‘son’. He looks at me for all support as he is old and infirm with no source of income,” said Sabah.

But one of her colleagues has another reason to take a job at the catering company.

“I need my own money to spend life the way I want to. Precisely, I don’t like looking at my father or brother for everything. So I joined this profession,” said Zainab Shams Al-Naher. “We get SR1,000 for seven days of work which is not a bad deal,” she added.

“I didn’t think about breaking any taboos or being a rebel. I wanted to describe how people find ways to get around some of the traditions. Young women I know want to be modern, hip, stylish, the same as women everywhere. I am not trying to trigger a controversy,” Al-Naher said. “This profession, which is noble in nature, is now open for women, but what they need is to build awareness and examine new spheres.”

These girls were fully aware of the unemployment situation in the Kingdom as well as the world over but say instead of indulging in the blame game new avenues should be explored and opened for every one without any gender restrictions and the society should be educated about the changing needs of the hours in the job market.

“Unemployment is a global problem, but people cannot just blame the circumstances, and expect other sectors to provide for them. They need to find channels,” said Ashwag Ashraaf while stressing the importance of education and awareness.

“We have a plan to hire more girls next year. We have a belief women serve better so it is best to let women work in the hospitality sector, like the rest of the world does,” Ghalib Bani said. “We are convinced about the idea and we want to make it succeed but we are implementing it in a limited manner — this will not happen quickly.

“Along with education and awareness, the society’s concept about working women needs to change on the whole,” said Ashraaf. “Both men and women should be given opportunities to excel in their fields, not only joining the unconventional works but also setting up businesses.”

These girls said they were happy that social and religious barriers are slowly fading away, making room for them to come out and assert their roles and responsibilities in the development of a modern country. They said despite the challenges, change is still happening, although at a snail’s pace.  “With time, there will be more such jobs taken by women,” said Al-Naher.