AL-AHSA, 13 September 2004 — Waking up at the crack of dawn, getting the school uniforms ready for her brothers and sisters, and preparing breakfast is a daily routine that young Suaad will now get used to. And when her brothers and sisters leave for school, she will stand in the doorway watching them go carrying their schoolbags and their dreams to school. Then she will carefully close the door behind them, locking in and swallowing her molten sighs and pains inside her, carefully hiding the emotions from her father’s eyes. She hides her feelings from her father so that he will not blame himself for being the reason for her leaving school after high school in order to reduce the family’s financial burden that comes with children’s education.
Suaad, and before her, her sister Leila who also stopped going to school after the intermediate stage, left school for the same reason: Financial burden and the father’s incapability to respond to the needs of his seven children. So the girls stay home and sacrifice, attending to school up to 7th grade while the boys continue beyond high school and into university if they can manage.
“The boy will be useful for me in future but as for the girl, she will go to her husband’s house and I may not benefit from her salary even if she gets employed. And so I save the money that I don’t and wouldn’t have were it not for well-wishers and charity.” With these words, Ali Al-Salman sums up his suffering.
“The charity associations help us out before school starts with schoolbags that contain notebooks and pens. However, such help is limited. The problem isn’t just in such school needs but there’s also the need for new clothes, new shoes etc. There’s also school expenses during school days. So because of all this I ask the girls to stay home after 7th grade. What’s important is that they learn how to read and write.”
Al-Salman continues with tears welling up in his eyes. “I’m employed with a very modest salary that doesn’t even reach SR3,000. I’ve got two boys and five girls, all school students. And I’ve got two other sons who are unemployed and who weren’t able to finish high school because of the situation at home and because of the financial disparity between them and their classmates — something that always makes them feel out of place or humiliated because there are days I can’t even afford to give them SR5 as pocket money.”
As for his son Muhammad who is in 5th grade, he wishes he had different-colored notebooks like the rest of his schoolmates. Muhammad says, “We get our notebooks from charities and if that isn’t enough my father buys the rest from cheap places that sell old notebooks.”
And when asked whether the notebooks his father would buy will be according to his choice? Muhammad answers: “Over the past years I used to go with my father to buy school needs. He goes to cheap places like those that sell things for SR2. They don’t sell things my mates have. So I settle for what he chooses but last week I didn’t go with my dad to the stationery store because there’s no use of my presence.” Muhammad is reconciled to his situation and says in all innocence, “When I grow up I’m going to buy everything I want.”
