DAMMAM, 23 November 2005 — An employment requirement pertaining to the hiring of Saudi women introduced by a private hospital in Dammam created anger and controversy among parents, Al-Madinah newspaper reported.
The hospital asked the job applicants to reveal their faces while at work. Many women objected to this condition saying that it goes against their culture. Some women are facing the choice of either removing their face cover or risking unemployment.
Aleya H., a female employee at the private hospital, said that she had a difficult decision to make as accepting the condition would mean retaining her job through which she supports her family, or losing that important income if she stuck to tradition. After a difficult argument with her family, she decided to adhere to the rule because she really needed the money to supplement her family income.
Maryam agreed with Aleya. She works in an archive department at a private hospital in Alkhobar and said: “Most of the female workers here cover their faces. We have to confront a lot of difficulties if we do not cover our faces because we might run into someone we know or is a relative. We are suffering a lot. On the one hand, I have to cover my face because it is my culture, but on the other if I do not obey this condition, I might find myself with no job. Plus I may never find a husband because of the bad reputation girls working in private hospitals get.”
Nouf Al-Nasser is from a family that does not object to revealing face. Despite that, she left working in the hospital to find another job that does not require her to reveal her face. She said: “Many times when I am at work, I receive harassment from men, the least of which is when men stare at us, which makes us feel very uncomfortable, especially if the female employee is a Saudi. This forced me to give up the job and find something else.”
Abdul Mohsin, a Saudi medical official at an insurance company, criticizes the condition to reveal the face. He remarked, “Some hospital staff say that there are cases where infants were kidnapped from hospitals. I remember an incident like this a long time ago in one of Dammam’s hospitals. Saudi female employees are far away from such accusations because they work away from the infant section and we all know that Asian nurses are in charge in that department. Saudi female workers are working behind the counter and directly dealing with customers. They need the face cover for protection in order to stop harassment unless the hospital management thinks that this is a way to attract more customers.”
An official at the labor office in Dammam said that such a condition is in direct violation of the country’s labor law. However, the hospital administration denied forcing female staff to remove their cover saying that it is a personal issue up to the individual.
