MAKKAH, 11 March 2007 — Schoolgirls and female university and college students playing truant and hanging out at coffee shops, shopping malls, restaurants and hotel foyers to meet boyfriends and flirt with men is a widespread problem, which many families and educational institutes are largely oblivious about.
Many of these girls are just out for adventure and looking for opportunities to hang out with friends and have fun. Meanwhile, others are out truanting to meet boyfriends. Fundamentally, this sort of behavior is a clear indication that there is a serious problem in the way some families operate and how educational institutes keep a check on truanting students.
“It happens all the time. You get lots of young women coming in and making loud noises during college and university time,” said a waiter at a popular restaurant in Makkah, who preferred to remain anonymous. “Many of these women are regulars. They shout and laugh loudly and usually come and meet their boyfriends here. Sometimes, their boyfriends come outside in cars and they go off with them,” he added.
The waiter said he knows that the women are students because their conversations are usually “peppered” with talk about their places of study, teachers and their education. “They usually make advance bookings and book an entire table sitting in groups. Their boyfriends usually pay for everything,” he added.
The type of behavior that takes place and the fact that students are truanting can lead the women into trouble and even sexual harassment. Sometimes, the women are arrested by local police and members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
“Their families express a lot of regret and shock that their young darlings are involved in such activities,” said a commission member.
Ahmad ibn Qasim Al-Ghamdi, the commission’s general manager in Makkah, said that young women are regularly arrested in public places. “They usually get picked up during school, college and university hours. We don’t just go around looking for young women to arrest. We only stop them if they are definitely involved in things that are contrary to the standard moral practices of the Kingdom,” he said.
Al-Ghamdi called on places of education and families to assert a more positive role in stopping the problem from becoming further widespread.
What Al-Ghamdi alludes to is possibly true. However, on the other hand some women abuse their parents’ trust and take advantage of the freedom accorded to them at universities, colleges and schools. In fact, some students merely register at university to be able to leave home for a few hours a day and then meet friends and boyfriends. At restaurants they indulge in food and drink and smoke the shisha and cigarettes — activities in an atmosphere that parents would definitely not approve of.
According to one waiter at another restaurant, some girls go as far as to take off their headscarves and don make up in spite of there being non-related men around. “It’s a bit of a problem,” he said, adding, “People get annoyed since they go to the extreme of raising their voices and laughing loudly without respecting customers. Some young men hang around just to watch these young women and exchange numbers.”
According to the waiter, as the women leave the restaurant they end up being followed by a barrage of men wanting their numbers. The men follow them all the way back to school, college or university.
A receptionist at a five-star hotel in Makkah said that one morning a woman came to the hotel foyer, sat around and then moved onto the hotel’s restaurant. “She was dressed in a school uniform and was seated at a table putting on make up. Whenever the waiter would approach her to take her order she would tell him to come later. She was busy all the time speaking on her cell phone,” he said.
“After 20 minutes a young man came and she left with him. She also forgot a bag at the table. We looked inside and there were some lingerie and a satin nightdress. I don’t know what she was up to,” he added.
Groups of young women who wander around in shopping malls frequenting restaurants and coffee shops are also at risk of harassment and are followed by young men who send them Bluetooth messages via cell phones.
A security guard at a popular shopping mall said, “After moving from one shop to the next they usually go into restaurants and coffee shops to relax and unwind. They hang around for quite a few hours and I think they usually head back to their places of study when it is home time there.”
He added, “They go back and return home like as if nothing has happened. You can tell they are students by their clothes. Most wear uniforms.”
A waiter at a coffee shop mentioned how a student came into the coffee shop. “She was dressed modestly but then went into the bathroom and came out smelling of perfume, wearing make up and had changed her outfit. She was dressed in some sexually provocative clothing. A young man came and off they went in his car,” he added.
At the outset it seems there is a host of reasons behind women truanting from school. Some of these women have boyfriends and are prevented by their parents from leaving home unaccompanied and so play truant.
“Girls like to flirt with men and hang out together because they like to be pampered and not pay the bill. Some women just find pleasure in manipulating the feelings of men,” said a young Saudi who has had a lot of student girlfriends.
Psychologists and sociologists blame the girls’ families and places of study for the problem. Universities, colleges and schools do not stringently keep a check on students and provide far too much free time between one lecture and an another.
“It is crucial that there are strict rules preventing students from being absent. Absentees should be able to provide a reasonable excuse. Universities must also inform parents when students are absent,” said sociologist Samir Al-Ghamdi.
Al-Ghamdi added that children from broken families are more prone to behaving in a irresponsible fashion. “Parents are so naive, they even trust their maids and drivers and do not realize that the drivers know exactly what is happening,” he added.
