UNAIZAH: We’ve all heard by know about the phenomenon of runaway maids in Saudi Arabia. But have you heard the one about the maid who ran away because she eloped with a Saudi? According to a report in Al-Jazirah newspaper on Thursday, a woman of unknown Asian background arrived in the Kingdom just before Ramadan to work for a Saudi family. Shortly after her arrival she disappeared. The family discovered that she left the mobile phone provided to her by the family. When the family called a number on the phone’s log, a Saudi man answered to say the woman was now his wife. It turns out that the man and the woman had met prior to her arrival in the Kingdom, and that she came to the country on a maid’s visa specifically to elope with her suitor — much to the chagrin of the family that had paid money to process the paperwork to get the maid to the Kingdom.
Dear hubby, wait outside please!
RIYADH: Whether one thinks it’s a good idea or not, there are clearly a lot of impositions to gender-specific activities. One interesting example of this is that some cultural events this Eid holiday have been deemed for women and children only, which prevents families from going together to these events. One such event in Riyadh was the performance of a drama entitled “Baituna fi Khatar” (“Our House is in Danger”), which saw numerous men lingering outside the venue smoking and sipping tea and coffee, as their wives attended the event. It was a conundrum for the husbands: the event wasn’t long enough for them to leave and come back later, yet it was long enough to have them loitering outside while wives sat inside enjoying the performance. Women interviewed by a local newspaper said that they should have declared the event for families, so that their husbands could sit inside rather than loiter outside kicking pebbles waiting for the play to end.
