Desperate mother of four cooks for cash

A Saudi woman sells her home cooked meals at an open-air market at the Half Moon Bay in Alkhobar to earn a basic income. Her specialty is traditional Saudi fare, which she sells to picnickers on the Alkhobar Corniche.
“This part of the bay is called the Lebanese shore. I have been coming here for over a year to serve authentic Saudi and Bahraini food to make some money so I can feed my children,” said Um Abdullah Al-Dosary. “This is a great place where people from all over the Eastern Province come to enjoy lunch and a fun day. Most of my customers are non-Saudis who are curious to know about our tradition and food,” she added.
Um Abdullah’s story started when her husband ran away from home because he could not pay his debt. “I don’t know where he is now. All I know is that he left me in 2011 with four children and SR 500 only. I was afraid that something happened to him and so I called all my friends and family and then called the police but no one knew where he was,” she said. “After a long struggle of searching for him, I had to take charge and start feeding my children. I am a college graduate so I tried applying for a job. I was turned away, as recruiters said I graduated a long time ago and had zero work experience. They would rather hire someone younger.”
The only solution for Um Abdullah was to turn to charity organizations and ask for money. “Most of them thought I was not telling the truth and that I didn’t actually need the money. Some gave me a small amount of money to pay for the electricity and water bills,” she said. “I am not a beggar and I cannot depend on this as a basic income because it is not stable and not enough to feed four children,” she added.
Um Abdullah worked at a local festival as a henna designer. “I do great henna designs but the current generation does not like this old tradition, so this plan did not work,” she said. “Some of the non-Saudis enjoyed it but I also cannot depend on henna as a basic income and so I had to try something else. I thought of food.”
Um Abdullah is a Saudi woman from the western region. She knows a lot about traditional Saudi food and started cooking for open bazaars. “Bazaars are only held occasionally so I also started to sell food near schools and colleges in Alkhobar. My income was only SR 300 a week,” she said. “I then visited the Corniche and saw that there was nothing available to eat. I started cooking more to serve the visitors here. My income increased up to SR 2,000 a week,” she added.
The job is illegal and Um Abdullah does not have a permit from the Alkhobar Municipality. The police could stop her at any time. "If this happened, I really would not have any other place to go or any other thing to do or sell to make a living and feed the kids,” said Um Abdullah.