Saudi Gazette has this article about how Saudi women in the Eastern Province are starting to take up jobs as domestic servants, maids and housekeepers. It notes that there is still social stigma attached to such work, but also that 50 years ago many Saudi women worked as domestics. It points out, too, that some 20,000 women arrive in the KSA annually from countries like Indonesia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, and other Asian countries to work as servants.

The women interviewed for this article are proud to have their jobs, even if they first took them up through dire necessity. The work is honorable, they say, and it is.

Maid in Saudi Arabia

SOME of them look after elderly people and children while others accept much harder jobs such as cooking, washing and cleaning. But Saudi women in the Eastern Province, it seems, have overcome the social stigma attached to working as housemaids.

But it takes a while for some women to accept the reality of the situation.
Umm Saleh, at first, tried to hide the nature of her job from her neighbors because of fear that they might make fun of her once they come to know where she goes every morning.

Before, she thought her job was shameful. Now she feels no shame at all because she knows she is earning her living honorably.

“I was forced to accept the job because I’m in dire need,” she told Al-Hayat Arabic language daily. “I can hardly read or write, and my family depends on me after the death of my husband. So what can I do?”

She said charitable societies offer financial help, but it is not enough to cover her family’s basic needs, not to mention her children’s wants. “I know the society will never understand,” she said, “but I just couldn’t take it when my children starts to compare themselves with others.”
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