A number of female university graduates here say there is no shame in working as security guards or office clerks but have appealed to the public and fellow workers to treat them better. “We get verbally insulted when we search for mobiles with cameras, which are banned at wedding halls,” said Amina, a wedding hall security guard. “Some women get physical and push us as they enter the hall with their mobiles, which results in us getting cuts and bruises,” she added. She said people must start to understand and “respect our roles”. Umm Muhammad, a security guard at a university, said she is a university graduate and took the job because she could not find anything else. “I prefer to do this job rather than stay at home,” she said. She said she is often verbally abused when confronting students guilty of violating the university's rules. “Some of them consider us inferior to them, call us names, and treat us with disrespect,” she added. She said the bad behavior of some students is un-Islamic. Umm Muhammad said she is required to stand all day without a break. “If we take a short break to eat we are accused of negligence and tardiness,” she said. Khulood, who works in a government office, said she is an Arabic language graduate. She graduated about 10 years ago and could not find any other job. “I was shocked at some employees' attitude toward workers in my position. They believe that we are maids. There is no designated place for us (like an office) and some of us have to sit in kitchens as if our jobs are not needed and serve no purpose,” she said. Hanan Saeed, a Security Supervisor, said society's attitude toward women security guards is starting to improve. She has been working in the profession for the past 24 years. “In the past some people saw security guard jobs as male-only professions, so some families prevented their women from working in this field. In addition, women who worked as security guards in the past needed only to finish intermediate school; now we have university graduates applying for the jobs,” she said. “We want to develop this profession because it is very important. We want to see employees enrolled in security courses and given all their rights, and we want to improve the attitude of society toward them,” she added. __
