FINAL school exams have started this week highlighting the preparations pupils have been making for weeks to pass their exams. A different kind of preparation has simultaneously been undertaken by a group of female students who see the exam season more as a business opportunity, than anything else. Preparing an assortment of fashion accessories at home and selling them to fellow students has become the latest trend to hit female students. Much of the year is spent making these accessories, which include head bands, Alice bands, hair clips and hand bags. Saudi Gazette investigated the root cause and impact of this new phenomenon and questioning these female students, fellow students - their ‘customers' - and school managements about it. “I have been preparing these products since the start of the school year and I then sell them at my school one or two weeks before the start of the final exams,” confessed M'shael Al-Khouli, a Saudi student studying at an intermediate government school. “I used to sell these items during the break or after the end of the exams.” The business seems to be remarkably lucrative, providing these girls with the opportunity to make a tidy set of money for personal use. Al-Khouli, for instance, remarked that she has her own ‘business' now, even though she is still young. One puzzling question is what kind of appeal these products have for their customers. “In our class, there is a student who is very creative, and used to make whatever accessories the other girls wanted,” said Reem Al-Jaseem, a Syrian student studying in a government school. She explained that it was much easier for certain girls to buy such accessories from her at school and wear them there, as some girls belong to families that frowned on such purchases, and considered them frivolous and costly. Indeed, parental restrictions play a big role in the rationale behind this phenomenon. Najat Al-Amri is a Palestinian housewife in Jeddah, and she told Saudi Gazette that she was ‘shocked' when her daughter came home one day with henna designs on her hands, as she had never allowed her daughter to wear any accessories to school. Her husband also cut his daughter's allowance for a week as ‘punishment', because she had paid twice as much for the design than the market price. School managements want to encourage such creativity, however, but stress the need to restrict such activity and replace it with a more efficient and suitable alternative. “Selling handmade products inside the school premises is considered as unacceptable activity,” said Mariam Al-Harthi, an official of secondary government schools. “School is for studying and not for business,” she added. One of her suggestions is for government schools to cooperate with the Ministry of Education to arrange for an annual bazaar, so that these students can promote their merchandise in an established manner. In an attempt to institutionalize this phenomenon, a teenaged Saudi girl, Shadn B'shara has launched a Web site called “Shodi Bazaars” to promote the handmade products these female school and college students make and sell. Saudi Gazette met Abdullah Al-Awaji, the coordinator of the Web site to ask him about his views. “I think this phenomenon is a negative one, as selling products in school - whether private or public - is just not allowed,” he stated. “The idea of creating and selling handmade products is not wrong but there should be a designated time and place for it.”
