With Ramadan only a month away, many Saudi and expatriate housewives are frantically searching for a professional maid to help them with the extra housework and with preparing special meals for the family during the Holy Month. Finding a maid one or two months before Ramadan has become more difficult in the last few years, because both housemaids and housewives have their own requirements. “We cannot work in a house where we will not feel comfortable,” said Lia Hernan, an Indonesian maid. She added, “When we ask for certain things, the housewife always accepts all of our demands, but after we arrive at the house, everything changes.” Hernan explained her requirements for the month of Ramadan saying that “In Ramadan, every family has a certain system and customs and we may not be comfortable with the way they do things. For example, I once worked for a family that ate only beans at Iftar (breakfast) every day. This was very strange to me and I could not continue working there.” According to Hernan, wearing a headscarf from morning till evening is also a problem for maids. “When I worked for a Saudi family, they forced me to wear a headscarf 24 hours a day which is not acceptable at all, especially in Ramadan. I work in the kitchen for long hours and this Ramadan the summer will be very hot,” she explained. Asking for an increase in salary is considered normal in Ramadan. “After all, the price of everything is going up, and people accept that, so why shouldn't housemaids ask for more, especially as during Ramadan, we work overtime,” Hernan added. Housewives from different nationalities told Saudi Gazette about what they expected from maids during the month of Ramadan. “This Ramadan will come in the summer, that is why I am looking for a maid who can spend the summer vacation with me and who is able to work for long hours every day,” said Mesbah Al-Seikh, a Saudi teacher who has five children. “Saudi society is built upon strong family relations, and this is why we visit each other during the year. These visits increase in Ramadan. During the Holy Month we need to prepare special food, as well as sweets,” added Al-Sheikh. “I need a maid who can work for long hours in the kitchen, and keep silent without becoming angry or complaining.” Another Saudi housewife said that she needs a housemaid who sleeps during the day and is awake at night. “My family prefers to eat the main dish at Al-Sahour (dawn) rather than at Iftar which is why I need a maid to be awake in the night and sleep in the day,” said Nouf Al-Ahmari, a Saudi housewife. Another reason for the difficulty of finding a maid one month before Ramadan is the high fees charged by recruitment offices. “Hiring a housemaid is a commercial deal, which is why most maids are demanding higher salaries since they know that the recruitment agencies in their countries have increased their fees,” said Said Ali Al-Ghamdi, owner of a recruitment office, and member of the Recruitment Offices Commission at the Jeddah Chamber for Commerce and Industry. Al-Ghamdi added that “the recruitment fees for housemaids have been affected by the increase in the cost of air tickets. In the past, a round trip ticket to Indonesia was SR1700, but now the same ticket costs SR 3100. Apart from that, the fees of Indonesian brokers which were $50 in the past, have now been increased to $500”. Al-Ghamdi advised the Ministry of Labor to establish specialized companies to bring housemaids to the Kingdom, which will put an end to the dramatic increases in the fees of recruitment offices. According to Al-Ghamdi, the main reason that maids leave their employers is the bad treatment that they receive which plays an important role in increasing the number of illegal maids. “Bad treatment is the main reason why housemaids run away and search for another job,” he said. “I receive a large number of maids who complain of the treatment that they received in their employers' homes, in addition to not receiving their salaries,” he added.
