Riyadh, October 05: The first Saudi woman petition writer has stormed into a profession that has been monopolized by men for decades due to the social and religious structure of Saudi society and she is successfully competing with men at the gates of courts, Civil Affairs, Passports and other administrations.
Hissah Al-Za’aqi, who is well-known as Umm Rashed, is a primary school certificate holder and uses a small area just outside the western gate of the Civil Affairs building in Riyadh as an office.
She has been working in this profession for more than four months and says she has not faced any hardships, Al-Watan Arabic daily reported.
Umm Rashed said the public have accepted her presence and treat her normally. “A citizen comes and asks for the service he wants, so I fill the appropriate form and place it in a file. He pays according to his generosity. Writing a petition, filling a form and placing it in a file earn me no more than SR5 to SR10,” she said.
Apart from this, petition writers answer queries by citizens depending on the kind of transaction.
She said that, at first, she felt that the male petition writers outside the Civil Affairs building were irked by her presence.
She said she decided to do this kind of work so as to be self-reliant and earn a living to provide for herself and her children. She added that she has not faced any objection from any department thus far.
Umm Rashed works from 7 A.M. and until 11 A.M. and her income differs from one day to another. She said her income during the first three days of the week is usually higher than during the rest of the week.
–Agencies–