Economic Problems

Some residents decided to stay in the Rubats, as they did not want their sons to bear the financial burden of their upkeep, nor did they want their daughters’ marriages to be stressed due to the upkeep of their mothers. Zara, an older woman from Eritrea, was asked about her children. At first, Zara was reluctant to speak of her children, but then said, “My son does not have enough money to support me, he just has enough money to support his own family and I am comfortable in the Rubat.”

Most children who lived in Rubats with women had no income because they were too young or were studying. The children may have lived with their mother for a number of reasons, for example, due to their father’s death, parental separation or poverty. All these reasons created additional financial burdens on the mothers, who needed to find ways to provide for their children.

5.2.4 Economic Problems

For the vast majority, economic problems are most frequently associated with people lacking money. Although limited financial resources had a significant impact on women, many other physical and social issues contributed to women’s economic woes. Women’s daily lives were affected by the fact that the respondents did not have enough financial support to meet their needs. Sources of support and economic issues were mentioned in the fourth chapter.

Jeddah’s high rent prices was another factor which led women to move into

Figure 5.4 Distribution of residents by the location of relatives. Percentages were rounded up to the next whole number

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and stay in the Rubats. The lack of a male breadwinner made it difficult to meet the financial requirements for renting a house, evidence that supported a previous study which confirmed that 44% of divorced women in Saudi had difficulties in paying their annual rent (Al-freeh, 2006).

Traditionally, in Saudi culture, fathers help their children financially until they get a job, even after the age of 18. Evidence from this study indicates that these women’s economic difficulties were connected to the fact that they supported their children without their ex-husbands’ financial support. These financial issues made independent leasing of rented property more difficult for residents. For example, Masuda, a divorcee, supported her two adult sons without aid.

“I left my village and I have lived in Jeddah in the Rubat located in the historical area for more than 5 years, with my daughter who is 25 and is studying at university, while I work in the textile industry. I rent an apartment for my sons, in a male only apartment block, because I cannot live here with them. They are aged 26 and 24. I am worried about my sons because we used to live in the country and now they are living in the city and the people there are different. I pay all of the money I get from the social security for their rent; I clean their apartment and visit once a week.”

Masuda added that:

“Unfortunately my sons cannot visit me here, so I want to find a sponsor who would support me and help me to get a flat with two rooms, at approximately 1000 Riyals. I am worried about my sons spending time with the men from the city as they do not have experience of mixing with them.”

One might wonder, what is the ex-husbands’ role for these ‘poor women’? Ex-husbands of Rubat residents are either poor themselves or angry at their ex-wives for

‘causing’ the divorce or in some cases, a combination of both. Huda said,

I need my ex-husband to provide paperwork to prove that I have taken responsibility for our two children, in order to get more support from the government, but he does not want to admit this and is suffering from

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mental illness in the form of depression and no one can force him to complete this paperwork, or to recognize that he does not pay maintenance for his children.

Poor ex-husbands were not in a position to support their children even if they wanted to do so. In the case of angry husbands, the law requires them to support their children (Romaih, 2009) but in Saudi Arabia, this particular law has not really been enforced due to the absence of a proper collection procedure and the law being unduly discriminatory against women in general—which is why many fathers do not pay maintenance payments for their children after divorce (Al-Omari, 2009).

Most of the Rubat residents depended on charity from their neighbours or rich people and this was evident in the historical area (A1 and A2), where access to aid from others reached the proportion of 86.3%, while the proportion of residents who were employed work outside the Rubat, for example in service, or as a cleaner, reached 12.8%. Thus, charity played an important role in supporting the Rubat residents. 86% of residents relied upon charitable donations, in contrast to the 0.9%

who relied upon relatives for support. Only 32.5% received social security, which was available only to Saudi national residents; however, this money was not a large amount, especially for those who had children.

Huda, a divorced woman in her fifties with a secondary school education, worked in a school as a cleaner and was a mother of two children, Mohammed (aged 14) and Khalid (aged 12). She suffered from depression, for which she took medication, but also suffered from other psychological problems, due to a lump in her breast. She worried about her health and had to wait a month to see a doctor. She commented:

"I have lived in the Rubat for more than 5 years despite having parents and sisters and receiving 850 riyals per month (£145.52) in Social Security, but all that is not enough to meet the needs of my children. The government will not provide me with any additional support without the documents and I don’t know how to get them as my ex-husband will not co-operate."

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According to some interviewees, the men declined to take financial responsibility for their children, so the divorced women tried to get social security support for their children. This was often not possible: divorced women had to satisfy the Social Security Department's (SSD) conditions that stress the necessity for official documentation from the court as proof that the children have no sponsor or provider (Fadaak, 2011).

In many cases, the women took legal court action to obtain the document which in turn required the children’s father to attend court. As explained by interviewees, those men in general did not attend; paperwork was incomplete and therefore the divorced women were ineligible for SSD. The percentage of divorced women who suffer nationally from this problem stands at 81% (Al-Freeh, 2006).