Al-Yaum

In a recent visit to the central market in Dammam, I saw some women walking among the men in the market begging. These women, who were not badly dressed and did not look as if they were in need of help, were begging in both the vegetable and fish sections of the market.

The strange thing was that the Asian workers who were selling fish gave them money as a charity or provided them some of the fish that the Saudi customers did not buy. It was strange to see women dressed as Saudis receiving charity from average workers.

What happened in the fish market was also repeated in the vegetable market, with a slight change which was that those women just begged from Saudi shoppers.

It is not my right to demand the arrest of those women, and I’m not interested in targeting the livelihood of others, because they may really be in need of help. After all, houses are full of secrets and it is not necessary that people appear in worn out clothes just to prove that they are needy.

The government has already warned us about providing help to those who beg whether they are men or women, young or old, citizens or expats.

We have all heard stories of gangs specialized in the art of begging, and it is possible that the women in the central market were working with one of those gangs.

It is up to the concerned authorities to deal with these matters, and I hope that they will do so as soon as possible, due to the offense to the homeland and to Saudi society and to threats that we may not be aware of.

Twitter: @sawalief