Job Discussion Forums

[musaafira]

Are there any single women here working in Makkah or Madinah? Can you talk about your experience/life there? Or if anyone knows of such people and their experiences, please post here. I read a lot of threads about Jeddah and Riyaadh and so on, but not these cities, probably because non-Muslims are restricted there.

In any case, please do share.

Thanks

[2buckets]

Assuming you are a Muslim woman, life would not be much different for you than in other SA cities, maybe a little more sensitive to conservative dress.

[musaafira]

thanks for the reply,

it would be nice to hear from any people who worked there before,

please do post here.

thanks

[ksam]

A single female would be required to bring a male relative (father, brother) with her as a condition of her employment contract. From my knowledge, this applies solely to the cities of Makkah and Madinah, and not other Saudi citites.

[scot47]

"Mahram" is required throughout KSA for female employees.

[veiledsentiments]

[inKIMtax]

I am a single, non-muslim woman and I've just been hired to teach in Medinah. I have been researching and networking for several days now but still don't have enough info so I would also like to hear back from anyone who knows anything about someone like me living in Medinah.

One recruiter told me that I wouldn't be allowed to go anywhere without a male escort. He told me that shopping, restaurants, salons, grocery stores would all be off limits because I'm not a muslim.

BUT... I have spoken with several credible sources now who have both told me that Medinah is a beautiful, friendly city filled with lots of different people and that I will be able to get around just fine.

I am still waiting on all my networking sources but I'm feeling better about moving there now. The weird thing is that there isn't a lot of stuff on the Internet about non-muslim, single females living there.

[veiledsentiments]

[nomad soul]

I totally agree with VS about withdrawing from this particular job offer and find it odd that you'd accepted the job despite the bleak living situation painted by the recruiter. Your life will be ultra restricted and subsequently, a huge strain on your mental health which will likely affect your teaching as well.

Anyway, whatever your choice, good luck.

[jaffa]

Whatever you do, DO NOT go there. I was posted in Medinah once and if you are not a believer (which I am certainly not - I left after 2 days) you are restricted to certain areas for non-Muslims. Ie. pretty much nowhere. As a female you'll be royally screwed. As others have said, it's bad enough in the rest of KSA for women, so there I dread to think what you would be able to do.

As for people who say the people are super-friendly, blah blah, they'll be friendly if you convert to the cult, but otherwise they'll be even more annoyed than elsewhere in the country that an 'infidel' is in their midst.

Medinah beautiful? Hehe Only if you are into black and dead volcanoes. Other than that it looks like any other Saudi city.

[Wilsonthefarmer]

[EnglishDoYouSpeakIt]

[veiledsentiments]

Would you care to translate that? Why are you sorry?

VS

[sicklyman]

[trapezius]

Your iqama, it mentions your religion.