Manama: A bank in Saudi Arabia has stepped in to help a young woman who was humiliated in public as she was selling bird seeds to make some money to spend on her desperate family.
Sayda Majrashi, an illiterate who had never been to school, was among the many people selling seeds to visitors to the Grand Mosque in Makkah who used them to feed the pigeons.
Earlier this month, she had an argument with a young man that turned physical when she took off a shoe to threaten him in a desperate act of anger. However, he slapped her twice and, totally helpless, she sat on the marble floor in the vicinity of the mosque.
A passer-by caught the argument on camera and the 10-second clip went viral on the internet, prompting a national outcry among people shocked that a man would publicly slap a woman regardless of the reasons.
Makkah’s Emir Prince Khalid Al Faisal called for the formation of a committee to look into the case and for arresting the aggressor. He was detained within hours of the incident.
Several institutions pledged to provide assistance and care for the victim and her family.
Abdullah Al Ghamdi, the head of the Social Development Bank in Makkah, told Sayda and her siblings that they could choose any of the investment offers to start their own business and that the bank would help secure their future.
The education district said that its probe concluded that Sayda, her two sisters and one brother did not have the proper documentations to go to school as their father did not formally register them.
However, the district, in an extraordinary decision, decided to register Sayda’s two young sisters in public schools as their age permitted it while she and her brother will attend adult education courses at literacy centres. Volunteers will sit with all of them in special sessions to ensure they have the necessary domestic skills, the district said.
Sayda said that she and her brother moved from Jizan in the southern part of the country “some years ago” to Makkah “in order to earn a living.”
“We did not have any official documents since our father did not register us anywhere,” she said. “After he and our mother were divorced, he did not pay attention to us and in fact, he is now in prison in Jizan. My siblings later joined us in Makkah. My brother and I sold seeds to visitors and we were always careful not to be caught by municipal agents or the police, so we were content to make enough money to buy us food that we took back to our sisters at home.”
Home is some space generously offered by their neighbour after they were evicted from the old flat they had rented for 700 Saudi Riyals a month and which they could no longer afford.
Sayda said that although she did not know how to read or write, she was good at numbers since she needed them in her daily “business.”
“My brother Gibran has been suffering for the last two years from eye problems and he is visually impaired.”
The bank arranged for a check-up at a specialised eye hospital to help restore his eyesight, local media reported.
Sayda said she was grateful for the attention and care she and her siblings were receiving following the incident.
“It was a terrible experience. The aggressor and I had an argument over space since he wanted me to move away, which I refused to do, explaining that there was plenty of room for all. When I was slapped, I felt a terrible physical pain, but also the pain of humiliation and the pain of helplessness and shock since no-one came to my rescue. I was being hit and I was on the floor, but no-one helped me then. Now, I am s grateful to all those who have extended a generous hand. I am also grateful that women continue to hold a special status in our country. I feel that my dignity and self-esteem have been restored,” she said, quoted by Saudi daily Okaz. “I would never have gone out to the street if it had not been for the need to provide food for the family.”
One witness who sold pigeon seeds said that the aggressor was known for his rowdy behaviour.
“I saw the incident, but I did not wish to step into it because the assailant is known for attacking others easily,” he said. “He is a high-risk and nobody wanted to confront him.”
Sayda, to her credit, did.
