Saudi men urged to enter kitchen in Ramadan

Manama: A Saudi columnist has urged husbands to act gallantly and assist their wives in the kitchen, particularly during Ramadan.

Physically fit Muslim men and women are expected to observe the holy month during which they abstain from food and drink from sunrise until sunset. However, families tend to reward themselves with a feast of culinary delights throughout the evening. Families spend hours preparing the dishes.

“Now that Ramadan is almost here, the kitchen will once again become one of the most significant locations in the home,” Taghreed Al Tamimi wrote in Saudi daily Al Watan. “The action there will be much more intense and the pressure and tasks will multiply in a way that the husband will not truly appreciate. Therefore, it is about time the Saudi husband broke the ice with the kitchen and extended help to assist his wife,” she wrote in her Monday column under “The Saudi husband is the enemy of the kitchen”.

The assistance, which could be mild, will make the husband appreciate the pressure and difficulties through which his wife goes so that he can have a table loaded with palatable culinary flavours, she added.

“It is unfortunate that in some other societies, men do not have a hostile or antagonistic relation with the kitchen, while some of the husbands here do not even know how to fry an egg or even make a glass of tea.”

Taghreed said that Ramadan, expected to start on July 9, should be seen as an opportunity for men to build a new relation with the kitchen.

“This is a good chance for you husbands, so do not leave your wives battling with the dishes alone. Even if you have domestic helpers, your mere presence in the kitchen gives a positive signal to your wives that you do care about them and appreciate what they are doing. This is the least you could do towards your wives who, while fasting, spend the day in a heated kitchen while you are sleeping in air-conditioned rooms,” she wrote.

Online comments hailed the columnist for her call to husbands with many commentators highlighting the “genuine teachings of Islam that require husbands to always assist their wives and not to abuse them”.

“I would like to remind people that Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) engaged in house chores without any shame or negative feelings,” Al Harbi posted on Al Watan. “He did not feel he was a lesser man or a less able leader and his status as a family man was reinforced.”