Abdul Wahab Aal Mijthal, a member of the Shoura Council, has urged the Ministry of Labor to allow Saudi women to recruit drivers and housemaids without conditions or restrictions. The call has come at a time when the ministry has said that revised regulations governing the recruitment of domestic workers will be issued soon. The ministry's current regulations state that any woman applying to recruit household help should be a widow or a divorcee with children. The same regulations allow a married man to recruit domestic workers, but he must have children and his wife should be a working woman or a student. Regulations also allow a man to recruit a driver, but the man's wife must be a working woman and have children in school, Al-Hayat Arabic daily reported, Thursday. Aal Mijthal said the ministry's law deprives women of their rights as citizens to recruit domestic workers by themselves and said that the regulations were “provocative”. He said: “Everyone asks why the ministry deprives women of this right at a time when they are allowed to buy cars and houses in their names. I want to know the official at the ministry who gave this ruling and bestowed on himself the right of denying women a right permitted by Allah.” He added that some of these women are earning their own living and thus can cover the recruitment fees and pay the drivers and maids their salaries. He said that he will submit a proposal to the Shoura Council to abolish this unfair law in order to alleviate the suffering of these women who have been deprived of their rights. The ministry's spokesman said under normal circumstances women are not allowed to recruit drivers or maids with the exception of widows and divorcees and those who have special circumstances. Regarding the case of women abandoned by their husbands without being divorced, the spokesman said such women are considered to have special circumstances and thus they are eligible to recruit housemaids and drivers. In the case of a husband whose salary is less than the amount fixed by the ministry but whose wife's salary meets the ministry's requirements, he said the couple – wife and husband – have the right to apply for a work visa in the name of the husband, but only after the wife produces an official document indicating her salary. The spokesman said the ministry is in the process of issuing new regulations which will tackle several shortcomings in the present law.
