B L A N K

The future not only scares me, it terrifies me to my very core. Being a non-arab—nay, non-saudi—in Saudi Arabia gives rise to a lot of difficulties that make my future here seem bleak. Don’t get me wrong. I love this country. My siblings were born and raised here, I was raised here, the man who raised me is from here, my woman who gave birth to me created a living from here. Naturally, I would call ‘here’ my home. 

Everything used to run smoothly. There were job opportunities for me, possible doors that lead to love, sustainable salaries, making ‘here’ home for my future kids. Now I say this in the past tense due to the new laws that have recently been passed. These new rules protect the Saudis and offer them great benefits like no other, which I must say, support profoundly. I am not against this.

What does pain is that in order to ensure these benefits, some must be taken away from ‘us’, the foreigners and the aliens. Marriage is harder, since the new law, in short, states that there must be an age gap in which my husband (if I had fallen for a Saudi), would be 40 years old. Jobs are taken from us and are given to citizens (which I understand), I just hoped that a percentage of non-arabs would remain. Salaries are deducted and taxes for staying here will be taken. Staying here comes with a fee. Or even take the scenario where I were to marry a foreigner—since marriage to a man of this country is nearly impossible—they would eventually be asked to leave, and I, being the wife and the mother of our children, will have to move with him to wherever offers a job and a considerable salary.

These are some of the examples of how my future, in the country I call home, changed within a mere couple of days.

I do, however, would like to say that I have faith in everything that is happening. Maybe it’s for the best, who knows? There is wisdom behind all this.