Friday, May 16, 2008

On Charity

I was driving along a busy road in Khobar, heading home from a shopping excursion to buy dive gear. When I stopped at a red light, a small framed lady clad in black abaya and hijab, approached my car. My first thought was that she was begging, but that seemed to contradict the cultural norm of Saudi women not interacting with males outside the family. She came to my window and began to gesture. Through the horizontal slit that revealed her eyes, she looked up as if to signify seeking something from above, then she shook her head with an intense look of loss and despair in her eyes.

I thought about the advise I received from social workers when volunteering at the soup kitchen in Denver - never give money to beggars, because it keeps them stuck, rather than encouraging them to rise from their circumstances. I also thought about the pillars of Islam, the 3rd being charity, and that there should be help for these people.

Then the light changed green and I drove on, leaving the woman with the yearning eyes behind. Those eyes burned an image in my brain. That image still follows me. I think, the next time that I encounter a begging woman, I will open my wallet.

dlt

1 comment:

nautalus said...

in jeddah we have a problem with illegal immigrants that form specialized gangs for begging in the streets...locals used to pour everything they had in their wallets when they saw a woman with bare feets and an infant begging at traffic lights or young boys with one leg missing and stuff....we learned our lesson. give one and 10 more will suddenly be at your door...giving them money is making this a lucrative business to those using them...they oragnize themselves with individuals and groups assigned to certain locations and have shifts...they even target saudis in thoubs more than they do a man in a suit...the go for jeeps and highend cars more agressivly...they kidnap kids, emputate them and abuse them for this...some will come and say they came for umrah and got robbed and need money to travel home, others will show you papers that thier old man is sick and in need of operations he can't afford...if they are poor there are centers that help them go back home, get jobs, health care or provide food and shelter if needed. so please help us and the government get rid of this issue...do not give them money. if they look too sad for you to ignore...buy them something to eat..a good meal will do them much better than a couple of riyals that'll be forced out of thier hands later that day..