Like mother like daughter: "Shoes of Saudi Arabia"

Emelda is a 32 year old housemaid from Tarlac in the Philippines.

When I interviewed Datiba I wasn't able to sit down with her daughter Emelda, who works at Saja's house as a housemaid. Thankfully I was able to return and interview Emelda.

A housemaid's story: "Shoes of Saudi Arabia"

Datiba is a 58 year old housemaid from Tarlac, the Philippines.

So far in my photography series, I had only interviewed one non-Saudi, "Jane" from the Philippines. Saja, who recruited her two friends Fajer and Sara, said that Datiba, her housemaid's mother, may be interested in my project. She was in the house visiting her daughter, as she works for another family who lives close by. Datiba agreed to be a participant and we sat down to talk.

"Shoes of Saudi Arabia:" The other women that wear the abaya

I originally set out to get to know Saudi women living in Saudi Arabia and while I will continue to do so in my project, it got me thinking about whom I was excluding as participants. Every woman in the kingdom is required wear an abaya, whether they are Saudi or not. This means that expat women have to wear them too. Of course not all women choose to wear it. Some are rebels like my mom, who remember what it was like to live here in the 1980s, when you could get away with wearing loose fitting pants and shirts. In fact, she now has an entire wardrobe of flowy, drab coloured ensembles that I call her Khobar outfits. But I digress.

Coca-Cola cares about migrant workers, they really do

                                          YouTube

This video has been making the rounds among Filipino Facebook users recently and as you know, there are a lot of Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) that work in the Gulf. Most of their occupations are in the service industry as waiters and domestic help, but many also work as engineers, nurses, and IT professionals.

Watch a couple of Emirati brothers travel the world

Peetaplanet

Mohamed and Peyman Al Awadhi both host and produce Peeta Planet, a TV-web show where they travel the world and you, dear audience member, interact with them through social media. You tell them where to eat, where to go, and what to do.