One woman's experiences in Saudi Arabia

One woman’s experiences in Saudi Arabia
Margie comes from a middle class family in the Philippines. Like her two other sisters, she became a flight attendant. When she applied for the job in an airline based in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, she had to compete in a field of 50 ladies from 32 countries.
Only in her 20s when she made the grade in the late 70s, she plunged into the heady world of international travel. She would soon discover in training what it was like for women to live in Saudi Arabia. First of all, she had to wear the veil, the abaya, as an article of modesty in public or be subject to outright assault. She was shocked to discover what it was like to be a woman in the Kingdom. To her it meant, "Freedom is a stranger there."
"Moudifa," the title of the book Margie wrote means air hostess, that is how they are called in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia where she worked for almost 10 years. But they were looked down upon and considered as "whores."
It is a small book, a very quick read. "That is my intention," Margarita Marquis states. "Overseas foreign workers from the Philippines planning to work in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi Arabia, can go through this book even as they sit in the lounge waiting to depart. Then they are better prepared to deal with realities over there." The book is available at Central Books at 927 Phoenix Bldg., Quezon Avenue corner Roosevelt Avenue or call 372 3550 Loc. 31 and at Goodwill Bookstore in Glorietta.
In teh book, the author also discusses the sharia, or Muslim laws, and the mutawa or religious police, who enforce the sharia. "People from the Philippines keep on looking for jobs in the Kingdom and they get jailed, or worse, beheaded, because they don’t know much about the sharia and the mutawa who watches out for all infractions.
In the book "Moudifa! Culture Shock from the Top," Marge described a broad range of experiences resulting from her career as an air hostess in the Kingdom. Hers is a truthful retelling of a decade of life and love, hurts and disappointments, but Marquis in this book relinquishes any feelings of bitterness.
"I risked speaking out because I want the Filipino people not to go blindly into places and even lose their lives and honor, simply because they did not know better. This is why I wrote "Moudifa." This book is for them," she says