Servant problem

Pity the poor Saudi confronting this wicked dilemma:

You need a maid and a driver, but you only have one room for servant’s quarters. What to do?

How about a dual purpose employee? After all, it's not like these are highly skilled jobs; surely it would be easy to find a male or female that could both. Oops, that isn't going to work, you can't have a male in the house with the missus unless she's chaperoned and females aren't allowed to drive because ... damn, there must be some reason. This is a difficult problem; time for some lateral thinking:

Many Saudi families these days are paying the wedding expenses of their maids and drivers, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported. Some families do this either for fear that the driver and maid might engage in a relationship that goes against Saudi culture and religion. Some families do this because there is not enough space to house both a maid and a driver.

Fair enough, wouldn't want any of those non-Saudis violating Saudi cultural or religious norms, like arranged marriage:

The rather unusual circumstances sometimes lead to a little confusion. Nura, a 20-year-old Saudi woman, was happy when her family phoned to tell her a groom was coming to visit the house. She was dreaming of family life with husband and children when the groom arrived, and she learned the groom was a neighbor’s driver asking for the maid’s hand in marriage.

Nura must have been devastated, not to mention confused. But what's a Saudi to do if the maid and driver don't hit it off. Simple:

Not all these weddings take place based on servants’ desires to get married. Sometimes there’re forced marriages.

Um Khaled told Asharq Al-Awsat that her need of a driver forced her to put pressure on her Indian driver and Indonesian maid to get married. Despite the repeated pleas from the maid and driver against her decision, Um Khaled managed in the end to make them husband and wife.

Naturally, such goings on have not gone unnoticed:

Muhammad Al-Yaeesh, a marriage official and mosque Imam, told Asharq Al-Awsat that maids and drivers should never be forced to get married, and such a marriage is invalid.

“Most cases in which maids and drivers are married are based on emotional decisions, and those fail most of the time,” Al-Yaeesh said. “Their marriages sometimes don’t solve problems but create problems instead.”

At least the authorities are aware of the situation and are taking steps to discourage or outlaw forced marriage, right? Not exactly:

Right or wrong, the marriage officials still help couples get married.

“We try to facilitate the marriage of maids and drivers based on requests from their sponsors, either through us or through their embassies,” Al-Yaeesh said.

The modern world is just so ... complicated, especially when you're determined to live in the 8th century.