JEDDAH, 2 October 2006 — Many people have literally been fighting in downtown Balad almost every day since the beginning of Ramadan. Yesterday a young Saudi was injured in one of the fights that are the result of a new municipality regulation that has caused confusion concerning temporary Ramadan stall locations.

The new regulations have mixed the locations of the stalls used every year by regular investors who sell baleelah (chick peas) and fried liver with new women stallholders

The regulations give priority to women investors and also centralize the licensing process. The continuing confusion over the locations has caused a delay in stall operation in Balad which in turn has affected visitors coming downtown for the first time, according to a number of businessmen in the area.

Khalid Al-Sharif, the head of public relations for the municipality, said that previously issuing licenses for the stalls was the responsibility of municipality branches while this year it has been centralized in the services department in Tahliah Street in front of the Watani Stores. He explained that this year, license priority has been given to needy women — divorcees, widows and orphans. The new regulations aim at helping those who are in need.

Shafi Al-Harthi said that when licenses were issued from the Balad branch of the municipality, operations were smoother and much productive. He said he has been taking the same stall for the last 17 years and selling candies and nuts. This year, however, along with other stallholders, his name was put into a hat and those drawn were given the space.

“If I’m lucky, I might get my stall in a different location or I might end up empty-handed,” he said, adding that since he and his fellow Ramadan stall investors had been in the business for so long, the regulations formerly gave them priority for booking a location but this year it seems to be different.

He said the new regulations reflected an unprofessional decision that had caused more problems to the downtown economy. He explained that previously the Balad municipality knew the number of stall locations and the people who operated them each year and this created a constant flow of work and attracted more customers to the area. Now, when things have been centralized, no one knows anything about what’s going on downtown so they just held a draw for the locations and gave most of them to women.

“That’s why this year there is a small number of baleelah stalls and, up to now, not many people coming downtown.”

Al-Harithy said, “We are not against women trying their luck in this temporary business.” He said that the women got their licenses and sold them to illegal residents who operate the stalls for them during Ramadan. “Women get their licenses for SR500 to SR1000 depending on the type of stall and then sell their locations to illegal expatriates for a minimum of SR4,000 per location because they can’t work at the stall,” he said.

Salem Saeed, a Saudi baleelah stall operator, said that he’d been in the business for 11 years and that he had never encountered such a problem. He said that he was lucky to win a draw for a license even though previously he had the license every year. Though every investor is entitled to one license, some women have allegedly been given as many as eight. “When you see the way women dress and behave when applying for licenses, you won’t be surprised how easily they get more than one license,” he said sadly.

He observed that if the municipality wants to help needy women, it should be done in a professional way. “What is going on now is support for illegal expatriates who are making thousands from operating the stalls women rent to them,” he said.

A better way would have been to approach charities and see how many women deserve to have a license. Then the municipality could allocate stall spaces according to the number of women and offer them to investors for the highest bid and give the income from the bids to the charities. “This idea would insure the flow of visitors to downtown, cut illegal expatriates out of the picture and would help the needy women,” he said.