The maid issue in Saudi Arabia is undoubtedly a never ending saga. After almost a period of two years, the recruitment of Filipino and Indonesian domestic workers to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may resume shortly according to Arab news. The two year ban came about due to the tensions that existed between Saudi Arabia, Manila and Jakarta over the rights of domestic workers, cooks and drivers within the ultra conservative Kingdom. Diplomatic ties between these nations were severed following the execution of an Indonesian maid Ruyati binti Sapubi, who was convicted of killing her female employer with repeated blows using a cleaver after suffering protracted abuse and being told she could not return home. Around 2010, another Indonesian maid Sumiati Salan Mustapa was severely tortured by her female employer and required hospitalization. Her case triggered off a wide spread furor throughout the Kingdom as well as across the globe.She had severe head and body injuries after being tortured repeatedly with a hot iron. Further aggression was created against the Saudi government by human rights activists after a Sri Lankan maid's ordeal made headlines throughout the world. Twenty four nails were hammered into her hands, legs and forehead by her Saudi employers after she complained of a work overload. After imposing a ban, thereby preventing the entry of Indonesian and Filipino maids into the country, the Saudi government announced that it would seek domestic workers from other African countries like Ethiopia, Kenya as well as Morrocco. However,as soon as this announcement was made the Saudi women were up in arms at the thought of having 'beautiful Moroccan maids' inside their homes. Saudi women feared that Moroccan women would seduce their husbands as they are known to engage in witchcraft and sorcery. My Saudi friend mentioned to me that they use to have a Moroccan maid some time back but fired her after finding talismans, amulets and strands of hair in her bedroom.
Also in 2010,"Saudi Arabian legal adviser Saleh bin Saad Al-Laheedan issued a fatwa, or religious edict, allowing Saudi women to work as maids, provided that they have no other recourse, are over 50 and are accompanied by a mehram, or close male relative. However, by the end of the year, only 30 Saudi nationals were reported to be working as maids."
On the flip side of things, there has also been an increase in child abuse cases carried out by maids in Saudi Arabia with the latest case being that of a four year old child whose body was decapitated by the Asian house maid. According to newspaper reports, the child's mother collapsed and was rushed to hospital after seeing the child's lifeless body in a pool of blood. Her husband was rushing to get home when he sped through a red traffic light and met up with an accident that instantly killed the driver of the other vehicle and seriously injured the other passenger.The maid on the hand tried to commit suicide after carrying out this heinous crime by drinking a bottle of clorox. However, she survived the ordeal and was hospitalized.
Hiring a maid in Saudi Arabia is an expensive affair with recruiting agencies charging between SR10 000 to SR15 000. Very often maids run away from their employers without informing them and hence bringing a new maid means paying a huge sum of money and starting the whole recruitment process from scratch. Usually maids runaway after seeing advertisements in the newspaper of other employers offering higher salaries and better working environments. According to the Saudi gazette, local families claim the increasing number of runaway maids has caused them great frustration, leading them to take on the household chores themselves. Sarah Sonbol, a mother of five has started a campaign called ' Do It Yourself' where she encourages families to do all the household chores themselves by dividing tasks amongst each family member. Her movement has already received positive feedback in the Medina region where almost thirty families are now doing the domestic chores themselves. “Do It Yourself” provides a step by step program on how to divide chores appropriately and ways to motivate household members. Sonbol’s movement not only aims to deal with the maid crisis and the high prices Saudi families pay for domestic helpers, but also to keep families active and work collectively. “Doing things ourselves worked wonders for our relationship with our children and has helped a lot with my marriage,” she said.
Whilst the media are quick to sensationalize negative stories by creating the impression that the Saudi society is a barbaric ignorant one, I on the other hand would like to relate to you a few positive, heart warming stories regarding this topic. Recently, whilst chatting to a prince over coffee, I was informed that his father had given their house maid of 25 years, SR2 million the day that she left their home and returned to her family in Eritrea. She bought a hotel and improved her family's lifestyle. Another member of the Royal family honoured his Filipino maid and nanny by building a school for Filipino kids in her name. A colleague of mine attended the function and was amazed at the manner in which the prince showered love, respect and adoration for his nanny by equating her to his own mom. She had been a part of his family from the time he was a child. A princess, who frequents the hospital quite often with her mom informed me that she had paid for her drivers's kids education. Her driver is from Egypt and so she had sent his kids to the USA to complete their tertiary studies. She even provides them with a small monthly allowance. Making headlines just a few days ago, a Filipino maid who married her employer inherited SR20 million from his estate. Her brief two year marriage to her employer certainly turned her life around from rags to riches.
So you see folks, the moral of the story is this: In every society you get the good and the bad. Whilst there are many bloggers and other individuals out there who are quick to write negatively about Saudi Arabia using any bad occurrence by a Saudi individual to taint the Saudi community and Islam in general, I can assure you that good people do exist in the Kingdom. Most of the time their stories do not make it to the media as they do not wish for the world to know about their activities. Abuse and human rights violations do not occur only in Saudi Arabia. It is a global world wide phenomenon. Signalling out one country is just not fair in my opinion.
Source:
http://www.emirates247.com/news/maid-becomes-millionaire-in-saudi-arabia-2012-10-14-1.478881
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/22/maid-held-hostage-saudi-arabia
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jul2011/saud-j06.shtml
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/04/06/205890.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/08/26/us-srilanka-maid-idUSTRE67P17420100826
http://www.emirates247.com/news/maid-from-morocco-no-thanks-say-saudi-wives-2011-09-14-1.418358
http://www.arabnews.com/saudi-arabia/runaway-maids-police-say-problem-persists
http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20121013139441
http://tdh.ch/en/countries/morocco - picture
