While browsing the web, yesterday, I viewed the Arab Times online site and came across several news articles about the rape and abuse of maids in Kuwait. I was surprised at the cluster of cases so I searched the web for more information and was nearly knocked off my chair when I realized the enormous extent of the huge numbers of foreign maids suffering abuse at the hands of their Middle East "sponsors". To use the term "maid" is a misnomer - these women (and boys) are nothing more than modern day SLAVES. Slaves to be abused, raped, tortured, maimed, and killed.
Many of these maids come into the Middle East (particularly Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Lebanon) from Indonesia, the Phillipines, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia - smaller numbers come from India and Bangladesh. Saudi Arabia has the largest number of these imported domestics estimated at 200,000 in 2004. These maids are seen as inferiors to their Middle Eastern masters and many countries do not even recognize them as being covered by labor laws - including minimum wage:
"The plight of domestic workers in Lebanon rose to the spotlight during the summer of 2006, when Israel launched a thirty-four-day military offensive on Lebanon. In Arabic, the term "Abed" is used to denote a "black" person or "slave" and the word is sometimes heard in reference to Africans or Sri Lankans. Non-Arab Afro-Asian migrants in Lebanon are physically looked upon as inferior due to their positions as servants. These workers remain excluded under Article 6 of Lebanese labour laws and are often victims of abuse by both employers and agencies." LINK
The vast majority of these women are seeking an opportunity to earn money and send remittances back to their families -
".......Phillipines, where the economy relies heavily on remittances from nearly eight million Filipinos working overseas. Of that eight million, about 73,000 work in Kuwait. Some 60,000 are women employed mainly as maids and earning less than $200 a month on average, labor groups say.
Some of these woman do quickly realize the danger and manage to escape in a few days. But, many of the remaining "servants" are left in a living nightmare.
Here are some of the sickening stories of abuse, etc that I came across with a quick net search:
The shame of modern day slavery is not exclusive to the muslim countries as it appears that muslims are bringing their maid slavery behaviors into "multicultural" Western countries - a few examples:
Islam - aint it great?
Posted by: Bob Smith | May 14, 2009 at 10:31 AM
fuck em who cares.... i have a great life
Posted by: swine | May 14, 2009 at 09:28 PM
I spent three years working in Kuwait and can attest that this is just the tip of the iceburg. Teeenaged boys bring their friends over to gang rape their maids - and there are usually more than one, sometimes each child having their own personal slave. Their slaves are powerless, having eveen their passports taken from them. I tutored in Kuwaiti homes where I was so sickened at the treatment at I saw that I refused future work even at the $100USD/HR prices Kuwaitis were willing to pay. They will even beat their maids in public places, like malls, and no one lifts a finger to help - it's common. Pregnant maids are drowned or hanged - usually pregnant from a teeneages boy in the house or the father. Kuwaitisd get away with murder and think nothing more of it than stepping on a bug. I could on forever about the Kuwaitis and the their maids. I have absolutely no respect for any Kuwaiti - none. They are dispicable people in the worst kind of culture. Their government allows Kauaitis to murder and rape, and no Kuwaiti is ever prosecuted. They are the worst people I have ever seen in my 25 years of traveling the world. If you are a Kuwaiti man reading this, I hope someone kidnaps your sorry ass out into the desert and rapes you for days and leaves you to die. You deserve it because you have done some of the things described above and you are a duisgusting animal going to Hell.
Posted by: Mary | May 14, 2009 at 09:31 PM
I was once in the Indonesian embassy in Riyadh and I heard myself several Indonesian women complained that they were forced to work hard without having proper food and rest. I asked the embassy staff about it and he said that such cases were plenty. Judging from his tone, seemed like the embassy received such complain on daily basis. And it was (and is) just the tip of the iceberg, I believe. So far, I haven't heard any Saudian gets convicted for his crime against the housemaids for decades.
Posted by: item | May 15, 2009 at 03:40 AM
We are supposed to be living in modern(civilised) times but reading all this proves that there are some races that are still in prehistoric and barbaric times. Why dosn't the united nations take up and take on these monsters.
Posted by: goldie | May 22, 2009 at 03:05 AM
At our Christian church, I’d heard horror stories every now and then from some of our members who had experienced living in Hong Kong (and other parts of the world like the Middle East) as maids, nannies, caregivers, domestic helpers, cleaners or foreign overseas workers. Most had worked between 16 to 18 hours daily, six days a week. Some had worked 7 days without a break. I called them “Slaves”. Somehow, their stories had to be revealed. But how? It could sound like a deplorably pitiful tale of deep distress, grief and misfortune. But somehow, someone did (albeit an affront to most Filipinos worldwide) — in Hong Kong. An HK columnist wrote an article in one HK magazine and referred to the Philippines as a “Nation of Servants”. Enough was enough.
I'd researched stories about their plight and wrote a 616-page novel entitled "Slaves, Spooks & The Praying Mantis"
I sought the help of our church members for their stories. However, some were quite reluctant to talk and some would rather let ‘sleeping dogs lie’. But after several discussions,they’d agreed to share their stories, provided (and I promised) that only first names would appear under ‘Acknowledgements’. I had interviewed 11 ex-HK slaves & 1 ex-Macau slave and their poignantly courageous tales were interspersed within the book. It’s a story within a story. I had taken the common denominators of their sob stories and put them in a narrative way into a fictional novel.
The book is available from reputable online retailers and book dealers worldwide. Check the listings at http://www.abrill.com/
For more info, link to http://www.abrill.com/ or http://blog.abrill.com/
Posted by: Alex | September 24, 2009 at 09:27 AM
I am from saudi arabia
i want to say if anyone have any problem he can go to court and the criminal will get punnished.
but now i see on some media they simply transfer to an arab yellow pages.
if there are some trash people it does not mean we all like that.
Posted by: abedo | September 06, 2010 at 11:35 PM
I have to point the finger at some of the "People of Colour" activists who deny that non-Whites can be racist against other non-Whites. I once pointed out on a POC site that Asian maids in the Middle East were being raped and beaten by their employers. However, the moderator on the site claimed that the source from which I got that information was a 'fake.' No, it's always the White Devil to blame.
Posted by: Emilia | December 18, 2010 at 08:48 PM
The religion of Peace....I mean pedophila strikes again!
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I can not stop reading this. And 'so fresh, so full of information,
I do not know. I'm glad that people actually write the smart way to
show the different sides of him.
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