Saudi women object to import of Moroccan maids as too beautiful

Source :

http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/311506#ixzz1XyPzHYSg

Women in Saudi Arabia have innundated the governmentwith complaints over plans to import Moroccan women as housemaids. Thereason: Moroccan women are just too beautiful and may lure the Saudihusbands away.

Itis a relatively rare event when the voices of Saudi women are heard inprotest. This year there have been notable exceptions as some womenprotested for the right to drive, whilst others demanded the right to vote.Now they have another common cause as they put their foot down againstplans to bring female domestic maids from Morocco into the Kingdom.According to Emirates 24 the Shura Council was

“deluged by demands from Saudi women”

to suspend the plans. Considering that Saudi households have beendesperate for new maids since the government issued a ban effectivefrom Aug. 1 on any new domestic workers from Indonesia and thePhilippines, the refusal to accept Moroccan workers at first appearsodd. However it turns out that Moroccan women are considered too beautiful and may lure the Saudi husbands away from their wives. Emirates 247 says some of the Saudi complaints were

“Moroccan women are so attractive that their husbands could easily fall for them.”

Other stated concerns were

“Moroccans are good at magic and sorcery and that this could enable them to lure their husbands.”

In a country where adultery is punishable by stoning to death, Saudi women are exhibiting signs of great insecurity.The Saudi government promised the people that it would recruit moreworkers from different countries to make up for the loss of Indonesiansand Filipinos. It plans to extend its recruitment drive to Ethiopia,Mali, Nepal, Kenya and Eritrea. Last week Arab News reportedthat Saudi citizens would be given visas to give to bring housemaidsfrom Morocco, as there is no recruitment bureaus established there asyet. The ban on maids from Indonesia and the Philippines hit Saudihouseholds hard, causing many to resort to hiring illegal maids overRamadan. The Saudis are reliant on foreign workers to perform theirhousehold tasks for them and very few Saudi women will work in suchmenial positions despite high unemployment, as they would be lookeddown on by other Saudis. The ban came into effect following the two countries attempts tointroduce regulations for the work conditions of their nationals. Trade Arabia saidboth countries demanded better working conditions for their employees.Saudi walked away from the negotiations abruptly and decided to lookfor domestic employees from countries not as concerned about imposingregulations to protect their workers. It also became clear that lowerrates of pay could be offered to other nationals.Saudi Arabia is still smarting over criticisms of the beheading of Indonesian maid RoyatiSabotti in June, which came to international attention. Since then boththe Indonesian and Sri Lankan governments have intervened to arrangepayments of blood money to free housemaids from their countries thatwere facing the death penalty by execution.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/311506#ixzz1XyPzHYSg

Saudi woman jailed for 'maid abuse' From Al-Jazeera January 2011 A Saudi court has sentenced a woman to three years in prison for stabbing, beating an

Saudi woman jailed for 'maid abuse'

From Al-Jazeera

January 2011

A Saudi court has sentenced a woman to three years in prison for stabbing, beating and burning her Indonesian housemaid.

The woman, who has not been named, was sentenced under a newly-enacted anti-human trafficking royal decree, Saudi newspapers reported on Monday.

She had been accused of beating 23-year-old Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa in November, and had allegedly left Sumiati with several broken bones, internal bleeding and severe bruising.

She was also alleged to have placed a hot iron to Sumiati's head and stabbing and slashing her with scissors.

Sumiati appeared in court last week to show the judge the marks of her wounds. She underwent surgery in November, but Diddi Wahyudi, an Indonesian consulate official in Jeddah, said she will need a further operation.

A lawyer for the Indonesian consulate, Abdulrahman al-Muhamadi, has said he will appeal the ruling and press for a tougher punishment, the Saudi newspaper al-Watan reported.

But Sumiati's Saudi employer insisted on Sunday that she was innocent and had nothing to do with the wounds. She has denied the charges against her and has said she will appeal against the sentencing.

International outcry

Sumiati's case sparked an international outcry and outraged rights groups and labour activists after she was admitted to hospital last year.

Saudi Arabia's labour ministry said it was sorry about the case, but called it an isolated incident.

Amnesty International, the London-based human-rights watchdog, has said the case could be just "the tip of the iceberg" concerning the "systematic abuse" of Asian women working as domestic servants in the Gulf region.

Gulf states "have to take steps to put an end to this horrific treatment of migrant domestic workers, by immediately removing the legal climate of impunity that allows employers to exploit, enslave, abuse, assault and injure their domestic workers with virtual impunity" Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's director for the Middle East and North Africa, said when the allegations surfaced.

More than 80,000 Indonesian domestic workers flock to Saudi Arabia every year. Rights groups say they, and other migrant workers, at times face slavery-like conditions and sexual abuse.

The New York-based group Human Rights Watch has also urged Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait to do more to protect domestic workers in their countries, saying a string of allegations point to a "broader pattern of abuse".

'

From Al-Jazeera

January 2011

A Saudi court has sentenced a woman to three years in prison for stabbing, beating and burning her Indonesian housemaid.

The woman, who has not been named, was sentenced under a newly-enacted anti-human trafficking royal decree, Saudi newspapers reported on Monday.

She had been accused of beating 23-year-old Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa in November, and had allegedly left Sumiati with several broken bones, internal bleeding and severe bruising.

She was also alleged to have placed a hot iron to Sumiati's head and stabbing and slashing her with scissors.

Sumiati appeared in court last week to show the judge the marks of her wounds. She underwent surgery in November, but Diddi Wahyudi, an Indonesian consulate official in Jeddah, said she will need a further operation.

A lawyer for the Indonesian consulate, Abdulrahman al-Muhamadi, has said he will appeal the ruling and press for a tougher punishment, the Saudi newspaper al-Watan reported.

But Sumiati's Saudi employer insisted on Sunday that she was innocent and had nothing to do with the wounds. She has denied the charges against her and has said she will appeal against the sentencing.

International outcry

Sumiati's case sparked an international outcry and outraged rights groups and labour activists after she was admitted to hospital last year.

Saudi Arabia's labour ministry said it was sorry about the case, but called it an isolated incident.

Amnesty International, the London-based human-rights watchdog, has said the case could be just "the tip of the iceberg" concerning the "systematic abuse" of Asian women working as domestic servants in the Gulf region.

Gulf states "have to take steps to put an end to this horrific treatment of migrant domestic workers, by immediately removing the legal climate of impunity that allows employers to exploit, enslave, abuse, assault and injure their domestic workers with virtual impunity" Malcolm Smart, Amnesty's director for the Middle East and North Africa, said when the allegations surfaced.

More than 80,000 Indonesian domestic workers flock to Saudi Arabia every year. Rights groups say they, and other migrant workers, at times face slavery-like conditions and sexual abuse.

The New York-based group Human Rights Watch has also urged Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait to do more to protect domestic workers in their countries, saying a string of allegations point to a "broader pattern of abuse".

Luxury, horror lurk in Gadhafi family compound - maid tortured

Luxury, horror lurk in Gadhafi family compound

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Moammar Gadhafi told his people he lived modestly during his nearly 42-year rule over Libya, often sleeping in a Bedouin tent.

Even if that was true for the leader, it certainly wasn't for his sons.

At a seaside compound in western Tripoli, the Gadhafi boys enjoyed a decadent lifestyle that his people could only dream about, while perpetrating unspeakable horrors on the staff that served their every whim.

CNN visited the seaside homes Sunday .




The first house we entered was apparently the "party" beach condo with an oversized door that led into sleek, modern, black-and-white rooms. It had been ransacked by the rebels, but still it was spectacular, with panoramic ocean views and plenty of evidence of the hedonism for which Hannibal Gadhafi -- one of Moammar Gadhafi's sons -- is famous.

.................


The bedroom held a circular bed, while the in-suite bathroom was complete with sunken Jacuzzi tub lined with plastic white flowers. Outside, a hot tub, a bar and a barbecue area adjoined the private beach.

...............


As we were about to leave, one of the staff told us there was a nanny who worked for Hannibal Gadhafi who might speak to us. He said she'd been burnt by Hannibal's wife, Aline.

I thought he meant perhaps a cigarette stubbed out on her arm. Nothing prepared me for the moment I walked into the room to see Shweyga Mullah.



At first I thought she was wearing a hat and something over her face. Then the awful realization dawned that her entire scalp and face were covered in red wounds and scabs, a mosaic of injuries that rendered her face into a grotesque patchwork.

Even though the burns were inflicted three months ago, she was clearly still in considerable pain. But she told us her story calmly.



She'd been the nanny to Hannibal's little son and daughter.

The 30-year-old came to Libya from her native Ethiopia a year ago. At first things seemed OK, but then six months into her employment she said she was burned by Aline.

Aline Skaf

Three months later the same thing happened again, this time much more seriously.

In soft tones, she explained how Aline lost her temper when her daughter wouldn't stop crying and Mullah refused to beat the child.

"She took me to a bathroom. She tied my hands behind my back, and tied my feet. She taped my mouth, and she started pouring the boiling water on my head like this," she said, imitating the vessel of scalding hot water being poured over her head.

She peeled back the garment draped carefully over her body. Her chest, torso and legs are all mottled with scars -- some old, some still red, raw and weeping. As she spoke, clear liquid oozed from one nasty open wound on her head.

After one attack, "There were maggots coming out of my head, because she had hidden me, and no one had seen me," Mullah said.

Eventually, a guard found her and took her to a hospital, where she received some treatment.

But when Aline Gadhafi found out about the kind actions of her co-worker, he was threatened with imprisonment, if he dared to help her again.

"When she did all this to me, for three days, she wouldn't let me sleep," Mullah said. "I stood outside in the cold, with no food. She would say to staff, 'If anyone gives her food, I'll do the same to you.' I had no water -- nothing."

Her colleague, a man from Bangladesh who didn't want to give his name, says he was also regularly beaten and slashed with knives. He corroborated Mullah's account and says the family's dogs were treated considerably better than the staff.

Mullah was forced to watch as the dogs ate and she was left to go hungry, he said.

It seems to sum up how the workers at the beachside complex were viewed by the Gadhafi family.

"I worked a whole year they didn't give me one penny," Mullah said. "Now I want to go to the hospital. I have no money. I have nothing."

She starts sobbing gently -- an utterly pitiful scene.



Original CNN news article


http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/28/libya.gadhafi.nanny/index.html?iref=NS1


Facebook page

Justice for Shweyga Mullah tortured and enslaved by Aline Gaddafi Skaf