From CDHR
September 11, 2007
The Plight of Expatriate Maids Continues
By Ali Alyami
Despite protests by groups like The Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and, more importantly, by courageous Saudi journalists, barbaric treatment of poverty stricken and defenseless Asian women maids continues unabated in Saudi homes and royal palaces. This is due to a range of demeaning, primitive and ungodly factors. The victims are mostly women and since women in Saudi Arabia are discriminated against by the Saudi political, judicial, religious, social, economic and educational institutions, torturing, killing and raping women are not considered crimes of the highest order. This is particularly true if they are poor and defenseless expatriates Asians.
Recently, a son of an employer (master) bludgeoned four Indonesian maids until two of them died and the other two torture victims were treated and then taken to a police interrogation center to find out whether their employer’s vicious crime is justified. .The unfortunate four maids were accused of practicing magic, which under the Saudi mixture of arbitrary judicial and government laws are considered un-Islamic. Even though many of the Asian maids are Muslims, they are frowned upon because they are more open minded, tolerant and accepting of non-Muslims than the Saudi religious extremists approve of.
The disheartening aspect of these real and continuing abuses and exploitations of the Asian maids and expatriates in general are well known to the governments of their native countries, the international community, especially the US Embassy and its consulates in Saudi Arabia, and no one seems to have the moral courage to publicly condemn the counting brutality against innocent people whose crime is to work 17 to 18 hours a day seven days a week to earn meager income to feed their starving families back in their home lands. The US and all democratic governments should not compromise their constitutional and moral values to appease autocratic ruling elites who have demonstrated utter disrespect for agreed upon and practiced international declarations to protect the rights of workers, indigenous or expatriates.