From CDHR
August 2, 2007
Most of Them are Already Maids
By Ali Alyami
The Saudi Ministry of Social affairs is considering whether to allow millions of poverty stricken Saudi women to work as maids. This news should prompt us to ask the following question: will working as maids improve the status of impoverished Saudi women? The overwhelming majority of Saudi women are playing that role now. The Saudi male elite have denied women basic human rights because of their fear of losing total control over their women’s sexuality, and this has deprived Saudi society of the valuable contributions to communal life that could have been made by one half of its population. Furthermore, the millions of Asian and African maids currently working in Saudi homes are sexually and physically abused, have no rights, are incarcerated, and have nowhere to turn to seek and receive justice, especially if they are non-Muslims. Saudi women are already sexually harassed by politically oppressed and frustrated men wherever they go, and those unfortunate enough to become p aid maids under the current system will only add the indignities suffered by foreign maids to their already difficult situation.