We read reports of suicides in local newspapers almost every day. Some of the people who kill themselves are foreign maidservants.
Why do they go to such extremes? Authorities must find out the reasons and deal with them seriously.
They should announce the factors that forced some expatriate workers to end their lives, even if they expose some of our failings.
Foreign maidservants are not the only people who are driven to such desperation. The number of Saudi youths committing suicide is growing day by day. Authorities attribute these cases to economic woes and lack of strong Islamic faith. But there are many other reasons.
We should not run away from this problem by saying that the number of suicide cases in the Kingdom is far less compared to Western countries. Such comments will not solve the problem.
Social situations in the Kingdom and Western countries are different. In the West, children commit suicide because of the negligence or failure of families to take care of their youngsters.
In our society, it is just the opposite, increasing family pressure, especially from fathers who want to impose their will on their sons, ignoring the latter’s wishes. The prevailing culture in our society demand that sons act like an extension of their fathers.
Fathers impose their views on everything from academic specialization to selection of brides, etc. Some children may not like it. So in many cases families are responsible for pushing their children to end their lives. In such cases anger, protest or revenge takes the form of suicide.
17 August 2002
