Saudi Arabia perhaps is one of the world’s largest menial labor markets and attracts perhaps one of the lowest skilled work forces. This is one country where you have an odd-job person for anything you need done — be it cleaning your house, the street or your car. You even have laborers to fill your tank at the petrol station and chauffeur-driven limousines to take you from Point A to Point B. Where else in the world can you find people actually willing to trundle your grocery cart to your car once you’re done with shopping? No wonder that when it comes to jobs, Saudi Arabia is high on the priority list as the ideal destination.
However, we have one category of low-skilled labor upon which few would choose to embark — the maid. Recently, this paper carried a heart-wrenching picture of a maid who had landed in hospital. According to reports, the 25-year-old woman’s sponsor had tied her up in the bathroom for a month so tightly her extremities became gangrenous due to insufficient blood supply. Amputation was the only way to save her life. Moreover, she had suffered broken teeth and an eye injury. The reason given for the assault (it should be called so) was that the maid had not cleaned the house properly. It is hard to understand the psychology behind this kind of cruelty. One can only speculate at the turn of events and the causes of this sort of misconduct rampant in thousands of homes across the country. What fantasies the poor girl must have conjured as she put everything on the line for a better tomorrow — her family, loved ones and all the money she ever had to board that flight to the land of her dreams. Today, she faces an uncertain future. Thousands of women are brought to the Kingdom each year to serve as maids or helpers in Saudi homes. It is not as simple as it sounds, either. There is a lot of red-tape involved and stringent criteria to be met.
Saudi sponsors have to show that they are capable of keeping a maid on their iqamas, which means that they are fully responsible for their welfare as long as they are under their roofs. Normally, maids are preferred from a country of ancestral origin, but the majority comes from Southeast Asia, which also has a large Muslim population. Cultural and religious similarities combined with willing workers ready to work for low wages makes these countries a popular labor pool.
However, once these women set foot in the country, they find themselves enclosed by tall walls, confined to the homes with only glimpses of what the outside world really looks like. The maids gradually become nonentities, stuck with sets of spoiled kids who think nothing of them while their mothers go out to work, to the beauty parlor, the mall or a cafe.
A maid alone is a maid at risk. It is hard to be on your guard all the time in a house where male members of the family also (naturally so) reside. To put it simply, the temptation is too great. The poor female, already insecure in a strange land, having neither wealth nor loved ones may be in serious jeopardy.
In fact, so harsh is this dehumanizing process that the employers may actually forget that the maid is also a human being. It’s not uncommon to see maids cooped in the rear of the car, knees drawn up to their chins in the cramped spaces, while the rest of the family relaxes in the cool comfort upfront. Neither is it rare to find them hauling groceries up flights of stairs and even gas cylinders while stronger family members bound up and away, shutting the door behind them.
In nine out of 10 cases, the abuse is inflicted by women with male accomplices who have hired these helpers. Pouring hot water on them, burning them with hot irons and cigarettes, throwing acid in their faces and beatings (blows and kicks) are regularly reported in dailies worldwide. The question remains searing the mind: Why? There are few or no statistics on these cases or any sort of serious studies on why this is happening.
As it is, we don’t have a sterling human rights record, but that doesn’t mean the truth should not be told. One does not expect such atrocities in Saudi Arabia. Sadly, like other societies, ours is riddled by double standards and the hypocrisy that accompanies them.
The maid will be repatriated back to her country with a little money to show for being here: sans foot, sans hand, sans fingers and sans teeth. On her arrival home, she may find herself sans self respect, sans money, sans future, sans everything. A heavy price to pay indeed.