RIYADH: A Nepali housemaid is fighting for her life after suffering sadistic torture and rape by her sponsor, said Pushparaj Bhattarai, a spokesman for the Nepalese Embassy, yesterday.
The woman, who was identified only as Maya, walked into the local Nepalese mission yesterday showing evidence of physical and sexual abuse, including injuries to her abdomen.
The age of the woman was not disclosed.
“Maya was sent to a local hospital for a comprehensive medical examination including a DNA test yesterday itself,” said Bhattarai, adding that the matter has been reported to the Diplomatic Quarter police.
This is the eighth case of the brutal rape of a Nepali maid reported within the last three months in Saudi Arabia. Maya’s sponsor has not been identified, detained for questioning or mentioned as a suspect in the crime.
Rape is punishable by lashes and prison time at best and, depending on the circumstances, can lead to the death penalty.
The Nepali diplomat said, “This middle-aged woman, who came to work in Saudi Arabia only three months ago, was hired by her sponsor from a local manpower agency.”
Bhattarai said that after sexually assaulting the maid, the sponsor dropped her off at the doorstep of the manpower office.
The woman made it to the embassy “with the help of some sympathetic people,” the embassy spokesman said.
He added that the woman was unable or unwilling to speak and only nodded and blinked when questioned.
The woman is from the Nepalese village of Nawal Parasi in the western part of the country.
According to embassy officials, she came to the Kingdom on May 8. Bhattarai expressed alarm that cases of sexual assaults, sadistic torture and brutal beatings of Nepali workers in the Kingdom appeared to be on the increase.
“There is a need to streamline the whole process of maid deployment,” said the diplomat. He added that there are about 50,000 Nepalese working in the Kingdom, about 90 percent of them as maids.
This figure is relatively small compared to the number of foreign workers in the Kingdom. For comparison there are up to 500,000 Sri Lankan workers in the Kingdom in any given year.
Last month, a Nepali maid took shelter at the embassy after being abducted and gang-raped by seven men. The 22-year-old maid was forced into a car, taken to a remote location, raped by the men and later dropped off at the same place from where she was picked up.
In another case in June, a maid was gang-raped by four men and then abandoned at the embassy’s entrance.
Recently, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report on labor exploitation and urged Saudi Arabia to implement labor, immigration and criminal justice reforms to protect foreign workers in the country.
