Maids Harassment in Kuwait.
On 27th of December 2006, a headline news item appeared in the local Arab
Times Kuwait about a 19 year young Filipina maid who was mercilessly
sodomised and raped by 15 young men. Because she was facing harassment at
her employer's place from her employers people she escaped from there and
came on the street waiting for a taxi. When there was no sign of any taxi
and while she was returning back, a vehicle appeared there with few young
men who kidnapped her and took her into desert and raped her continuously.
In all 15 young men took part in raping and sodomising her. Arab Times
brought this news item on its front page very boldly. In response to this I
sent my rejoinder which appeared in the Arab Times dated 30th December 2006.
I am writing this and reproducing it just because of the knowledge of our
Goan community maids who are working in Kuwait in thousands. They and their
relatives back home in Goa should know what things are going on in Kuwait.
This is just a message of alertness. All concerned people should take note
of this. Read on:
Quote "
This is in response to Arab Times main story in front page dated 27.12.06 I
hope they rot in jail about the ordeal of the Filipina maid from 15 young
men. With my full sympathy for the poor victim I am first of all surprised
how a young girl of 19 was recruited to work as a domestic helper. Is it
allowed by law to recruit so young girls in Kuwait as domestics? According
to her story, the poor Filipina victim of the multiple rapes was trying to
escape from the torturous home where she was brutalized. Is it right for the
employers to beat and torture their maids? Are we living in the raj of
Saddam Hussein and there is nobody on this planet to put an end to the
harassment of innocent maids in Kuwait? After reading this type of stories
in this newspaper and also after listening to the miseries some of the maids
are undergoing in Kuwait I feel overwhelming majority of the employers who
employ maids in their households are not fit to employ them. Employing
maids is not just like keeping a dog in the house. The employers who employ
maids should be level headed persons with human maturity and humane heart to
treat them with love and due respect to the human attributes of the maids
who are also the creatures of God as the employers. It is not money alone
that qualifies the employers to hire the services of maids, more than money
it is the humane character of the employers that is most essential. Take
for example: In his masterpiece recently published and released In The Line
Of Fire, Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf described how they
were made to treat their Turkish maid in their home when his father was
posted in Turkey. Said Gen. Musharraf We had a Turkish maid named Fatima
whom we respectfully called Hanim, meaning madame thus Fatima Hanim.
Our parents made it a point that we show respect to elders regardless of
their station in life. We were not allowed to call our domestic staff
servants they were employees who earned an honest living and deserve
respect. Who were Gen. Musharraf parents? They were not ordinary people
from ordinary background. They were not ordinary illiterate people without
strong cultural, traditional, historical and religious background. They
were not rich with easy money gained thru petrodollars but they were rich in
heart. They were highly educated and highly literate parents with extremely
pious Muslim background. His mother, Zarin, as he indicated in this book was
a graduate from Delhi University plus a masters degree from Lucknow
University at a time when few Indian Muslim women ventured out to get even a
basic education. Only after acquiring the educational degrees she got
married to Musharrafs father, Sayed Musharrafuddin, who was also a graduate
from the famous Aligarh Muslim University. Because Gen. Musharrafs parents
had superlative qualities in all respects they treated their maid with love,
respect and dignity. Because she was treated well, Musharrafs maid even
volunteered to go to Pakistan and settle down there when Musharrafs tenure
ended in Turkey. What a colossal example of love the Turkish maid showed to
Musharrafs for the excellent treatment she received! But when Iraq invaded
Kuwait, with the exception of few whom we could count on our fingerprints,
all the maids employed in Kuwait left their employers for their home
countries some of them even forfeiting their salaries even in backlog. If
these maids in Kuwait were treated well then they would have volunteered to
die with their sponsors but some of them left cursing their employers for
maltreating them saying "now it is your turn to face the music because sword
beget sword. What sort of qualities the current maid employers in Kuwait
are having that merit them to employ maids? If they had good qualities then
their maids would not be escaping from their homes like the 19 year
Filipina. It is the responsibility of the concerned authorities to right
the wrong before it is become unbearable.
Regarding the raped Filipina maid by 15 youths, who they are can be easily
guessed even by an ignorant person, kudos to Philippine Embassy for
supporting their citizen. It should be an eye-opener for other Asian
Embassies who are immune to the responsibilities towards their citizens who
are maltreated in Kuwait. The law enforcing authorities in Kuwait also
deserve compliments for arresting all the culprits. Their photos should have
been published in the newspapers so that everyone knows who they are and
what nationality they belong to exactly the way the photos are published of
drug and liquour sellers. It is a shame for their families to negotiate an
out-of court settlement as disclosed in the story. There should be no outof
court settlement for those 15 culprits and with the help of abundant money
acquired easily thru easy means justice should not be made a purchasable
commodity. The wrong doers should be punished as per the law of the land.
And if the parents of the culprits are really genuine parents of the
culprits then they should submit to the wheels of justice to roll instead of
bending them thru their wasta and make mockery of the otherwise good
system of justice in Kuwait. Would the families of the culprits keep silence
if their daughters and wives were subjected to such brutalities as it was
done to the poor Filipina maid? Oh men of justice of this land! Speak out
now and speak out loudly. Where are the religionists now? Why they are
silence? Why they dont cry for justice against the 15 youths for committing
sacrilege against the commandment of God by sodomising and raping an
innocent girl?" Unquote.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
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