http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article200476.ece
Riyadh housemaid discloses multiple-rape ordeal By RODOLFO C. ESTIMO JR. | ARAB NEWS Published: Nov 25, 2010 23:31 Updated: Nov 25, 2010 23:31 RIYADH: A 27-year-old Filipino maid has complained that she was raped five times by her employer. She arrived in June to work in the Kingdom. "My employer has raped me five times since the month of Ramadan. On Thursdays when his wife left the house, he would come to my room at night and force me to have sex with him," Joanna (not her real name) told Arab News on Thursday. She said that she had tried to resist but she was not strong enough to prevent her employer from forcing himself upon her. "After the first time, I thought of committing suicide, but the thought of my family back home stopped me from doing it," she said, adding that her relatives were the main reasons why she left the Philippines to work overseas. "I wanted to ensure that my children could go to school. That's the reason why I left them. I thought that I could supplement my husband's earnings for the children's education," she said. The victim's husband and four young children, two boys and two girls, are in Barangay Taguipo, Butuan City, in southern Philippines. She was staying with her sister Barbara in Caloocan City before she left for Saudi Arabia. "I could not bear anymore the thought of being sexually abused. I hope that the embassy will do something about this," she said, adding that an embassy official had called her Wednesday night and told her that he'd secure a permit from the authorities so that they could enter her employer's house and rescue her. However, she has not heard anything since. "He said that an embassy team would rescue me," she added. Arab News learned of Joanna's plight from a Filipino community leader on Wednesday and he was urged to get in touch with the Philippine Embassy. He was able to contact the embassy and an official told him that he'd dispatch a team to find the place in Riyadh where Joanna's house was located. "That was the last time I was able to talk to the embassy official. I was calling him today but he was not answering," the community leader told Arab News. "In the meantime, I have been calling another Filipina maid working nearby to call Joanna and try to comfort her so that she forgets about committing suicide." Arab News called the embassy official in charge of police cases. He said that an embassy team found out that Joanna's employer's house is inside a compound that belongs to a member of the royal family. "The police told us to secure a permit from the governor's office so that the embassy team could enter the compound, but as it is the weekend we cannot do anything now," the official said. He added that he'd ask the Saudi recruitment agency that employed Joanna to rescue her. "If it does not comply, we'll have it blacklisted in the Philippines," he said [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
