Photo of unidentified maid, for illustration purpose only
What is the problem..?? Isn't it a degnified profession..??
There is no numbers on who serve houses in Lebanon, Egypt and Europe.. Anyway,... this is far better than the more numbers who sale their bodies over there.. I had been and saw it happening since 1985..!!
Should we look at India with their nukes, Philipennes with their GDP and Indonesia who is about joining the BRICS.. They all have House-maids working everywhere..
Let's be real.. To find an intellegent way forward..
Yes, there is abuse, and we wish them better luck..
Both Indonesia and Philippines had taken good measure to protect their people there.. It is a Labor Law issue, not a culture.. There are many decent and good people over GCC.. Everywhere, even back home in Sudan; there is abuse and mercy.. The issue is about ego, priggism and supremacy, which should be fought as illness..
Also, no one should discriminate any job or any labor.. Our government should negotiate how to protect their rights rather than the ashamed call against their search for decent earning..!
الصديق عادل عبد العاطي بدأ النقاش حول 1500 امرأة السودانية قد سمح لهم الحصول على تأشيرات خادمة في السعودية
ما هي المشكلة؟ أليست هذه مهنة شريفة؟
لا توجد أرقام عن الذين يخدمون في المنازل في لبنان ومصر وأوروبا .. على أي حال ، هذا هو أفضل بكثير من الأعداد الكبيرة ممن يبيعون أجسادهن هناك .. لقد كنت هناك ورأيت ذلك يحدث منذ عام 1985
ينبغي أن ننظر إلى الهند ذات القنابل النووية ، الفليبين مع ناتجها المحلي الإجمالي ، وإندونيسيا التي على وشك الانضمام إلى بلدان البريكس .. هؤلاء لديهم الخادمات يعملن في كل مكان
دعونا نكون واقعيين .. كي نجد طريقاً الى المستقبلنعم، هناك سوء المعاملة ، ونتمنى لهم حظا أوفر
كل من اندونيسيا والفلبين قد اتخذت التدابير لحماية بناتهم هناك .. هي قضية قانون العمل ، وليس الثقافة السائدة .. هناك العديد من الناس الجيدين في دول مجلس التعاون الخليجي .. في كل مكان ، حتى في السودان ، هناك الإساءة والرحمة .. المسألة هي حول عقدة الأنا ، وعقدة التفوق ، والتي ينبغي أن تحارب مثل أي مرض
أيضاً ، لا ينبغي لأحد احتقار أية وظيفة أو أي عمل .. وينبغي أن تعمل حكومتنا للتفاوض على كيفية حماية حقوقهم بدلاً من الدعاوي
الخجولة ضد بحثهم عن الكسب اللائق والمشروع
Labiba Laith
ReplyDeleteMay God protect them from abuse any where and any job they do. Respect to all hard-working women around the world.. as you said.
Kathleen Wells
ReplyDeleteI've heard that they treat the house maids like slaves.
I don't have much faith in humanity, around the world, no.
Where did you learn Arabic, Adil and when?
I think when there is such deprivation and inequity on such massive and dramatic levels, people's behavior changes.
Their moral compass begins to shift.
It is not that massive.. This is the media games.. We are part of this communities and lived with them for many years.. What is actually happens is meeting the norms anywhere else.. The same abuses were reported in Europe, Asia, South America.. Europe and North America have different type of abuses..!!
ReplyDeleteI believe the moral compass is intellectually shifting worldwide, with inevitable changes in demostic codes and personal needs.. Violance is widely changing from communal into personal.. Once it is personal, penal code and public awareness are enough to control.. i.e., historical KKK and recent Zemmermann..
Adam Aba-Husain
ReplyDeleteSudanese returning from countries with severe HIV/AIDS problems and changing attitudes to sex in south Sudan have led to alarming rates among certain populations according to UNFPA http://inthenews.unfpa.org/?p=3452
Also;
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/105926.phpSUDAN: Sex Work May Be Increasing in Juba « UNFPA in the News
inthenews.unfpa.org
Sudan Tribune reported on 13 July that Police patrols are being used in Juba to ...curb the rise in prostitution southern Sudan’s capital, an official from the government of Southern Sudan said recently. The arrival of foreign sex workers, Sudanese returning from countries with severe HIV/AIDS problems...
Maid Slavery is still unashamedly known in Asia and Africa.. It is not anymore among Arabs, but the labor laws are intensively changing.. NGOs and Western Govs are interested and support such changes.. We know it, and feel it.. In addition, new generations are mostly educated and have the sense of justice and equality, despite the heavy heritage that would take time to fade out..
ReplyDeleteSouthern Sudan is another great and complex issue.. There is no data or control from their new born government.. Nevertheless, there is no proper data on what is happening in the North as well.. Frequently we read about issues no one knows about such as homelessness, demostic abuse, etc..
ReplyDeleteI believe that current partition between North and South will come to an end in the near future.. Similarly for the one between India and Pakistan.. a matter of growing new breed of politicians and intellectuals..
Maliha Raza Khan
ReplyDeleteHullo - for me - domestic help is absolute essential. Its a great profession especially useful for working mothers. I think its just the teminology and past bad experience associated with abuse etc that gives a sad and horrific tinge to that designation "house-maid". In India - housemaids are a revered lot - though even there are instances where domestic help has been abused - but that could be true of any profession which is not regulated. Like you say Adil - its more of an issue of work standards, laws and ethics. In the USA, its a very well regulated work environment plus people have strongly implemented legal framework to support them whereas in countries like India - this is largely absent - hence the possibility of abuse.
Moonfleet Eldai
ReplyDeleteAdil, you are talking here of an ideal situation and standards. Why will the Philippines or Indonesia have put forward measures to protect their workforce, and do you even dare to dream that Sudan as a gov. will in fact be willing to look after the welfare of its diaspora ? I bet you know better !!
When a mom of teenage boys comes to you when you are a hospital manager asking you to check her maid for HIV and when you clear that maid from the virus she asks you to lodge an IUD into her so that her kids can train. That is the mentality. I would not even begin to describe the horrors of things that make folks so peaceful as the Indonesian maids commit gruesome murders, I have felt up close the public opinion debates when Indonesia and the Philippines stopped maids outbound travel, and you have the news columnists starting by not acknowledging that the society has 'irrational tendencies on these poor maids so that there needs to be rules and regulation' that they instead go shouting their lungs out that they could punish back and go bring in maids from other sources. The problem is not that they want to solve the problem, the problem is that they don't realize there exists a problem.
Abuse as an abstract word will not describe it, enslavement will not either, because if you own a property you won't abuse it, and when you abuse something, you know it is not yours. Here we are seeing a combination of both and I wish her safety, but to come to here, nooooo, big no !
Hisham; I can imagine your long Saudi experience, while my believe on the universal humane core is unshakable.. Abuse on basis of labor, armor or authority is common among Mankind.. It only changes or evolves as per the common consensus, associated institutions and governing systems.. I can’t assume that KSA with low HDI rates (HDI: 2nd Rank-56 or Non-Oil PI: 3rd Rank-159) will be better off than other countries, but the responses from authorities would indicate their awareness of the problem, yet unable to easily change social tendencies.. The same applies across GCC, which has various levels of urbanism and social orders, mostly better than KSA..
ReplyDeleteYes, the actions taken by Indonesia and Philippines came after severity of abuse, and counter violence as well.. The illiterate responses of changing resources were personal and hysterical rather than a government policy.. By default, any government has to adhere to codes, despite how some of its affiliates would reject.. It is not an ideal world or utopia, but protocols of public service; otherwise an abusing government will be isolated, disintegrated and malfunction; regardless of wealth or props.. The issue will be more into cover up rather than stretching muscles..
Nevertheless, I can’t agree that most Saudis are abusive or intolerant; as such judgment is simply against all norms.. Despite the bitterness and the irritation freak cases would symbolize, generalization is never an option.. Yes, the religious hard-liners had infested the civic order, but new educated breed has their own agenda and perspective of the country.. By default, the 6 million expats, the multi-billion developments and the increasing exposure to the others will leave marks on personality and common culture..
Certainly, our Government is high enough to disconnect with its obligations or duties.. Yes, there are no expectations in such mode of irrationality and emotional hysteria; to ascertain support or intervene.. This post was against individual response which came as reflection of naked ego or defeated supremacy; expecting further extreme nonsense if the Sudanese government would respond..!
Moonfleet Eldai
ReplyDeleteTo summarize it, it is a dignified position, I agree, but to make it clearer, it is dignified if and only if the place where she works were ready to see her rights in a dignified matter and be ready to shrug off the supreme master mentality....
I once heard over the radio here in a religious show that If you travel without the permission of your sponsor that it is haram, so, technically, if you were employed in a company, that guy doesn't want you to leave, then you are at his disposal !!..I am not going to counter-argue by bringing in individual cases but in a place where people are paid based on their nationalities and eye color. A maid will not be able to make it through smoothly.
As how much I do agree on your view, as how much I can read the helplessness any maid has to choose.. Not only to be a maid, but also to serve a potentially abusing employer..!!
ReplyDeleteLife is tough, otherwise, each girl, woman, boy or man; of any nationality or ethnicity; would live like a monarch..!!
Let's pray for our girls and women, and all others, who have to make the tough decision, to be blessed, shielded and pleased, inshaallah..
Let's work, as how possible we can, to bring literacy, dignity and equality to all human beings..!
@ Kathleen Wells.. Arabic is my mother tongue.. I guess I master it enough to avoid not using it in epistemic discussions..!! In traditional Arabic; the extended interpretations, the linguistic ingredients and eloquence capacity can either sail to unlimited expressions or dive into confusing symbolism.. This is not only a dilemma for non Arab to deal with, but also for the Arabs themselves.. The modern Arabic is too simple to downgrade the meanings or been inadequate to explain..!!
ReplyDeleteThis is the core linguistic divide among Arabs and Muslims in understanding and implementing Islam..
Kathleen Wells
ReplyDeleteAdil, I saw a documentary about kids who had memorized the Quran, but didn't speak Arabic -- that was unusual, I thought.
Sudan is a multilingual country dominated by Sudanese Arabic. In the 2005 constitution of the Republic of Sudan, the official languages of Sudan are literary Arabic and English.
Approximately 70 languages are native to Sudan.
Sudanese Arabic is the most widely spoken language in the country. It is the variety of Arabic spoken throughout northern Sudan. It has much borrowed vocabulary from the local languages (El Rotana). This has resulted in a variety of Arabic that is unique to Sudan, reflecting the way in which the country has been influenced by both African and Arab cultures. Some of the tribes in Sudan still have similar accents to the ones in Saudi Arabia. Other important languages include Beja (AKA Bedawi) along the Red Sea, with perhaps 2 million speakers; Fur in the west (Darfur), with perhaps a million speakers; and the various Nubian languages along the Nile in the north, with half a million or so speakers. The most linguistically diverse region in the country are the Nuba Hills in Kordofan, inhabited by speakers of multiple language families, with Darfur and the Ethiopian-border regions being second.
Beja is the sole Cushitic language in Sudan. Arabic is Semitic, the Niger–Congo family is represented by many of the Kordofanian languages, and Indo-European by Domari (Gypsy) and English. Historically, Old Nubian, Greek, and Coptic (Egyptian) were the languages of Christian Nubia, and Meroitic the language of the Kingdom of Kush which conquered Egypt.
Sudan also has multiple regional sign languages, which are not mutually intelligible. But 2009 a proposal for a unified Sudanese Sign Language had been worked out, but was not widely known
Maybe this is part of the problem.. Islam recommends the memorization of Quran, which helps to perform rituals, prayers and teachings.. It should be in parallel to least level understanding; which unfortunately taught by unqualified teachers; who had been brought up by the same process.. End-Result: Divide between Deeds and Says.. Misalignment between Heart and Mind.. Taliban Story..!!
ReplyDeleteKathleen Wells
ReplyDeleteSudan seems so foreign to me -- no wonder Kola and I couldn't see eye to eye. LOL
Sudan bridges Arabs and Africans, and has mixed culture from both.. If misunderstood, it will look odd and hilarious..lol
ReplyDeleteKathleen Wells
ReplyDeleteYes, because how can one memorize something they don't understand -- that is beyond my comprehension.
I guess they memorize it phonetically, but they don't know what they are saying, actually. Unusual.
saying portions of the Quran seems passionate -- like singing. Maybe they only know the portions they have memorized.
I do not know; I have seen in this debate the open mind towards the culture of work and the economic renaissance that the East Asian countries have begun to reach.
ReplyDelete