The following article appeared in the local Kuwait's daily, “ARAB TIMES” dated 19.07.09. It shows how badly maids in Kuwait are maltreated by their employers. By reproducing it in goa.kranti, I am alerting our Goans of the dangers of working in Kuwait as Maids since innumerable of them have worked in Kuwait and many of them due to their natural docile nature silently suffered cruelties from their cruel employers including beatings, torturings and rapings and enermous number of them are still working in Kuwait. Though recently their number is decreased and that from Philippines is increased. Social workers and Church leaders in Goa I hope will alert our Goan women going to Kuwait to work as Ayas of the dangers they may likely face while working in Kuwait.
Also, I request our people in Goa to pray for the safety and security of our maids working in Kuwait because at moments it looks that they are not only bodily under the clutches of their employers but even soully. God alone can protect them.
Innumerable Goan maids were the strong and active supporters and backbone of our movement in Goa under GOA-KUWAIT SOLIDARITY CENTER in support of Kuwait against the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq. Many of them even though were victims of Kuwaiti employers' brutalities and attrocities yet they joined us in unison in support of Kuwait's cause by forgetting in a pure Goan Christian way the maltreatment they unnecessarily and mercilessly received from their Kuwaiti employers.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Convenor: GOA-KUWAIT SOLIDARITY CENTER,
Kuwait.
“MANILA MAID ‘SURVIVES’ TO TELL SADIST EMPLOYER’S TORTURE SAGA.
By Michelle Fe Santiago.
KUWAIT CITY, July 18: A Filipina household service worker employed by a Kuwaiti family sought refuge at the Philippine Embassy this weekend after allegedly suffering severe maltreatment for about two years at the hands of her lady employer. Jenny, 41, single and a native of Alabang, Manila was sobbing in pain as she narrated to the Arab Times on Saturday the ‘burning’ torture that her employer allegedly did on her.
“There was no single day that she did not hurt me. She loved hurting me,” cried Jenny as she showed all the scars and fresh wounds dotting her body. She recounted that her lady employer would usually time her whenever a household task is to be done. ‘She wants me to finish everything fast, but I am the only housemaid at home and she has two small kids. We’re staying in a flat with four rooms and with four bathrooms. I do all the household chores, cook, clean, baby-sit and laundry. Sometimes, due to extreme fatigue, I tend to work slowly and she would be very mad at me and the torture begins,” she stated. She narrated that her lady employer had fun torturing her by heating a knife on the stove and once it is hot, she would place the hot knife on any part of the latter’s body leaving burns and blisters.
“I kept on begging not to do it, I said enough, enough madam, but she won’t stop until my skin is burnt and blistered. It was horrible. She looked like a devil hitting me with the hot knife. How can a normal person do that?” sobbed Jenny whose wrists, arms, left foot and back were covered with bandage to prevent burnt infection after coming from Mubarak Al-Khaber Hospital for treatment.
Her ears resembled like a crunchy chicharron after her lady employer burnt them with a knife. “She burnt my ears, because there was a time when she called me and I wasn’t able to go to her immediately because I was doing something at the kitchen so she got angry and burned my ears for not replying her quickly,” she stated as tears welled in her eyes.
The lady employer also burned her hands and arms with the hot knife for not washing the dishes quickly. “She burned my legs and foot for walking slowly, she burned my nape too and she boxed me on my eye so that I cannot see things clearly,” outlined Jenny.
The lady employer also did not spare Jenny’s lips. As she narrated her harrowing experience, she pointed to her blistered, flaking and discoloured burnt lips. “She also hit my back using a water hose and lashed me with the ‘oqal’ of her husband,” she stated, showing her scarred back with newly bandaged burn wounds. The ‘oqal’ is the doubled black goat-hair and sheep’s wool that is used to secure the ‘Ghutra’ or head of Arab man in place.
The lady employer also cut the shoulder-length hair of Jenny leaving her almost bald. “I want to fight back but I was scared because she’s six months pregnant and I might harm her baby so I endured all the beatings” she pointed out.
After inflicting pain on her, the lady employer would usually give her some cream to treat the burns in various parts of her body. “I really can’t understand why she’s doing that. She would even ask me to wear gloves while washing the dishes to protect my hands and give me hand moisturizers,” she stated.
Last week, the lady employer allegedly threatened to burn Jenny’s eyes and face, prompting the latter to run to the embassy for help. “I finally decided to run to the embassy for help because only God knows, I may not be able to control myself and I might be forced to fight back and I might harm her and the baby in her womb,” she stated. She called first the local manpower agency that recruited her and asked for help but the man from the agency refused to help her. “I told him, please help me, take me out of this hell, but the guy at the agency even scolded me and told me not to go to the agency or he will kick me out of the agency. I called them five times. So I decided to sneak out of the house and go to the embassy” she claimed.
Meanwhile, Philippine Ambassador Ricardo Endaya disclosed that the embassy has already hired a Kuwaiti lawyer for Jenny to appropriate charges will be filed against her lady employer. “I am still at a loss how a human being can do this to her fellow human being. I hope the Kuwaiti authorities will not close their eyes on this so that justice will be served and the employer should be castigated for committing such inhumane acts,” she stressed.
I want her to be in jail. She should pay for what she has done to me,” cried Jenny as she hopes to go to the Philippines after getting the justice that she wants.
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