HUMAN CRUELTIES IN KUWAIT.
After reading in this forum yesterday’s news item on brutalized maid in Kuwait, our readers will know what tragic events are taking place in Kuwait especially for the weaker section namely the maids. According to many, what it is highlighted in the local press in Kuwait is like a tip of an iceberg, thank God at least it is coming out now openly. Earlier it was not, the way it is exposed now. Earlier most of the maids in Kuwaiti houses were Goans and they have suffered worst of tortures from their barbaric Kuwaiti employers who loved torturing their maids. They have failed to show compassion to their domestics who like goats meekly surrendered to the torturing by their employers. Maid assaulting and raping are very common in Kuwait and many of our Goan sisters, wives, mothers and other females have suffered this humiliation silently. Yet most of them supported Kuwait, Kuwaitis and their cause of liberation during the invasion of Kuwait by coming on to the streets in Goa in a show of solidarity with Kuwait against Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. The uniqueness of Goans among Indians is forgiveness and forgetfulness, for this reason Goan maids came on to the streets in Goa in support of Kuwait. I don’t think Kuwaitis would do the same for Indians. I pity those Goan maids who had to bear all the humiliations from Kuwaiti employers who treated and still treat them as slaves against the teachings of their great and compassionate religion, Islam. Inspite of praying five times a day, many Muslim Kuwaitis treat their maids ruthlessly. Inspite of performing their religious rites regularly they harass their maids. This is against their religion and God will punish severely all the wrong doers, either today or tomorrow.
The incident of Philipina maid brutally beaten and thrown out of window like a cat by her employers is a crime and as such the perpetrators of this heinous crime should be punished. Good that this maid survived to tell her true story otherwise her employers would tell that their maid intentionally jumped from the third floor to escape from the work and died. In this case it would be an end of the story which would be treated as Suicide. I hope poor young maid will recover soon to return to her home place.
It is great to see Philippine Ambassador personally coming to see the tortured maid and took the matter in his hands for further investigation. Would our Indian Ambassador act similarly in a similar case if it happened to Indian maid and especially for a Goan maid? In the past, one Malyali Indian Ambassador encouraged and supported a western couple to kidnap a Goan boy from the hands of his mother as if Indian boy is a toy. Instead of supporting Indian boy, the Malyali Indian Ambassador supported westerners unlike Philippine Ambassador who show keenness to support Philippine nationals. Philippine Embassy is the only Embassy in Kuwait taking maximum care of its citizens in Kuwait especially of its maids.
From the account of the brutalized Philippina maid one can easily conclude how dangerous it is to get recruited in Kuwait thru Maid Recruiting Agencies. Some of these recruiting agencies are acting like butcheries and brothels, they care for nothing other than Kuwaiti Dinars accumulated thru any means. Instead of protecting this Philipina maid from her nasty employers, the agency gave the maid on silver platter to her employers to assault, to maim and to kill her. This is against Islam the compassionate religion that the Kuwaitis are practicing.
Will this maid get justice? I doubt. The employers are refusing to give heed to the summons of the Philippine Embassy. As Kuwaitis the employers will have strong clout in the higher ups, for this reason they don’t care for Embassy’s call. Kuwaitis in this society are wielding lot of power and influence to do what they want, many times many of them even are wrong. This society is not an egalitarian society. Expatriates in Kuwait especially Asians are many times treated with disdain but some Kuwaits who treat Asians and especially Indians with hatred and dislike will not stop sexually seducing their Asian and Indian maids. When the matter of having illicit sex comes they have no shame. This is yet another tragedy we face in this society.
As a matter of interest immediately following the invasion of Kuwait, Philippinas have suffered lot of harassments, molestations and rapings from the disgraceful Iraqi soldiers. The effect of these inhuman atrocities on Philippinas were noticed openly in Kuwait City. Because of invasion of Kuwait, Philippina residents from Kuwait City suffered too much. It is a pity that these pour souls are destined to suffer in Kuwait for no fault of theirs. They are very dedicated workers and sincere to their employers like Goans and precisely because of this soft nature many of them on compassionate grounds volunteered to stay in invaded Kuwait to help and support their employers even without receiving salaries as many of the Kuwaiti employers had no money to pay salaries to their domestics. Staying in invaded Kuwait and face the war was like facing death voluntarily which means committing suicide but many of these maids volunteered to risk their lives for the sake of their Kuwaiti employers. These sacrifices of these domestics cannot be erased from our minds.
This is the holy month of Ramadan. All Kuwaitis will be busy in prayer. Let us all non Muslims also pray for Kuwaitis to treat their maids and weaker section with compassion. That many Kuwaitis are treating their maids with brutality is not a big thing when they burn their own females and children by burning alive over 40 persons within few minutes as it happened in Jahra, Kuwait last week. Their anger is unbearable. Let us all pray during this Ramadan that God may give them cool temperament and may change their attitudes toward better.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
