Why isn't the plight of poor women from Asia in Arab countries not

[KlatooBNikto]

attracting any attention from us? Yesterday, I posted my experience with some women who came to provide cleaning services at our home when my wife was laid up with the flu.Their stories about the treatment of their relatives from India, Thailand and Bangladesh in Arab countries has horrified me. I cannot understand why there is no outrage against these gross human rights violations at the UN,US and even DU about this.These poor women go to the Arab countries more or less like indentured laborers, are worked to death for seven days a week, grossly mistreated by the women of the households and also sexually abused by the men.They cannot leave because the employment services that bring them into the Arab countries make them sign a contract for a minimum of one year and, in some cases for longer periods. They are the "poorest of the poor" in Mother Teresa's words.

The outrage I feel about these gross violations of human rights has made me send a letter to our senators and our Congressmen to launch an investigation into these and restore the human rights of these poor women.I urge all DUers to do the same.

Let us remember that when we at DU rightly take our own administration to task for violating the rights of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo, we have an even greater moral obligation to address the question of how some of the poorest and defenseless people on the planet are treated in Arab countries who are supposedly our allies.

Why are our women not outraged by this?

[Nay]

1. I don't exactly know what you mean, since many women's groups

and human rights groups have addressed this issue for the 30 years I have been an adult. This is not a new thing, unfortunately, and will not be going away for a while, due to the structure and attitude of most of the world's societies.

Women and children, being physically weaker and smaller than most men, are simply used as chattel and sex slaves just about everywhere. They get traded like bubble gum cards. We still have large contingents of men in this supposedly enlightened country who think women ought to "know their place" -- and just as a hint, that place isn't anywhere near men, unless sex is going on. It's a deep, deep, almost unconscious devaluing of the female of the species that goes on everywhere. In more enlightened countries with modern laws, most women can at least choose to release herself from abusive husbands and be self-supporting. Not so for the women in the countries you mention. They have no way of getting along without a man, because men have all the good jobs, good positions in society, etc. They are literally stuck.

[KlatooBNikto]

2. As my post indicates this is not abuse of women who are native to the

society, but women brought in from abroad to do menial chores at rich Arab households.The plight of these women is particularly horrifying because they are essentially prisoners with no rights in these Arab countries.Their passports are confiscated by their masters as soon as they land and their treatemnt at the hands of the women and men should horrify us. They cannot even go to court to sue their masters because they have no legal standing in these countries.

I am simply disgusted by the silence shown by our own government, the UN and even enlightened forums like DU.

[countryjake]

3. What you just described sounds like sex-slavery rings right here in the US

And there are organizations working hard to publicize & end such treatments.


http://www.apwld.org/lm.htm

[bleedingheart]

5. do you realize the reasons they go there?

they are desparately poor and when you are poor they take risks like this.

It is disgusting that the US turns a blind eye...but guess what..Americans in Saudi Arabia utilize this practice as well. One of my neighbors growing up "bought" himself a Phillipino.

Second, it happens here as well! I have met well off Arabs, Indians and other Asians who have brought poor from their own country to watch their children and clean their houses. Those people are also prisoners in those households...I recall one case where a pregnant woman in our office and I were talking to each other about daycare (we were both preggers)...I asked her what daycare center she would be using... she replied none. My parents are arranging to bring an Indonesian girl over to help care for the home and the baby...my mouth dropped to the floor....

[Nay]

7. I know you are talking about non-natives -- again, this has been

going on for a long time, and has been known for a long time. I remember seeing an hour-long documentary on horse jockeys from India (I think) who were just small boys, sold into slavery in Saudi Arabia to ride horses. When they got too big, they were discarded. While 'employed' they got little more than a stable to sleep in and barely enough food to survive.

It still boils down to the carelessness with which societies treats its women and children -- its weaker, smaller members. And it is a travesty, that's for sure.

[bleedingheart]

4. It has been addressed but until these women and their people

stand up for them, I am just not quite sure what WE can do.

I am a woman, I am outraged but I really don't know what I can do to help every single one of those women in Asia/Middle East.

Their government, their MEN, their CULTURE and their own attitude about themselves has to change...

BUT when your poor...talk is cheap and they have to eat and they have to feed themselves and their families (both extended and nuclear)...and the way it is set up, they don't have many choices.

Is it sad? YES
Is it outrageous? YES

but...in highly overpopulated, poor areas...life is cheap and even if one woman refuses, there will be hundreds more waiting to take the job.....studying the labor movement in the early part of the 20th century was a good lesson for these types of situations.

[bowens43]

6. We have yet to clean up our own house......

that comes first.

[Ms. Clio]

8. So you start yet another thread?

Why don't you respond to those who have already answered some of these questions, and asked you some of our own?