Thursday, March 13, 2008

Al Watan TV - Murdered by the house maid

Al Watan TV has a show hosted by Khaled Al-Abduljaleel, a Kuwaiti lawyer, who tackles many social issues such as divorce, rape, child abuse and so on. Last week he had two Kuwaiti families on his show that have family members murdered by their maid. A girl in her 20's and a 7 year old boy not of the same family. It was heartbreaking to see these families suffer the loss of their loved ones through a brutal murder carried by their house maid. I got a lot of calls after the program aired, the context of the calls were mostly angry people asking me to stop being so sympathetic with house maids.

I wonder sometimes, what leads a woman to murder her employers? Could she have come to Kuwait with mental problems? Or was the employer so cruel and heartless to the point where the maid retaliates by killing the most precious person in her employer's life?

I thought Mr. Al-Abduljaleel was very bias in his report, he didn't give us the other side of the story, in this case it's the maid's view (however unfathomable it is). I've seen many cases where maids do not get paid for months and when they do, they are waaay underpaid, they don't get weekly day offs, they work overtime, they have to deal with physical and emotional and verbal abuse. Most of the time, there is no way out of their situation which leads to suicide, run-aways and in some very unfortunate cases .. murder.


My heart goes out to both families.

8 comments:

nQ said...

i'm so sorry for the losses
but to be honest
if i was a maid living in one of those houses with cruel treatment. i'd be a cold killing machine.

i wouldnt feel an ounce of guilt

Mohammad Al-Yousifi said...

ديري بالج ام حصة , قد يفهم البعظ - ظ- ان بهذه المقالة ولائك للفلبين و ليس للكويت

عموما , أعتقد ان مسألة الخدم تحتاج الى كم أكبر من الاهتمام من جميع الأطراف , الحكومة و المكاتب و سفاراتنا في تلك الدول و الشرطة و المعازيب و الكل

نعم مو كل المعازيب ملائكة و مو كل الخدم شياطين

شكرا

Anonymous said...

I don't sympathize with a murderer.

But I do feel sorry for a lot of the maids out there. there are many people who don't let their maids get a decent day off. they treat them like garbage and expect only the best service.

but i will never sympathize with a murderer. they gave up that privilege when they went ahead and killed a soul.

eshda3wa said...

allah y3eenhum oo y9aberhum

since when does khalid ever show the both sides of anything

Anonymous said...

that doesnt justify murder..and to the innocent...these maids come with mental and social problems of their own..the maid can open the door and go to her embassy anytime if she is abused and choose to leave..but to kill??

may god rot them in hell

sanfranciscanq8 said...

You are an empathetic human being who does not judge without knowing all the facts, as it should be.

God knows we cannot judge.

First of all, my condolences for the tragedy to the family of these innocent youth. God be with them.

I wish I could do a show such as Khalid Abduljaleel, showing the other side of these stories. The first one I would do is of a murder of a maid (this is a true story) by a Kuwaiti who payed off the coroner, then buried the maid here. I could quote a couple other cases I know of as well. Would the same rants for a ''death sentence'' or ''rotting in hell'' apply?

Until we begin digging into these daily suicides by maids, the rapes of maids by male sponsors, we will never get to the bottom of these stories.

This being said, Mr Abduljaleel has done nothing to solve these issues, rather he has stirred up a story without all the facts, and caused everyone to get angry with anyone defending maids.

IF all these maids are potential murderers, the only ''logical'' solution is to not hire them, and let everyone clean, cook and raise their own children. Or, perhaps we could pay for psychological testing before they arrive, or do a criminal background check on them. Perhaps letting total strangers in our house is not such a good idea? Should we ban them?



We need an honest social T.V. show in this country, a real ''in your face'' reality show with SOLUTIONS not attacks.

Mother Courage said...

the question is .. what did those families do to their maids that drove them to do such action?
and they all say we;ve treat it them well! .. something to pounder!

Anonymous said...

When will they ever start airing programs on live television in Kuwait, cataloguing the plethora of horrors visited upon thousands of domestic maids each year by their employers? Rape, physical abuse, solitary confinements, homicide - you name it, and you will find it right here in Kuwait.
Without meaning to belittle the losses suffered by those grieving families on the show I think this was merely populist programming that conveniently chose to look the other way from the plight of hapless, destitute maids of Kuwait paying lip service to what it is that causes some maids to take desperate measures from time to time.