What's wrong with this picture?

An Indonesian lady leaves home to come to Kuwait to become a domestic helper so that she can also add to the earnings of her husband and support her child. Here, she is drugged by her employer, and raped. When the girl later escapes through a window, sustaining terrible injuries, she is able (unlike many others) to file a case against him and get him arrested.

The Indonesian girl is sent to hospital to recover, where she tells visitors about the rape in gory detail, almost in a playful manner - and how badly it hurt. She refers to herself in the third person, as if the whole thing happened to someone else, and seems to laugh a lot more than all the other domestic helpers in her ward. She explains that she is no longer Muslim because she has 'slept' with another man, and how can she go back to her family like that?

JUST when she begins to slowly regain her sanity, her employer (who has already been released) comes to the hospital and threatens her. The helper is discharged, still not fully healed, and taken to jail.

Why is a victim of rape made to go through the horrors of her old employer having the freedom to taunt her, as well as having nowhere to go but jail? Right now this poor lady is lost in the system. We simply cannot find her.

Hundreds and hundreds of women go through this. They are legally only able to be in the home of their sponsors, in the hospital, at the agency or in jail. To put it in real terms, guess what rape victim - if you're a domestic helper wanting to go home - you'll have to go to prison first.

New writer on Q8SWS

Hi there blogfans, my name is nabeel. Sws has kindly invited me to share my thoughts on this blog as a new writer -- and rather than just intrude right away, I thought I'd start off by ways of a little introduction.

I'm a third generation Indian citizen in Kuwait, born and raised. I have no gift whatever for languages so I dont speak more than a few words of Arabic - or any Indian language for that matter. I went to an English school in Kuwait and did my University in Vancouver, Canada. I'm married to a great gal from there and now I'm back in Kuwait, working. ..And recently I've started involving myself in a little social work and have been utterly amazed by what I've seen.

About that - hopefully over time, I'll be updating you with reports of human rights abuses here, and my perspective on it as an expat. As I'm sure you're already aware, the Gulf region has come under a lot of scrutiny for this sort of thing. Please feel free to ask any questions, air your opinions - and mostly... please get involved.

I will start off with a report from a Nepali Humanitarian Organisation "Asha - Nepal" which is headed by a British gentleman:

"I wish we could stop these girls going. They are aware of the situation, but are pursuaded by the agencies that they will be looked after and of course the money is a huge draw.

We had a case three years ago, with Kuwait Airways carrying a seriously demented girl on a plane to Delhi in her night dress. (In Kuwait) she had been taught to offer herself to any man that came near her. The girl in question committed suicide just under a year ago. We want to write to the airline and the Kuwaiti Embassy in the UK although they aren't likely to reply. They didnt last time."

You might think this is an isolated incident, but in one of our hospitals right now is an Indonesian girl who was 'lent' by the agency to a man who forcibly slept with her and then 'sold' her to another man who forced her to sleep with 3-5 men a day. Then - like many stories you might here - she jumped.

Guess where she will go after her discharge from the hospital?! Jail. After that its the deportation center and if she's lucky enough, she will be booked a ticket home in a month or so, with only the clothes on her back and not even a month's worth of salary. But then what sort of salary do you get from forced prostitution !?

And then the real shame begins as she tries to live in her community, a rape victim and penniless.

One case in hundreds. What are your thoughts?