I’m not saying we should provide a one-sided view about maids in the Gulf. Complaints will exist and some are legitimate. However, journalists, columnists, bloggers and editors need to be extremely alert and cautious about how they are framing these issues. Maids lack a lot of legal rights in our countries, thanks in part to the sponsorship system which leaves them completely vulnerable to abuse, but they also suffer from a considerable amount of racist discrimination throughout our societies. Look no further than an average mall or an airport anywhere from Doha to Manama to witness the despicable treatment of South Asian workers. It’s common enough that it’s impossible to deny.

We need to highlight our outrage to these editors who don’t know any better than to publish this propaganda that seemingly encourage racism and normalizes classism. Why push for the idea that maids are “pampered” when they have incredibly demanding jobs under little to no protection? Why complain about the expenses involved in hiring a maid when they get the least amount of compensation which amount to nothing in comparison to the average salary in the Gulf? And more importantly, why amplify these self-absorbed voices instead of the voices of victims and their families that are barely recognized? Thousands of families are still demanding justice for their siblings, mothers, fathers, sons or daughters who have disappeared without trace upon arriving to our countries. They are forgotten and dismissed.

In a previous article I took similar issue with one of the other pieces published by this same paper. Sadly other local papers appear to have been inspired to be following a similar trend. This is a grave problem.

For a publication called Emirates 24/7 the editors should consider creating a section to discuss the “24/7 workers” who work insane hours on a daily basis to provide for complete strangers, sometimes under deplorable conditions. They spend years doing this. Some don’t come out of it alive. Some take their own lives. Some patiently go through each day despite not having their salaries paid on time or in full. Some get beaten to death. Some get raped.

This isn’t to generalize and claim that all domestic workers go through these issues, but they do happen in such frequency that we should be alarmed and informed enough to take action. We should never dismiss these as the “few” cases – there’s enough of these cases that makes this OUR problem. Every single week for an entire year there’s one story after another about these incidents and yet the outcry remains largely invisible particularly in these media outlets, who instead publish these horrid stories about maids being “pampered.”

So I have a few questions for Shuchita Kapur, one of the authors of such offensive and unnecessary op-ed pieces. You think it’s tough having to “pamper” a maid? Having to provide for her the way she gave up years of her life to provide for you? Having to grant this individual who catered to your every need a decent request? Go through one day as a maid and I assure you, you will never complain again. I’m confident it will change the tone of your stories when you realize the challenges and physical/psychological pressures involved in the job. When you are turned away from public spaces, mocked, dismissed, and harassed because the entire community around you deems you so pitiful to the point of worthlessness. When the idea of reuniting with your family is a distant dream that may or may never happen depending on nothing but pure “luck” because your protection is never guaranteed.

Shuchita, I doubt you have the strength required to endure this pain.

It might appear from the influx of tragic stories that these maids are weak and helpless. Make no mistake in assuming that. Most have the inspiring courage, determination, and patience necessary to survive decades of abuse, imprisoned in a household where they are taken advantage of, mistreated and never appreciated, all the while missing out on watching their own families grow. How many of us can go through that?

It’s time for us to urgently take a stance against trivializing abuse of migrant workers in the media.

And yet it’s deeply disturbing that racism and discrimination in some Gulf papers do not raise any red flags amongst its editors. Some even get away with portraying maids as killers without much of an outcry. Is it because it has become common knowledge?

Inserting “Kuwait maid” on a Google search results in a viral video titled “Maid Stealing from wallet (Kuwait). BEWARE!!” – it has been viewed almost half a million times. Emirates 24/7 recently published this piece, titled: Five signs to spot a maid about to abscond.

The five signs? Your maid acting like a perfectly normal human being:

1) What if the maid is using a mobile phone? Perhaps to connect with the family that she is deprived from seeing or having any other form of communication with. For years. But wait, no! Can’t be. She is most likely conspiring with others to run away and leave you to clean your own damned dishes. “BEWARE!!”

2) Is your maid going outside? Maybe for some fresh air? Unbelievable! She needs air? Fuck off!

3) Your maid is sick? No. YOU’RE sick. For believing that she’s sick. She can’t be. She’s a maid. She needs to work. No sick days off. Get it done. Not gonna pay it min-wage for nothing. What’s the worst that can happen? She dies? Order another of her kind.

4) Buying travel bags. Or any kind of bags. Or food or water or any other necessities. Buying anything. Everything she needs is available. She really doesn’t need much. Just a uniform and like, a banana or something.

5) Meeting old and new friends during her weekly holiday. Oh wait, WHAT HOLIDAY? Who is she meeting? They’re conspiring to steal the house. The cars. Maybe even the husband? No way! Lock her in the room. Maids only need one friend. It’s called a broom.

In all seriousness, why should these be signs for anything other than having certain rights that can amount to a somewhat better life. None of these signs are anything short of completely reasonable.

It’s clear that the authorities do not take it seriously when a worker is killed or investigates causes of suicide, which persist at alarming rates. But a worker commits a crime and it’s frontpage material – meetings are immediately held to discuss collective punishments, often resulting in racist generalizations and further discriminatory policies that punishes not just the the worker who commits the crime but all other maids from that particular country or maids in general. As an example, look no further than this case.

Of course some maids commit crimes. That’s terrible. However, it’s not right to deny that the ratio is far less in comparison to the maids who return to their countries with their bodies completely disfigured beyond recognition – or the number of maids who don’t make it out of our countries alive.

Really, who needs to send the warnings to whom? Who really needs to “BEWARE!!”?

There are many steps to be taken to prevent this endless cycle of migrant rights violations – but amongst the first steps is to stop trivializing abuse and recognizing the simple fact that maids have human needs that must be respected and protected as well.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is one of the leading contenders for the position of Person of the Year, supposedly for his hand in the democratic aspirations of the Middle East uprisings and for his moderate Islamist leadership. Not one mention of the Kurds and of the years of discrimination against Kurds is ever brought up. Should TIME magazine name Erdogan Person of the Year, they would once again be denying the Kurdish people the suffering that they felt under Erdogan’s government, and would contribute to a major step backwards to activists passionate about the Kurdish cause everywhere.

The following is a statement that the Alliance for Kurdish Rights has compiled in protest of the nomination. Please endorse this statement, and then pass it on to TIME magazine, at letters(at)time.com. We cannot let the Kurdish struggle once again be sidelined.

Official Statement:

TIME magazine’s Person of the Year award is an internationally recognized achievement that despite its original intention, awards a certain amount of honor and prestige onto its recipient. At the very least, it is an indication that the recipient has changed the world, usually for the better, but always in a significant and deep way. The nomination of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as TIME’s Person of the Year is not an innocuous statement. Erdogan has been nominated for supposedly being an icon of the Arab Spring, a protector of justice and human dignity, and a strong leader not just in Turkey but in the Middle East.

However, for Turkey’s Kurdish population, Erdogan is recognized for overseeing the countless crimes committed against human dignity by his government. Erdogan’s reputation as a positive leader contradicts the fact that there are presently thousands of Kurds in Turkish prisons, and that the Turkish army, under the policies of his government, regularly carries out military assaults in Iraq and Iran, which often result in civilian casualties and the destruction of innocent people’s livelihoods. Additionally, Turkey’s anti-terrorism laws remain among the strictest in the world, and are often used to target Kurdish activists and censor both Kurdish and non-Kurdish journalists, professors, and even those that merely choosing to defend the Kurdish people’s rights. Under Erdogan’s leadership, anti-terrorism laws have been strengthened rather than overturned. In fact, according to the International Press Institute, Turkey imprisons more journalists than any other country in the world, including China. Despite assuming power on a platform of democratic reform for the entire country and an open dialogue with regards to the Kurdish question, Erdogan’s eight years in office have proven to be a step backwards for human rights and dignity.

Considering how rarely the plight of the Kurds is acknowledged in mainstream media, the nomination of Erdogan for the Person of the Year award will further normalize his image as a proponent rather than a frequent abuser of human rights. Erdogan’s crimes are already concealed behind a reputation of innovation and change. In fact, Foreign Policy magazine nominated him as one of the top 100 Global Thinkers of our time, waxing poetic about his influence in the region and his supposed stance on behalf of freedom in the Arab world without a single mention of the Kurds. If TIME were to join the ranks of Foreign Policy Magazine in singing Erdogan’s praises, 15 million Kurds in Turkey will again see their voices silenced, their suffering invalidated, as the person responsible for their injustice once again gets rewarded.

This article first appeared on our website KurdishRights.org, which documents the persecution against the Kurdish people in the Middle East.

Can someone please explain this logic?

Check out the debates on homophobia in the region at Ahwaa.org.

I really wonder as some state that Israel and its resolutions to the regional peace are solutions to Middle East!!! Israel since its early days has been a misery to the Middle East and now since some of her supporting dictators as Mubarak are gone, she feels must do something, to play some kind of peaceful  shows to fix its situation in the new Middle East. They are preparing to call for peace negotiations but its late my friends. You’ve done the worst in the historic mind of Middle Eastern people. Are we puppets to make us dance as you like? No my friends!

It’s too late for change, too late!

With regards to Egypt, at first when the Mubarak regime seemed stable, the attacks on protesters were not condemned and the administration urged all sides to show restraint. The administration changed its tone when the protests grew larger and Mubarak’s departure seemed imminent. However, when Mubarak kept clinging to his chair and the protests seemed to be waning (before Wael Ghonim’s release), the administration stopped calling for and immediate transition (which was always supposed to involve Omar Suleiman, Mubarak’s henchman). Once Mubarak resigned, Obama came out to give a stirring speech about the importance of freedom, democracy, people power, pointing out several times in his speech that the protests were peaceful.

I hope that the people of Egypt and Tunisia will not forget the US administration’s policy during their fight for freedom.

To illustrate my point, below are quotes from administration officials about Tunisia and Egypt, before and after the resignations of Ben Ali and Mubarak respectively. Highlights are mine.

Tunisia

Before:

“[T]his is a protest that has, unfortunately, provoked such a reaction from the government, leading to the deaths of mostly young people who were protesting. And, as I say, we are not taking sides, but we are saying we hope that there can be a peaceful resolution. And I hope that the Tunisian Government can bring that about. Secretary Hillary Clinton, January 11.

After:

I condemn and deplore the use of violence against citizens peacefully voicing their opinion in Tunisia, and I applaud the courage and dignity of the Tunisian people. The United States stands with the entire international community in bearing witness to this brave and determined struggle for the universal rights that we must all uphold, and we will long remember the images of the Tunisian people seeking to make their voices heard. President Barack Obama, February 14

Egypt

Before:

“We urge that all parties exercise restraint and refrain from violence. But our assessment is that the Egyptian Government is stable and is looking for ways to respond to the legitimate needs and interests of the Egyptian people.” – Secretary Hillary Clinton, January 25

“We reiterate our call for all sides in Egypt to show restraint and avoid violence. Egypt’s path to democratic change must be peaceful.” State Department spokesman PJ Crowley, Feb 2

After:

For the spirit of peaceful protest and perseverance that the Egyptian people have shown can serve as a powerful wind at the back of this change… We saw protesters chant “Selmiyya, selmiyya” — “We are peaceful” — again and again. President Barack Obama, February 11.

“Rape is the only crime in which the victim becomes the accused.”

Let’s start by defining rape. What is rape? Rape is basically a sexual form of violence that involves sexual assault on another person, coercing them into engaging in acts of sex without their consent. In most cases, sexual offenders and rapists are male, with only rare cases of the sexual offender or rapist being a female.

So why do men rape women? Well, there’s no definite answer that could explain why but there are several reasons that I can basically think of, because there are a lot of factors involved in the act including the nature of the rapist himself, the victim and the setting in general; when and where it happened.

When rape can be sometimes impulsive, where some guy’s sexual urges reach a critical point beyond which he can consciously control; being lacking of discipline, thus giving in to his primal urges and attempting to rape the woman he’s been so prodigiously wanting, in order to achieve sexual gratification. Rape can also be an act with a purpose behind it.

How is that possible? Well… it is, as you will see in a bit.

Power rape, this is one form of rape where the man sexually assaults a woman not because of sexual urges primarily, but because rape to them is a way of compensating for their underlying feelings of inadequacy and incompetency. The act of rape itself feeds their issues of mastery, control, strength, authority and capability allowing them to think that they are able. A power rapist’s intention is to assert his competency and validate his masculinity, superiority and prowess as a male, not much brute force is used in that form of rape, it mostly relies on verbal threats and intimidation, with enough force to only subdue the victim. Usually this type of man fantasizes a lot about rape and has the belief that once they overpower the victim, that she starts to actually enjoy it, they basically NEED to believe that the victim enjoyed it.

However with this only being a fantasy, it does not really reassure the rapist of his adequacy, forcing him to find another woman to rape, and hence it becomes repetitive, leading to a series of rape incidents in a short period of time.

Anger rape, this is another form of rape where the purpose of rape is to humiliate and debase the woman. The rapist expresses contempt to the woman through the use of excessive physical violence and verbal profanity. For an anger rapist, sex is their weapon to degrade the woman, it is the ultimatum of their expression for their anger. Usually this form of rape is characterized by physical brutality, much more physical force is used during the assault than would be necessary if the intent were simply to overpower the victim and achieve penetration. He usually attacks their victim by grabbing, striking and knocking the victim to the ground, beating them, tearing their clothes, and raping them. He doesn’t have sexual conquest fantasies, he doesn’t need to know if the victim enjoyed it.

To him, rape is just his conscious expression of anger and rage. This is usually common with cases were males rape lesbians in an attempt to “correct” their sexual orientation, a process termed as ‘corrective rape’, or if we want to adopt Middle Eastern examples, a man raping a woman to force her into “correcting” herself and becoming more “Islamic”.

And last but not least, sadistic rape. This in my opinion is the sickest and most morose of all. For such rapists, the act of aggression itself is eroticized. Sexual excitement and gratification to them is associated with the infliction of pain upon their victim, and torturing them. He finds the intentional maltreatment of his victim to be sexually satisfying to him, along with the victim’s torment, anguish, helplessness and distress. Sadistic rape usually involves torture and restraint, which sometimes takes on a ritualistic nature with bizarre characteristics, the rapist may use some type of instrument or foreign object to penetrate their victim and sometimes, some sexual areas or erogenous zones of the victim’s body become a specific focus of injury or abuse.

Such a rapist’s assaults are deliberate, calculated and planned. They will often wear a disguise or will blindfold their victims. Prostitutes or other people whom they perceive to have high sexual promiscuity are often the sadistic rapist’s targets. He believes that such people should be either punished or disciplined, or that they should be introduced first hand to what he believes to be the real essence and purpose of sex.

Sadly enough, most victims of a sadistic rapist may not survive the attack, because for some of them, the ultimate satisfaction is gained from murdering the victim, and perhaps later on continuing to engage in the act of raping her body.

And with that, we conclude our short journey, where we explored and had a look on how a rapist’s mind works. I hope it was informative to all of you, especially the women out there.

So watch out, always keep that mace/taser or whatever else you have at the ready, don’t talk to strangers, and remember that trust in a person is earned, not given.

To my surprise, here are the sample of comments that followed. These are 5 comments that translate to “she deserved it,” with one generally mocking her appearance instead of commenting at all about the sexual crime.

It is not a mystery why people commonly sympathize with rapists or why sexual harassment has become prevalent in our societies, with often little to no consequences to punish the criminals who have the law and the mainstream media on their side.

Of interest, here are other examples: