Saudi mercy campaign highlights Islamic values

A Saudi media campaign drawing attention to the abuse many migrant domestic workers face and emphasizing Islamic teachings of mercy to one's subordinates is sparking controversy within Saudi society.

Rahma, Arabic for ‘mercy’, is a series of TV sequences that advocate for a change in attitude towards foreign workers. The campaign consists of clips of common domestic abuse of servants by wealthy owners which air regularly on Saudi-owned satellite channels MBC and Rotana.

Each sequence is followed by Prophet Muhammad's hadith-saying-about the reciprocity of mercy between people.

One such sequence shows a Saudi hostess yelling at her South Asian servant for not moving quickly to put food on the table. The hostess hurls insults at the maid, calling her “abnormal” and telling her to “get out of my face.”

A caption then appears with the Prophet’s hadith: "man la yarham, la yurham (He who shows no mercy, will receive no mercy [from Allah])."

Rahma was launched a month ago by an anonymous private local firm denouncing abuse of domestic workers.

“We sometimes forget that those who we deal with as helpers are actually human beings. We are obliged to treat them well. Why ask them to do things that we can’t bear ourselves? If we have mercy on them, then Allah will have mercy on us,” Kaswara Khatib, director general of Full Stop Advertising which helped launch the initiative told the Saudi daily Arab News.

Saudi HR association welcomes initiative

Zuhair al-Harithi, spokesman of Saudi Association for Human Rights (SAHR), a government-body working with Saudi families and foreign workers in the Kingdom, welcomed the Rahma campaign.

"The campaign is certainly an important step in raising awareness amongst Saudis," he told AlArabiya.net.

"It also shores up the initiative of the Saudi government and media in tackling local issues our society faces," he added.

Another sequence shows a Saudi man denying his overly worked South Asian servant his wages and refusing to grant his Saudi employee time off work for family emergency. The clip ends with the Prophet's words.

The campaign’s print version includes ads advertised in local newspapers under the title “Don’t Strip Me of My Humanity,” some of which show a maid held inside a kennel with a dog collar around her neck, and a foreign driver tied like a horse with a Saudi woman holding the reins.

Critics complain

Despite its Islamic and human message, the campaign has several critics complaining.

Journalists and writers against the campaign called for its end, arguing that it portrays Saudi people as harsh.

Journalist Terad al-Asmari, said to local sources that the campaign overlooked abuse of domestic workers in other societies.

"It could lead to hatred between foreign labor and Saudi citizens," he said.

A Saudi academic, Dr. Moutlaq al-Mouteery, also spoke against airing the campaign on satellite channels. He wrote that "discussing domestic problems on satellite channels turns them into a scandal [for Saudi Arabia]."

But Saudi human rights lawyer and activist Abdel Rahman al-Lahim defended the media drive, arguing that the campaign is a vital way to bring an important issue to light.

"Unlike conferences and seminars, a media campaign like Rahma reaches the average man and woman, who are more often than not, those same employers who mistreat their servants," he told AlArabiya.net.

"As Saudis we must have the courage to face problems of abuse on all fronts. We should be the first to address them, rather than wait for others to tell us to," he explained referring to HRW reports that documented domestic abuse in Saudi Arabia in 2006.

It could lead to hatred between foreign labor and the Saudi citizen.

Terad al-Asmari, Saudi journalist

Government action, local initiative

An estimated 1.5 million migrant domestic workers flock to Saudi Arabia in search of work and a descent life, yet many end up experiencing issues like emotional and physical abuse and non-wage payments at the hands of their wealthy employers, a 2006 HRW report said.

Lack of a legal framework regulating the relationship between domestic workers and their hirers is the main cause of human rights violations, and has mobilized the SHAR and the Saudi ministry of labor in the past years to put in place legal guarantees and protections for laborers.

"SAHR in collaboration with the Saudi ministry of labor came up with an alternative to individual sponsorship of domestic workers. Sponsoring depends on private relations between families and brokers."

"The Saudi government has taken up the initiative of legalizing professional contractors and corporations through which Saudi families can hire a maid based on a written contract between the company, worker and family."