comes to the domestic workers they employ.
An expat Arab couple on my compound once yelled at MY nanny (when I wasn't around) and told her she wasn't allowed to go into the swimming pool with my child. When I heard about it, I marched over to their house and explained that she most definitely WAS allowed, and that I, in fact, expected her to do that, and that if they had a problem with it, they could take it up with ME, not her.
But I definitely got the vibe that they felt that an Asian nanny would somehow 'pollute' the pool or something. Ridiculous...
I also have heard from my nanny that other families deny their housekeeper/nanny adequate access to food...and so I end up sending food from my house over to them privately.
It's awful really -- anyone who lives here and can employ a domestic worker can afford to treat them well. There's no excuse. And the governments need to start advocating for these women -- starting with having the labor laws apply to them. Even here in Qatar domestics are considered part of the family so labor law doesn't apply to them. But all that basically means is that there is no way for them to seek redress when they are discriminated against (because God knows, people never treat them like part of the family).
Slavery went out of fashion long ago. It's time the Arab countries started doing more to help protect the poor immigrant women who travel to their countries and work hard to help take care of their families.
"If you're looking for sympathy, you'll find it between sh*t and syphilis in the dictionary."
- David Sedaris
comes to the domestic workers they employ.
An expat Arab couple on my compound once yelled at MY nanny (when I wasn't around) and told her she wasn't allowed to go into the swimming pool with my child. When I heard about it, I marched over to their house and explained that she most definitely WAS allowed, and that I, in fact, expected her to do that, and that if they had a problem with it, they could take it up with ME, not her.
But I definitely got the vibe that they felt that an Asian nanny would somehow 'pollute' the pool or something. Ridiculous...
I also have heard from my nanny that other families deny their housekeeper/nanny adequate access to food...and so I end up sending food from my house over to them privately.
It's awful really -- anyone who lives here and can employ a domestic worker can afford to treat them well. There's no excuse. And the governments need to start advocating for these women -- starting with having the labor laws apply to them. Even here in Qatar domestics are considered part of the family so labor law doesn't apply to them. But all that basically means is that there is no way for them to seek redress when they are discriminated against (because God knows, people never treat them like part of the family).
Slavery went out of fashion long ago. It's time the Arab countries started doing more to help protect the poor immigrant women who travel to their countries and work hard to help take care of their families.
"If you're looking for sympathy, you'll find it between sh*t and syphilis in the dictionary."
- David Sedaris