Laura Bashraheel and Fatima Muhammad Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Tala, a four-year-old girl who was allegedly decapitated by an Indonesian housemaid in Yanbu, was buried after Friday prayers. The crime has shocked the entire Saudi society, especially working mothers who leave their kids in the care of their housemaids. Afnan, a medical technologist who works 12 hours a day, said she was thinking of leaving her job and staying home with her one-year-old daughter. “After hearing of this brutal murder, I don't want to leave my child for even one minute with the maid,” she said. Afnan said she had difficulty finding a maid after the ban on recruitment from Indonesia. “My maid has no visa and she might leave anytime. How can I trust her with my daughter?” she said. Afnan said when there are no signs of psychological illnesses or indications of instability parents would never know when to be careful. “I always expect the worse,” she added. Suha Turki, a mother of four, was in complete shock when she heard Tala's story. “I can't believe anyone in the right mind who is able to kill a child this way. I heard that she was sitting in the living room watching television after she decapitated the child, which means she is not stable,” Turki added. Turki has quit her job to stay with her children. “I have two housemaids and I trust one of them completely as she has been with me for three years now. I always try to look for signs when they first arrive to see what are they capable of. But it is very hard to predict,” she said. “When I want to leave my kids and go out, I usually take them to my parents' house,” Turki said. Maha Al-Saeed, a mother of three, said she is totally against the idea of leaving her kids with housemaids, as they can never be trusted. “I had a maid who used to shout at my child which I found out by chance and I didn't allow her to stay. She had a bad temper and such people are capable of anything,” she said. Al-Saeed said housemaids are still strangers who, in the end, only care for themselves. The housemaid who allegedly decapitated Tala with a cleaver has been referred to the Madinah Mental Health Hospital for evaluation. Psychologists who commented on the gory incident say that housemaids who commit heinous crimes against children are mentally troubled and have hostile personalities. “This type of personality shows you that she is nice on the outside but deep inside she hates and abhors you and might one day express this hatred through violence,” said one psychologist who analyzed the Yanbu maid's personality. Following the incident in Yanbu, women teachers all over the Kingdom have started a campaign asking the Ministry of Education to establish daycare centers at schools so they can keep their children near them instead of leaving them for long hours with maids. “Tala's incident has touched the hearts of mothers who work as teachers,” said Moneera Al-Matrouk, a Saudi reporter who is heading the campaign. Tala's mother, a teacher, came home after work last Wednesday to see her daughter's decapitated body lying in a pool of blood. The teachers, who already had concerns about leaving their young kids at home with maids, are in great distress after this incident. “Ever since we started this campaign I am receiving calls and messages non-stop. Teachers contact me on my phone and on social media. Every teacher is taking Tala's incident as her own,” said Al-Matrouk. According to Al-Matrouk, they will launch a website in which they will call for daycare centers to be established in all Saudi schools, both public and private. “All the stories that I hear from teachers demand a quick solution. A teacher could go to school only to come back and find her kids in the street as the maid flees leaving them alone. Other teachers complain about their children are being physically abused by their maids.” The issue is more threatening for teachers who are working in schools in rural areas as they tend to leave their homes quite early.
