MADINA: Studies show that 89 percent of Saudi homes in the Kingdom have at least one housemaid in their employment, and that 79 percent of them are of non-Arab origin. The figures were stated at a symposium on violence against house workers held in Madina Saturday, which heard specialists tackle the various forms and effects of physical, sexual and mental abuse, as well as the detrimental effects of the presence of a housemaid to employers. Psychologist Dr. Naif Al-Marwani said that housemaids attempt to flee their sponsors due to maltreatment, non-payment of wages, sexual aggression, being sent to work for other people, differences in customs and traditions, and homesickness. “Others reasons entail overwork and no provision of health care,” he said. The number of housemaids is also ever-increasing, the symposium noted, with the figure currently approaching two million. “This is because they are easy and cheap to recruit and give social status,” Al-Marwani said. “The hosting of visits and occasions is important in Saudi society, and women have gone out to work and are overburdened with household duties.” He added that many employers are unaware of the detrimental effects of inviting a stranger into the home. “There is a fear of relationships developing between the housemaid and male members of the family, or possibly friends and acquaintances. They bring different practices which the family's children might imitate, or they might get involved in socially unacceptable behavior, or in crime, such as theft, prostitution, magic, and murder, or try to commit suicide.” Al-Marwani proposed setting up courts to solely handle cases involving house workers, publishing information booklets on Saudi culture, making them aware of their rights in Shariah Law, commitment to laws dealing with abuse and punishment deterrents, and clear job descriptions for housemaids. Dr. Naif Al-Harbi of the Education College for Studies and Scientific Research said the reason for violence against housemaids could be summed up as “basically economic, social, religious and sexual”. “Violence is viewed in psychology as an expression of hostility, through oppression and direct or indirect moral abuse, a form of behavior to secure power through aggression against the other person's will, whether mentally, socially or physically,” Al
