Download An Indonesian house maid who has accused her female Saudi employer of stabbing, beating and burning her appeared in court for the first time this week.
23 year on Sumiati Bint Salan Mustapa showed the Saudi judge her wounds: broken bones, burns to her head from a hot iron and cuts from scissors.
There are six million Indonesian women working as nannies, cleaners and cooks in wealthier countries like Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.
And despite frequent horrific cases like Sumiati’s more women leave daily.
To try and better prepare these women for the tough job ahead of them training centers have been set up in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
Esther de Jong went along to one of them called Amri Margatama in the satellite suburb of Bekasi.
In a class room sitting on chairs are about 30 Indonesian women reciting Arabic numbers as if they are meditating.
In the next room women are learning how to use modern appliances like vacuum cleaners.
40-year-old Tarni is impressed by the big stoves.
“In my house I only have two gas burners, but here there are so many! I was so confused, so I asked the teacher and the teacher explained how to use them.”
During the 21 day course Tarni also learns how to cook and child care skills.
But what she is most worried about is communicating with her new boss.
“I have never been to Saudi Arabia before and learning the language is really hard. I am trying to do my best and I am doing OK but it’s really hard. I am afraid that I will not be able to talk to people in Saudi Arabia so I have to try my best.”
Tarni is more prepared than most.
Many Indonesian women go to Saudi Arabia with no training whatsoever. Local NGO Migrant Care estimates that 20 percent of them end up being abused.
Dikdik Karyadi heads the training division at this centre.
“It’s miscommunication between the employer and the maid. They don’t speak the language well. Why did Sumiati have problems? Because she doesn’t speak Arabic. You can minimise that with some lessons. So it is miscommunication with the employer - the employer asks for a spoon and the maid doesn’t understand and brings a knife. It’s pure miscommunication.”
The Sumiati he is talking about was badly abused by her Saudi employer.
She says she cut her lips with scissors and burnt her body with an iron.
Nuryanah, who wants to work in Saudi Arabia says cases like this do make her worried.
“Yes, we talk about it, what to do, when we are there. We reassure each other that it will be all right. I am afraid but if Allah is willing we have to be strong. We pray to Allah and hope he listens to us.”
I know the phone number of this training centre in Jakarta, she says, I will call it if something bad happens.
“We have to find a way to report, when we go out we have to bring the number. We should memorize the number here.”
She points to her head.
Women are told to call this training center if something goes wrong but they receive no instruction on how to deal with violence or mistreatment.
And even Dikdik Karyadi says some of his graduates have problems.
“We have women who fail, most of the time it is because of a bad employer. They go back to the agent in Saudi Arabia, he tries to negotiate, but if a woman doesn’t want to go back, she can come back home to Indonesia. But it is just a small percentage. It’s about them working 24 hours or miscommunication like in Sumiati’s case. There are women that fail, but not so much, it’s relative. Most of them succeed. The Indonesian media only reports about the cases that go wrong, I want them to expose those who succeed too.”
Success stories like Nuryanah’s sisters.
“My sisters are there and they are very happy. My other sister had returned home and the other is still there. They have been able to buy rice fields, cows and even a house.”
It’s this dream that leads millions of women like Tarni to take the risk.
“I have a daughter at high school; her dream is to become a teacher. Her father doesn’t have a steady income; therefore I go there so that my daughter won’t be a maid like her mum. I want her to become a teacher. I want to fulfill her dreams.”
