Think about it! Posted on » Saturday, December 20, 2014 I recently read articles in GDN about discrimination against maids and workers, and I am appalled. I am a white man in my late 40s who came to Bahrain just over a year ago, ignorant of how life is in the Middle East, the expats who work here and myself brainwashed by the Western media before making the plunge to live and work here. Since I came I have embraced this country and love the people here, Bahrainis being some of the friendliest people I have met. I am neither Muslim, Christian nor Catholic, some would frown upon my non-belief, yet I do not judge anyone. I have, during my 12 months of living and working in the GCC, come to know many expats, and as I am responsible for some 65 staff from six cities in four countries in the GCC, I have come to know about their culture and stories. There are many women expats who work here, some are single mums who are away from their children for two years at a time. For a mother to be away from her children is a huge emotional wrench. Mothers are mothers and both Arab and Western women alike dont know what this is like. These expat women have a choice to stay at home, but work away to ensure their own children get a better education. In the West schooling is free, we have a benefit system that looks after the needs of mothers so they dont need to leave home, other countries dont have that luxury. When will men realise women are people, have emotions, are having to work away from their family and children to make a better life for them. When will men realise that women are stronger in so many ways, if not physically. Why do some men think that because women are not stronger physically, they can treat them differently? Using the fact that these people need money to support their families, you feel you can treat them as slaves? Women are far stronger emotionally than us, and work harder than men, at home and at work. We have our own factory in Saudi where we employed women on one production line, they turned up every day, early, they were the first to start work and produced three times the output than the men. However, we lost this contract and because the other contracts demanded physical strength in lifting large boxes, we had to let the women go, but if we could, we would have employed all women in this factory, they were also paid the same as men. How can any person, knowing that maids, women or workers have families to look after back home, abuse these people by not paying their salary, and even raping them! You are not only causing emotional stress to that individual, their families are starving back home. Shame on any man or employer who does such a thing, hold your head in shame. Embrace women for their compassion and hard work, and dont be threatened by them because maybe they will outshine you ethically and at work, because more often than not, they will. I may not judge you, but if you are God fearing, I hope you are being judged for the immoral things you do. Next time you are at the till in a supermarket, that woman looks you in the eye, wishes you a good day, with a genuine smile, think about what you have just read. Ian Watson
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 18:30:09 +0000
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