Shocking Saudis!

Agence France Presse:

An advertising agency in Saudi Arabia plans to air public service commercials to promote kinder treatment of domestic helpers in a country where reports of abuse of foreign workers abound. The ads will air on Arab satellite television stations after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, expected to end on October 12, said Kaswara al-Khatib, founder and chief creative director of Full Stop Advertising.

[...] "We deal with helpers as if they are not humans and have no feelings," (quote from Kaswara al-Khatib, founder and chief creative director of Full Stop Advertising).

[...] Reports of exploitation ranging from the withholding of salaries and passports to physical assault and sexual abuse are increasingly appearing in the local press.

New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) charged in August that the beating to death of two Indonesian female workers by a Saudi family highlighted the "atmosphere of impunity fostered by government inaction" toward abusive employers.

In July 2004, HRW was accused by Riyadh of exaggerating the incidence of foreign labor abuse in Saudi Arabia after it released a report alleging that foreign workers were systematically exploited, some of them living in slave-like conditions.

Riyadh police teamed up with the Sri Lankan Embassy in September to rescue a Sri Lankan maid who had telephoned the Arab News newspaper to say she had been imprisoned, abused and unpaid by her woman employer for at least seven years. [...]

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I find it shocking and revolting that such practices happen in Saudi. Islam is not about covering your hair and acting prude or not speaking to ghair-mahram men while you starve your domestic help at home, it starts with treating your fellow human being with dignity, respect and mercy, especially when you are in a position of power over them!.

Indeed, as the ad campaign features, "He who has no mercy will not receive mercy,"(Hadeeth quote) Certainly in this case that's how it should be!