Atrocities for dowry

While I was in my office, I heard someone sobbing. As the noise grew louder, I rose from my seat and walked toward the noise. I found our Bangladeshi tea boy crying in the toilet. I went up to him and asked what was the problem. Amid sobs he said he received a call from his home that his sister had been burned by her in-laws.

His parents had called him to inform about the incident as also to seek his financial help. It was not long ago that his mother was sick and I and my office colleagues had raised an amount of money to help him. So, we couldn’t go about for another round of collection.

I asked him to tell his parents to file a case with the local police against the culprits and make them pay for the burn treatment.

He said the police in Bangladesh asked for money to register a crime such as “setting a woman on fire.” Then I asked why did the in-laws do it? Because, they needed the last share of the dowry, which happened to be a fridge!

The next day the tea boy told me his sister was nearly half-burned and that his mother had sent her back to her in-laws. I was shocked and started thinking.

Parents marry off their children on the promise of more dowries and the other side metes out inhuman treatment — they don’t even hesitate to burn a human being alive. The police seek bribes to register cases. All these are happening in a country where a majority of the people are Muslims.

Children are not given love, care and education. They are instead sent away to foreign countries to earn for their families! They take up any menial job, slog under the sun in blistering summers or freeze in winters to make a living and to support their families back home.

They are underpaid because they are not skilled laborers. Some of them resort to crime and end up in jails. What has happened to the values and morals of the people who run that country? The thought continues to haunt me.

Marx Envi, Alkhobar published 7 August 2009

Stranded Pakistanis

After returning from vacation and going through some of the old news, I happened to bump into an interesting story, “Help sought for stranded Pakistanis” (June 30). The stateless people have been languishing in camps for more than three decades. Their predicament began as soon as Pakistan lost its eastern wing (East Pakistan) in 1971. Since then they are suffering untold miseries. Political expediency prevented successive governments in Islamabad from bringing back these hapless people to their own country. Aid from other global organizations have also not been forthcoming.

As per the report, there are 13,000 NGOs working in Bangladesh but hardly five NGOs work for stranded Pakistanis in the camps.

US-based welfare group OBAT Helpers and Muslim Welfare & Development Organization are doing a great job. But these two organizations cannot cope with the needs of the destitute people there.

It is tragic that while rulers in Pakistan and Bangladesh have totally ignored these people, even the UNHCR and Pakistan-based NGOs like Edhi are doing nothing to mitigate their suffering. The solution to this longstanding problem lies in the repatriation of all those willing to come to Pakistan. Some 200,000 people were repatriated to Pakistan by the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1973. The PPP government should finish the job begun by the party founder by reactivating the Rabita Trust and restarting the repatriation of the stranded Pakistanis.

M. Fazlur Rahman, Jeddah published 7 August 2009

Untold story of 9/11

This refers to the article, “The untold story of 9/11” (July 31). I think Aijaz Zaka’s overactive imagination is getting the best of him. How can he “hear their cries” when he himself said he doesn’t know how many are out there? I do not argue that some Muslims were horribly mistreated after 9/11, but by international standards it seems par for the course.

The only reason the writer is so enraged that these particular Muslims were mistreated is because the US is expected to be better than everyone else. And the only reason that he knows Muslims were mistreated is because the US is a transparent country that tries very hard not to keep secrets that aren’t necessary for its national security.

Maybe it would just be better if Muslims stayed in Muslim countries where they are nice and safe and non-Muslims can stay out of Muslim countries.

Mark Anderson, By e-mail published 7 August 2009

Another kind of Saudization

This refers to Siraj Wahab’s well-researched article, “It’s another kind of Saudization” (July 30). Two things struck me: First one is the fact that the concept of Saudization has more of an emotional appeal than a practical one; secondly, that the difference between the Saudis and the expatriates is so wide that although we coexist in such close proximity to each other there is a total lack of awareness of the situation of the other.

Certainly, entrepreneurs can expect much benefit from a change of nationality, but then there is an angle even to that — people who have tried and succeeded at naturalization in this country endure a very subtle discrimination at different levels.

The issue is rooted in the nature of the culture itself. Saudi Arabia is steeped in a tradition, which is strictly tribal. In this society, foreigners are very welcome as long as they don’t overstay their visit.

People from the subcontinent, who form a majority of those in line for naturalization, encounter various hurdles along the way as described in the article. In fact, it seems that while the government has made some provisions for naturalization to take its normal course, there is resistance to the process of assimilation and accommodation starting with the family unit itself.

Marriages with Saudis and the children ensuing from these alliances are often hard hit. Interestingly, as with other things in the Kingdom (jobs, for example) there seems to be a grave insecurity in nearly every aspect of life. Both men and women aren’t secure in their marriages and their children are regarded as aliens or second-class citizens at best. It is no wonder then that those who can manage it decide to opt for distant lands to materialize their dreams of love, marriage, a comfortable living and most of all, freedom.

Ozma Siddiqui, Jeddah published 7 August 2009