I was laughing at a news item published in a newspaper few days ago. It was about a Singapore woman who received a two-weeks jail sentence and a $300 fine for beating her maid with a toothbrush for accidentally spilling water on her son.
Most of us would laugh at this punishment. Beating up a maid with a toothbrush is a pat on the back. Beatings here include sticks, cursing and severe humiliation.
As to why we go to the extreme when we are dealing with our maids: We don’t have judges that disagree with our disciplinary theories in dealing with maids and drivers. In our society, it is impossible that a Saudi woman would ever go to jail for slapping a maid, or even beating her.
I read in Al-Watan daily last week that a Saudi woman from Tabarjal, in Al-Jouf region, murdered her maid on her second-to-last day of work because she broke some plates. The Saudi had taken a knife and stabbed the maid in the back, leaving her to bleed to death.
While cases like this are rare, the culture of violence against domestic workers is spreading. We must admit rather than deny this. The women that murdered her maid didn’t do this spontaneously. She had beaten the woman in the past, setting examples for her children. These children will grow up knowing that there is no Singapore judge who will send them to jail for committing such atrocious acts.
