DEMO
29-04-2018, 17:05
'I remember the trickle of petrol going down my back,' recalls one of the many domestic workers who sought sanctuary in a safe house.
DHAKA - The crowds wait outside the arrivals terminal at Shahjalal International airport as dozens of taxi drivers line the streets looking for business.
Armies of beggars plead for attention from passersby, while passengers leave the arrivals hall carrying flat-screen TVs or oversized boxes wrapped in cling-film.
A group of women appear amid the constant stream of people. Dressed in an array of colours, they pull their suitcases, looking for their loved ones.
Khaleda Akhter, 28, has just spent months inside a Bangladeshi-run safe house in Saudi Arabia, and is desperate to see her two children. Holding a copy of the Quran to her chest, she scans the arrivals hall for the exit, then begins to walk towards the double doors. Initially, her steps are slow and steady, as she takes in what has changed since she left Bangladesh a year .
Akhter figures out where to head, clutches her black abaya to avoid it dragging on the ground and begins zipping through the traffic to the train station. From there, she will embark on the next leg of her journey back home to Rajshahi, 250 km away near the border with India.
But underneath her clothing lies a reminder of why Akhter left Saudi Arabia. Unravelling the bandages on her arms, she shows the marks that symbolise the price she paid for wanting a better life.
"They tried to burn me,” Akhter says, wiping away a tear. "Not once, but twice. If I knew this would happen, I would never have gone.”
'I had to give it a shot'
Like hundreds of Bengalis who went to work as domestic workers in the Gulf kingdom, Akhter fled her employers after months of abuse.
She represents one of the thousands of women from the country who each year make the journey to the kingdom in the hope of a better life.
In 2018, at least 1,000 Bengali maids returned to Bangladesh to escape physical and sexual abuse in Saudi, according to local NGO BRAC. Most escaped to one of the safe houses run by the Bangladeshi embassy in Riyadh and Jeddah.
Many have been not been paid by their employers and had their passports taken away by recruitment agents, who first sold them the dream of working in the Gulf state.
Akhter sits in the restaurant adjacent to the train station, holding the hand of Aisha Begum, a fellow domestic worker, who ran away from an employer who did not pay her for four months and repeatedly beat her.
The restaurant is packed. Plates of rice and curry are ferried between the kitchen and tables. Waiters hand out cups of chai.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/bangaldesh-women-in-saudi-domestic-workers-maid-are-sold-a-dream-flee-nightmare-brac-1336317441
islamitische bewustzijn is ver te zoeken bij deze Arabische saoudis..
DHAKA - The crowds wait outside the arrivals terminal at Shahjalal International airport as dozens of taxi drivers line the streets looking for business.
Armies of beggars plead for attention from passersby, while passengers leave the arrivals hall carrying flat-screen TVs or oversized boxes wrapped in cling-film.
A group of women appear amid the constant stream of people. Dressed in an array of colours, they pull their suitcases, looking for their loved ones.
Khaleda Akhter, 28, has just spent months inside a Bangladeshi-run safe house in Saudi Arabia, and is desperate to see her two children. Holding a copy of the Quran to her chest, she scans the arrivals hall for the exit, then begins to walk towards the double doors. Initially, her steps are slow and steady, as she takes in what has changed since she left Bangladesh a year .
Akhter figures out where to head, clutches her black abaya to avoid it dragging on the ground and begins zipping through the traffic to the train station. From there, she will embark on the next leg of her journey back home to Rajshahi, 250 km away near the border with India.
But underneath her clothing lies a reminder of why Akhter left Saudi Arabia. Unravelling the bandages on her arms, she shows the marks that symbolise the price she paid for wanting a better life.
"They tried to burn me,” Akhter says, wiping away a tear. "Not once, but twice. If I knew this would happen, I would never have gone.”
'I had to give it a shot'
Like hundreds of Bengalis who went to work as domestic workers in the Gulf kingdom, Akhter fled her employers after months of abuse.
She represents one of the thousands of women from the country who each year make the journey to the kingdom in the hope of a better life.
In 2018, at least 1,000 Bengali maids returned to Bangladesh to escape physical and sexual abuse in Saudi, according to local NGO BRAC. Most escaped to one of the safe houses run by the Bangladeshi embassy in Riyadh and Jeddah.
Many have been not been paid by their employers and had their passports taken away by recruitment agents, who first sold them the dream of working in the Gulf state.
Akhter sits in the restaurant adjacent to the train station, holding the hand of Aisha Begum, a fellow domestic worker, who ran away from an employer who did not pay her for four months and repeatedly beat her.
The restaurant is packed. Plates of rice and curry are ferried between the kitchen and tables. Waiters hand out cups of chai.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/bangaldesh-women-in-saudi-domestic-workers-maid-are-sold-a-dream-flee-nightmare-brac-1336317441
islamitische bewustzijn is ver te zoeken bij deze Arabische saoudis..