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Teenage Girl Faces Beheading in Saudi Arabia
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ShareAugust 01, 2007 10:07 AM
The family of a 19-year-old Sri Lankan girl is pleading for her life after a Saudi Arabian court sentenced her to death by beheading.
The court found Rizana Nafeek, 19, guilty of murdering a child in her care while working in the country. Her family (parents pictured above) has appealed the sentence, and human rights groups are calling for the Saudi government to overturn it.
At 17, Rizana Nafeek was sent to Saudi Arabia after the tsunami to work as a maid and make money for her family in Sri Lanka. But after only a few weeks and no child care training, her employers put her in charge of their 4-month-old baby. The baby died, and Nafeek was charged with murder, tried without an attorney and sentenced to death.
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Nisha Varia of Human Rights Watch says the case is the latest egregious example of the harsh conditions migrant workers face in Saudi Arabia.
"This case raises many troubling questions about the treatment of children and foreigners in Saudi Arabia's criminal justice system," says Varia. "Foreigners simply do not receive the same treatment in the Saudi justice system. This includes having translation during the interrogation and during court proceedings and having an attorney."
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About 1.5 million Sri Lankans work abroad, according to the country's labor statistics. Eighty percent of the women working abroad are employed as unskilled domestic workers, primarily in Saudi Arabia.
Varia says domestic workers are vulnerable to mistreatment. When Human Rights Watch sent a team of investigators to Saudi Arabia last year, Varia says the group found egregious abuse.
"The most commonly reported abuse is unpaid wages," she says. "It's routine for employers to take the passports of workers, and in order for the worker to leave the country, they have to get their employer to sign an exit visa."
Under Saudi Arabian law, employers have a heavy hand in how justice is served. After being charged and interrogated, Nafeek signed a guilty confession. If her former employers formally forgive her, she will be released, but they have so far refused to do so.
Nafeek's parents told local media outlets that their daughter was not trained in child care and that the baby "choked on milk." Human Rights Watch is calling for a new investigation into the case.
Varia says that because domestic workers in Saudi Arabia are not protected by labor laws, they don't have access to training, paid leave, reasonable hours or even one day off.
"They're not seen as real human beings," she says.
"It is socially accepted to lock your domestic worker inside the house. There are employers who forbid their workers to make phone calls home or write letters or talk to neighbors," says Varia, who interviewed domestic workers' employers in Saudi Arabia. "The reason they give is that, 'We paid a lot of money for this worker, and if I leave the door unlocked, she'll run away.'"
The problem is so severe that the embassies of Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines in Saudi Arabia can have as many as 150 women staying in embassy shelters because of abuse suffered at the hand of their employer, says Varia
The Saudi Arabia Embassy in the U.S. has not responded to calls and e-mails from ABCNews.com for this story, but Nafeek's case and other recent cases have drawn attention to the issue in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government has made public statements condemning abuse of domestic workers. There also have been discussions to place domestic workers under separate labor laws.
Varia says discussions and rhetoric are not enough; the laws must change.
"There needs to be much greater efforts to punish abusive employers and to protect workers," she says. "What will really matter is if domestic workers get the same rights as all other workers in Saudi Arabia."
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August 1, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (100)
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Yup. That sounds like the real world of Saudi Arabia. Not as nice as they would like us to believe.
Posted by: Rick McDaniel | Aug 1, 2007 10:30:10 AM
bummer. what a sad story.
Posted by: disabledvet45 | Aug 1, 2007 10:32:20 AM
America Is so hippocritical going around the world taling about Cuba and other countries who rule differntly than demoractic yet I never see them condemm the Saudi Arabia the country that most of all the 911 originated. That just goes to show you that they were about the money. All the soilders dying in vain. Now this country is going to behead ayoung poor girl from anther country Stand up against that after you are about to trade mass amounts oil for bombs and weapons that are probaly be use against Americans some-day. How can a counrty who say they staND FOR JUSTICE ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN. And conitiue a relationshop with this without saying a word. Money more than democracy and every one needs to know that freedom is purchasing power not law or idiology.
Posted by: mary derricotte | Aug 1, 2007 10:40:21 AM
Wheres the NAG gang on this issue? Oh sorry the ladies of NOW. . .
Posted by: tony | Aug 1, 2007 11:08:38 AM
And this is our alli. A country were people, especially women, are treated so horrible, and we are arming them.
Posted by: Stacy | Aug 1, 2007 11:22:56 AM
This is terrible news to read, I feel sad for the family and the infant; she shouldn't have been permitted to sit with a baby when she knew little about how to care for them. I will not comment on the countries ways of handling the punishment; however, workers need to be treated better and more fairly. It's not right to keep them worse than a slave.
Posted by: elizabeth | Aug 1, 2007 11:24:38 AM
I bet that the only thing this woman is guilty of is ignorance and neglect. Barbarism is alive and well. This problem is not unique to Saudia Arabia or even the Arab World. I hope that world leaders make an effort to lobby for mercy for this woman. Ideally, President Bush would make a phone call. However George H.W. Bush or Jimmy Carter would also be effective. Terrorism has some terrible side-effects. This is one of them, in my opinion.
Posted by: Sean O'Brien | Aug 1, 2007 11:35:40 AM
This is ridiculous. Why is the US even considering selling the Saudis modern weapons? Oh yea, OIL. What a messed up - backward - way of living. Do they believe God approves of their behavior, especially in human slave labor? Do they not have laws against this? My understanding is the baby got choked on the milk and the girl was frantically rubbing the baby's throat-(Who would leave an untrained girl with their infant?) She was not strangling the baby. Saudi courts are horribly unjust.
Posted by: Jerry | Aug 1, 2007 11:37:01 AM
Beheading or gas-chamber... they both produce death... just one cost the tax-payer tens of thousands of dollars, and the other nothing but a dramatic visual.
Posted by: Mr. USA | Aug 1, 2007 12:04:50 PM
The Saudi justice system is abominable. It has always sought out scapegoats and slays the innocent. Their answer to everything is shedding blood. This has been apparent for generations. I see no reason whatsoever to expect anything good, wise, moral, just, or compassionate from these over-inflated egotistical, myopic, spineless, mealy-mouthed hypocrites.
I don't call the Saudi's friends of the United States....frankly, these people only like themselves....and that in itself proves that they are blind to evil.
Posted by: Diane Thomas | Aug 1, 2007 12:15:09 PM
Interesting case; did the Saudi family NOT KNOW that the Sri Lankan had no experience caring for infants? If they knew, then THEY are culpable, not the girl. Did the Sri Lankan girl TELL them that she had no experience caring for infants? Again, if she did, THEY are responsible, not her. If she hid that fact, and still took the responsibility of caring for the child, then SHE is responsible.
Then again, society in the Kingdom is so vastly different than that of anywhere else on the planet, and hey, it's their country...their laws, right?
Posted by: Jazz | Aug 1, 2007 12:20:11 PM
I am so glad that we're fighting in Iraq while we've decided to ship these people arms. Makes perfect sense in a Bushian utopia. If people bothered to read about Saudi Arabia, they'd see that it is a human rights violating cesspool, where political disidents are put to death and woman are abused and mistreated. Ogh, and weren't most of the hijackers from there. Oh yeah, Osama bin Laden is from there too. Oh well, I'm sure our fearless commander in chief know what he's doing. Right?
Posted by: jason c | Aug 1, 2007 12:34:15 PM
This is nothing new reagarding the Saudis and their treatment of third world laborers. When they do get around to paying their employees, it's about as close to slave wages one can come to.
A street sweeper in Jeddah was reported eearning $52 per month and he was trying to support a family back home.
I was there when an Indian had an eye sugically removed for having tossed acid at a co-worker and blinding him in one eye.
Human rights in Saudi?? Forget it! As long as these people are pumping out oil, no one is going to give a damn about a baby sitter about to be beheaded and other abuses that takes place in that nation. These are George bush friends.
Posted by: Scott | Aug 1, 2007 12:52:57 PM
That's harsh. Here's a question, what kind of punishment fits the crime of terrorism? It's got to be good compared to this.
Posted by: Dan Burkard | Aug 1, 2007 1:06:39 PM
Saudi Arabia is not our friend. And inspite of the obscene wealth of its "royalty" which they did not acquire themselves, they are not living in this century.
Posted by: Chas | Aug 1, 2007 1:32:54 PM
Dear Brian Roberts, this is a joke. Why is this a blotter story, because it involves Saudi Arabia?
Posted by: hernando lammers | Aug 1, 2007 1:34:15 PM
What a disgrace for the Bush Administration to be in Saudi Arabia trying to sell weopens to these barbarians. Friends? NOT
Posted by: peter | Aug 1, 2007 1:39:28 PM
The message that should be passed on to our own government is simple: don't make alliances with states run by authoritarian barbarians such as Saudi Arabia - least of all don't give or sell high power weaponry to them - Just as has happened too many times in our history in the past, these weapons will eventually fall in the wrong hands...and they will eventually be pointed at our direction..."The ends DO NOT justify the means."
Posted by: JohnS | Aug 1, 2007 1:53:21 PM
we dont know what happened; but we do know that a baby is dead. i daresay that in the u.s. this woman would be convicted in public opinion BEFORE the trial. and there is the death penalty for murder in the u.s. so why is it that it is seen as "barbaric" when another country has the same law?
Posted by: you | Aug 1, 2007 2:32:55 PM
Human beings have become so wicked and unforgiving these days. America is being turned into a police state, Saudi Arabia is now beheading 19 yr old women, and the Simpson's is the #1 movie in America. Morons.
Posted by: Anthony Tomei | Aug 1, 2007 2:32:58 PM
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