The filth behind the thobe

Behind the gleaming white thobe (a flowing Islamic religious gown) of a wealthy Persian Gulf Arab is a reeking brew of intolerance and racism. The latest example. I teach English Literature to high school students in Bahrain. The class is reading an account of a Russian immigrant to the United States in the late 1800's who is employed by a wealthy family as a domestic servant. At the end of the month, the narrator expects to receive her wages but is looked on with utter contempt by the wealthy couple. They provide her food, clothing, shelter, the couple scoff. She has no right to expect anything else.

So I ask what conditions created this situation. Most students agree it was about the power differential. The immigrant was poor, the couple was rich. She didn't speak the language, they did. The laws favored the couple, not the recent immigrant.

Then I asked if this could happen today. Most imply that it could happen in some place like Africa (those dirty uncivilized brutes). So I play a news report by NPR.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7626754

It describes a Kuwaiti diplomat in Washington D.C. accused of abusing three Indian domestic servants in his employee. At one point, one of the servants demands her wages from the Kuwaiti couple. They deny her request. They provide her food, clothing, shelter, the couple scoff. A couple of the students notice the blatantly obvious similarity.

After the news story concludes, we explore the similarities and differences between these two accounts. Most seem to agree that the abuse was a result of the power inequality. The added tinge of racism in the modern day event doesn't seem to register with them.

But then the ugly truth pokes its head from behind the thobe.

Ali in the back room says maybe it's not always about the employer taking advantage of the employee. Maybe it's the other way around. I ask him to explain and he relates the tale of his own servants. He first makes it explicitly clear that his family provides a bedroom, a TV, food, and wages to their servants. But on one occasion, a servant brought a man into her bedroom alone. The brother of Ali chased the women from their house and they haven't seen her since.

And then the dam breaks and the bile comes crashing down. Anfal refers to herself as an "owner" of a servant. She says that as an owner she has certain rights. One of those rights is to not allow the servant to leave the home. Other students display more magnanimity. Their families allow the maids to occasionally have a breath of freedom. But that poses the terrifying risk of the maid bringing "bad influences" back into the house. I press for specifics on these "bad influences." Bashayer pathetically suggests drugs and alcohol. I pose the question, "Where would a maid get these things? There is one liquor shop on the island and drugs are virtually non-existent." The student is adamant that such evil vices exist and the maid is doing her utmost to corrupt the sanctity of his family. Mustafa implies that the maid can bring back voodoo icons to perform ritual ceremonies. All the students are in near complete agreement: they and their families are victims. The maids have taken advantage of them. A woman from a desperately poor village in Indonesia, for example, who signed a contract with a recruiting agency in her own country, who flies to a strange land where she knows not a single soul, who is deposited unceremoniously in a villa with no access to public transportation, no way to contact her family in her home country, and almost no freedom of movement, has taken advantage of them.

When the oil revenue begins to dry up, Persian Gulf societies will fray and unravel. On that day, I’ll most likely have a tear in my eye.