Slavery in the 21st century: domestic workers in Lebanon

So, as if the cruelty of Egypt's daily news wasn't enough, I somehow got hooked up on the topic of abuse in general. In recent days I found myself discussing the issues of female genital mutilation, sexual abuse in prisons, sexual abuse as a weapon of war, domestic violence, organ trade and human trafficking with various friends and acquaintances. I do not want to spare you with all of this, and thus share some aspects of abuse of domestic labourers with you. 

Apparently Lebanon, has acquired some fame in this field. If we believe an article by the British newspaper TheGuardian, published in 2010, Lebanon is not only sticking out from other Arab countries by its liberal attitudes and its likening for plastic surgery, but also by its maltreatment of a large number of domestic workers. The article portrays the fate of Asian and African women who - by the help of false promises - were lured into becoming domestic workers in Lebanon. Other than they had expected many of these women do not earn enough money to provide a better life for their children back home in Madagaskar or Indonesia, but upon their arrival in Lebanon are forced into slave-like working conditions: their passports and visa papers are taken away by either an agency or their new employers, the new "masters" confine the maids to the house, limit their opportunities to social (virtual and real) contact, make them work up to 18 hours per day, deny them privacy and adequate payment. In many cases the domestic workers are even subject to physical and psychological abuse by their employers. Held in such a state of absolute dependency combined with acute suffering, many domestic workers see their only option in killing themselves. Of those, who chose to escape, many risk their live in attempts to climb down from balconies or windows. Together with the suicides, these dangerous flights kill more than one person per week in Lebanon, according to a HRW report issued in 2008. There seem to be few organisations in Lebanon addressing the issue. The UK basedKalayaan being one of them. Given that the shocking HRW report was published as early as 2008 one wonders how little has seemingly changed to the date when BBC picked up on the topic. Under the capture "Madagascar maids: Misery in the Middle East", BBC's Hannah McNeish pictures the story of Mrs Baholiarisoa, who in 2011 finally could return to her home country Madagascar after being enslaved in Lebanon for 15 years.

While the increase of servants and slaves in Lebanon seems to be tied to increasing wealth and aspirations of a more luxurious life, it is poverty and economic distress that drives Asians and Africans to leave their countries in the first place. At the same time, political and economic instability in the Northern African countries, allows for the deterrioriation of the security situation in the Sahel zone, and thus for (expected) easier crossing from Southern parts of Africa...

Sandmonkey's getting serious!

After using the synonym "Sandmonkey" for a good while, the Egyptian blogger and Twitter-er Mahmoud Saleh had already revealed his identitity in the wake of the Egyptian protests in February 2011. Now he's taking it a step further and runs for presidency ... parliament, I mean. I just became aware of his intention to run for office, when I visited his blog in order to see whether he has already commented on the death of Essam Atta. Yet, his blog has disappeared, and instead a website - otherwise still being under construction - anounces "Mahmoud Salem for Parliament 2011". The interesting online newssite Global Post confirms that Mahmoud is currently drafting his campaign to compete for a seat in parliament in the inshallah upcoming elections. He intends to run in the election district Heliopolis, competing with the reknown scholar, talksshowguest and revolution-sympathizer Amr Hamzawy and a former NDP figure Magdy Mahrous.

Cruel abuse of Essam Atta leading to the prisoner's death

Essam Atta, a 24-year old Egyptian is the latest victim of ongoing police violence in Egypt. Essam had been arrested on February 25 during the clashes in the Coptic Quarter of Cairo. He was later sentenced to two years in prison. It was his attempt to smuggle a SIM card for a mobile phone into prison that eventually cost him his life. The guards at Tora prison "punished" him with repeated, severe abuse (for the graphic details please read AlJazeera's article on the matter), and Essam Atta died shortly after being delivered to Qasr al Ayni hospital. It was the El Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, a well-known Egyptian NGO, that broke the news about Atta's abuse and consequent death on Thursday. Pictures of Atta's corpse soon went viral on Twitter and Facebook. Within no time a facebook page named "We are all Essam Atta" was created, reminding of the page "We are all Khaled Said", which had provided one of many organising platforms for the January 25 protests. Khaled Said was beaten to death by police officers in the streets of Alexandria in June 2010. Official reports stated he had died by swallowing a package of drugs - but photos of his heavily distorted face, smuggled out of the morgue by his brother, told a different story and soon went viral on the internet. Earlier this week, the trial of the police officers that had killed Said was concluded, sentencing them to 7 years in jail. This comparatively mild punishment already provoked a outcry - however, the outrage could not prove strong enough to re-ignite the revolutionary fire. Once the news of Atta's death spread, the parallels to Said were instantly seen, and indeed the Friday protests in Tahrir attrackted more followers than in the previous weeks, and make wonder whether Atta's cruel death could provide the rallying cause for the reviving of a revolution that many already believed to be dead...

Al Jazeera has a very good article on the issue, also highlighting the parallels to the case of Khaled Said.

If you want to learn more about Khaled Said, and how his death at the hands of Egyptian police became a rallying cause for protests on January 25, have a look at the Wikipedia article. Also the highly reccomendable blog The Arabist provides plenty of background information, colllected in June 2010.

Also the popular blogger Zeinobia comments on the events in her Egypian Chronicles. As did most other Egyptian news magazines as Bikya Masr, Al Ahram Online, the Egyptian Daily News and Al Masry Al Youm.

Essam Atta - Tod in Polizei"gewahrsam"

Seit einigen Stunden verbreiten sich in Kairo die Neuigkeiten, dass der 24-jährige Ägypter Essam Atta, verhaftet am 25 Januar 2011, verurteilt zu zwei Jahren Gefängnis, gestern nach Misshandlungen gestorben ist. Der junge Ägypter leistete seine Haftstrafe im Tora Gefängnis ab. Um ihn für den Versuch, eine Handy SIM Karte ins Gefängnis zu schmuggeln, zu bestrafen, wurde er laut den Aussagen anderer Insassen, von Gefängniswärtern derart misshandelt, dass er Donnerstag ins Krankenhaus Qasr al Ayni eingeliefert werden musste, wo er wenig später verstarb. Berichte zu seinem Gesundheitszustand und äußeren Verletzungen/Spuren der Misshandlung zum Zeitpunkt der Einlieferung sind widersprüchlich. Ägyptische Medien berichten, dass die Familie zusammen mit ca 800 Protestern vor der Leichenhalle im Viertel Sayyeda Zeinab auf den Abschluss der Obduktion wartet, um dann den Trauerzug zu starten. Dieser soll auf dem Tahrir Platz, dem Herz der Umsturzversuche, enden, wo nach Aussagen ägyptischer Medien dem Wunsch der Familie entsrechend die Trauerfeier abgehalten werden soll.Es gitb bereits die entsprechende Facebook Gruppe "We areall Essam Atta", die an die Facebook Gruppe "We are allKhaled Saeed" erinnert. Auch Kommentatoren stellen die offensichtiche Verbindung her: Der brutale Tod Khaled Saeeds durch Polizeigewalt im Juni 2010 in Alexandria war ein wichtiger "rallying cause" für die Proteste am 25 Januar 2012, die den Beginn der Ereignisse darstellten, welche man heute gemeinhin als "Ägyptische Revolution" bezeichnet.