Saving workers from gallows
Many female workers have endured traumatic experiences in the Middle East. While few rape cases have been reported from the United Arab Emirates, this is no guarantee that the migrant workers there, most of whom come from Southeast Asia, the Philippines especially, can defend themselves in the face of their employers and the law.
The conditions under which they work and the respect for female workers in most labor-importing countries is poor. When a Filipina worker in the UAE desert town of Al Ain was convicted of murder in September, many inside and outside the Philippines showed their sympathy.
The death sentence handed down to 16-year-old Sarah Balagaban for the premeditated murder of her employer outraged many the world over, except perhaps in Indonesia, where human rights activists and women's organizations seem too preoccupied with mounting domestic problems. Perhaps the sense of Islamic brotherhood only has a local meaning.
Sarah Balabagan, a Moslem worker from the southern Phillipines, was condemned to death last year for the premeditated murder of her employer, Almas Mohammed al-Baloushi. A court rejected her claim that she was acting in self defense when she stabbed him 34 times in a rape attempt. An appeal was filed on Monday, though a decision has been postponed for several weeks.
French President Jacques Chirac is watching the case and has promised to intervene in a manner which respects the UAE's sovereignty.
A number of countries sympathize with the Philippine government's determination that Balagaban was only 15 years old when she committed the murder. That she was registered in the UAE as being 27 years of age, according to the Philippine authorities, is because her travel documents had been falsified by her recruitment agency to meet the minimum age limit of 25 years for Filipinos (and Filipinas) to work abroad.
Other countries -- but regretfully not the UAE -- are well aware that forging documents has always been part of the bureaucratic game in poor Southeast Asian countries. As of Monday, however, the court was not convinced of Balabagan's age, even though her defense lawyer, who is fighting for her acquittal, has submitted 11 pages of documents to back the argument. The case has also been complicated by the victim's son, who is demanding that the court execute her. In line with syaria Islamic law, the court must listen to the victims' relatives.
Balagaban will only be saved from the gallows if the UAE court and the relatives of the murdered employer understand the cultural and administrative background of the defendant's country. This is very important considering syaria law, which has often times been too rigidly applied in the Middle East.
The irony of this notion lies in the sad fact that many workers have been condemned for killing abusive employers, while few employers, if any, have ever been penalized for rape.