Welcome to the “Association of Women Against Migrant Women Domestic Workers”

During a Press Conference organized yesterday at the Press Club, five women announced the opening of membership to the so-called ‘Protecting the Privacy of the Family and of the Domestic Worker’ association which is still under establishment. The proud women, Helen Gearah, Arlette Bajani, Fadwa Yacoub, Ghada Zeitoun and Maria Jaarah Bardawil, launched their exceptionally racist undertaking without showing any feeling of remorse or ‘shame’ declaring that they count some 100 members so far. Unsurprisingly, the event started by defending the purpose of this association stating that it is not aimed against domestic workers but seeks to restore the relationship between the employer and the MWDW. However, the second party in this relationship, i.e. domestic workers, were not present at this gathering.  One of the founders, Helen Gearah insisted that “The domestic maids are not here to have a role”.   After Introducing the sponsorship ‘kafala’ system, Gearah then moved to describe the trade union for cleaning workers as a ‘heresy’, preferring that MWDWs join Lebanese syndicates instead but strictly objecting to their right to assemble under their own union.Gearah went on to say, “Imagine that you employ a domestic worker who is at the same time a member of the above trade union. Every now and then she will tell you that she is out to attend a meeting! Are these the qualifications anticipated in a domestic worker?” For her part, member lawyer Arlette Bajani, repeatedly said that the domestic worker is not a wage earner, rather she is a household member”. But this is quite misleading, as the domestic worker is not part of her employer’s family; rather she is paid for a specific job and does not expect kindness or compassion as much as she expects to exercise her natural and basic rights in freedom, justice, compensation and comfort. What really upsets the above association are the campaigns that tarnished the image of the Lebanese women driving sending countries to stop their citizens from travelling to Lebanon for work giving the way to increased smuggling of humans. The racist association is not aware of the risks that could face the domestic worker during trafficking, but is worried about the “excessive cost of bringing them into Lebanon illegally which devalues the quality of those workers”, as Jaarah put it. (Al Akhbar, 23 July 2015)