Going to the Middle East

I have just come home from my ELIC Gender Club meeting. The meetings are held every Wednesday. The aim of the club is to raise awareness of issues that disadvantage females, so for example previous topics have included the division of labour between the sexes, the importance of educating females, Ethiopian female role models and so on. Today I chose the topic of Ethiopian females going as domestic workers to the Middle East.

It has been an issue for me ever since I came to Ethiopia, as a few of my Ethiopian friends are planning to go. Even before I came to Ethiopia, I was used to hearing and watching stories about the terrible experiences of African domestic workers in the Middle East. My instinct is to always say to my friends ‘don’t go’, but one has to understand their desperation, because even they know a little about what is happening, but they are willing to take the risks.

Anyway today I found an article on the internet about the issue which wasn’t very difficult to understand so I used it for the Gender Club meeting. It was about a female on her way to the Middle East, and another that had returned to Ethiopia, having had a terrible experience as she had been severely abused by her employer. 

The Gender Club, about seven males and seven females today, read the article individually, then answered some comprehension questions about it. We then had a discussion. One of the females immediately said that she already had a plan to go to Dubai after she finishes college. The students themselves discussed the advantages and disadvantages of going, the risks, and the reasons why females feel the need to go in the first place. Excellent points were raised and many of the students talked about their personal experiences of immediate family members. The student who was planning to go defended her decision very well.

About half way through the discussion, one male student asked the female that previously said she wanted to go to the Middle East, if she still wanted to go, even after hearing everything that had just been said. She said yes, she wanted to go because of necessity. (At this point I could have cried.) She said that she had heard of many females’ positive experiences.

The discussions continued for the rest of the session, and in the end many of the students said how important it was to raise awareness of this issue and to discuss the negative side because usually they are only exposed to the positives.

I closed the session by saying that  whatever people decide to do, they should research and find out as much as possible from a variety of sources. I then asked if there were any concluding remarks. One student reiterated the point that awareness of the truth is key. Lastly, the female student who said she was planning to go said that she had now changed her mind about going.