23 nails in body of tortured maid

[cory777]

Source: Arab News

RIYADH: Doctors in Sri Lanka have found 23 nails in the body of a tortured housemaid who returned to Colombo from Riyadh, Sri Lankan Embassy sources told Arab News on Tuesday.

“We have received this complaint from the Foreign Ministry in Colombo, who said the maid has been allegedly tortured by her sponsor,” a senior diplomat from the Sri Lankan mission in Riyadh told Arab News. “We are looking for the sponsor. We were able to track down the Saudi recruitment agent in Riyadh and we will summon the sponsor to discuss this issue,” the official said.

Doctors at the Kamburipitya Base Hospital in the Matara district, 140 km from Colombo, said the nails had been hammered into the maid’s body. Dr. Kamal Weeratunge, who was treating the maid, claimed the nails had been heated up before they punctured her skin.

On Sri Lankan television channel Newsfirst Sirasa, the maid showed the marks where the nails had gone through. The maid, identified as 50-year-old Ariyawathie, said that there were too many people to serve in the house where she worked.

Read more: http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article112477.ece

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Uncensored Activist News http://activistnews.blogspot.com

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[ret5hd]

2. so, uhhhmmm...how do you explain jeffrey dahmer?

shouldn't he be from Rome or something?

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[davidinalameda]

6. yes

if he or she believes that such abuse is allowable, I would definitely blame it on his or her religion

one's moral compass is guided by one's religious beliefs and yes I'm excluding atheists since they obviously don't base their morality on religious beliefs

these people have obviously been told that such actions are okay just as slaveholders were told by their religious leaders that slavery was okay

[notadmblnd]

7. I disagree that ones moral compass is guided by ones religious beliefs

I know many perfectly moral people who have no religion- and I know very religious people who have no morals.

[davidinalameda]

41. they have no morals according to whom?

you?

I would willing to bet that someone might say the same thing about you

[notadmblnd]

45. Or you?

And the answer is- according to me. You made a call about religion and morals and so did I. Are you now telling me that you are better qualified than I to decide who does and does not have morals?

[davidinalameda]

49. did I say that

no, I did not

[notadmblnd]

53. Oh you can deny it now, half of your posts have been deleted.

However, you know what you said and so do I.

[TheMadMonk]

54. According to basic decency: Not hating your fellow man for his

skin colour, sexual orrientation or political leanings; Not using force and intimidation to spread a belief system; Not using a socially superior position to get away with shit like this.

[go west young man]

43. Well put.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[burnsei sensei]

13. There are many excellent bases

for morality that have nothing to do with religion at all.

[uncommon]

16. Indeed. I think religion offers too many opportunities to negate the human-ness of others,

thus it is often inherently immoral.

[crim son]

39. The fact that people are able to live morally in the absence of religion does not

mean that for those who are religious dogmatists do not rely heavily (or completely) on the precepts of their religion for moral guidance. Some seem unable to look outside the cage they've found themselves in.

[davidinalameda]

40. if one holds themselves to be a good *fill in the blank*

they do

I'm guessing that the Saudis responsible for the torture of this woman and those who knew and did nothing to stop it think of themselves as good Muslims

others who believe themselves to be good Muslims may disagree with their actions however

[notadmblnd]

46. So if all Muslims are immoral in your book

are all Catholic priests immoral too? After all, some of them are known for molesting children.

[davidinalameda]

50. please show me where I said that

where did I say that all Muslims are immoral

[crim son]

48. I'm guessing you are absolutely correct. n/t

[davidinalameda]

51. you'd be right

[crim son]

55. I'm always right.

So are you, apparently. :P

[burnsei sensei]

12. I equate it with a society which is very lax

and permissive with respect to violence.
An eye for an eye justice system has not made the kingdom peaceful at all.

[Wilms]

25. Agreed. The invasion and destruction of Iraq and Afghanistan was as sick as it gets.

But a lot of Christians got off on it.

Just sayin'.

[burnsei sensei]

28. Apples & Oranges

The invasion and conquests of Iraq and Afghanistan were highly systematic affairs carried out by secular institutions.
What happened here was inside a closed society that has an eye for an eye justice system.
We have an eye for an eye also, and our share of casual violence.
A lax attitude toward violence, particularly from superior to subordinate, is what characterized this incident.
It could just as easily happened in a Christian household, particularly in the Antebellum South.

[Wilms]

34. "...highly systematic affairs carried out by secular institutions..."

Nice fig leaf. :rofl:

[davidinalameda]

42. some Jews probably did as well

I'm betting some Hindus did too

and I'm guessing some Muslims did as well

[Wilms]

52. Doesn't change the fact.

Your 'reality' may vary.

[JerseygirlCT]

19. In addition to that

I think a great deal of what we in the west find (or ought to fine) objectionable there is more cultural than religious. That's where Wahhabi-ism comes in - as you say, a perverse, fanatical twist on Islam.

In a society where the haves and have-nots are even more widely separated than years of the Bush regime made us, this is what happens. "The help" is imported, paid slave wages, and treated horribly. Their wealthy "employers" are often free to do as they will, and these people are utterly dependent on them for the money they desperately need - usually mostly sent back to their families.

(Starting to sound a bit uncomfortably familiar, isn't it?)

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[dkf]

3. OMG that is just sick.

Is this behavior acceptable in Saudi Arabia or will he be punished?

[Blue_Tires]

8. sadly, this is a common occurence, and not just in SA

Many foreign maids (especially those in on work visas) get treated worse than slaves by the filthy rich...

[slackmaster]

11. "Culture Of Peace" again?

:argh:

[sinkingfeeling]

14. And the good Southern Christians never had slaves?

[slackmaster]

15. That is a Red Herring

We fixed our problem with state-sanctioned slavery over 150 years ago. That fact that I live in a country where some people (not including me) are descended from people who owned slaves in the past, does not in any way disqualify me from criticizing another country or culture for allowing slavery.

[ret5hd]

17. But we do live in a society whose religous majority believes in ritualized canibalism...

so i guess that explains jeffrey dahmer.

[slackmaster]

18. Yes, most people in this country practice a religion that worships a zombie

Which is not really a problem, any more than the people in Saudi Arabia worshiping a pedophile.

so i guess that explains jeffrey dahmer.

Another Red Herring. You fail at rational discussion.

[uncommon]

20. I think what we are taking issue with here is your blanket accusation of ALL of the adherents

of a religion in this one awful sadistic case.

Yes, there is a lot that is fucked up about Islam. There is a lot that is fucked up about Christianity, and Judaism, and Hinduism, etc - but that doesn't mean that in a country that identifies as Christian, or Jewish, or whatever, a person who commits a heinous crime is a perfect example of everyone else in that country or faith.

[slackmaster]

26. Kindly point out where you think I said that, or anything else about Islam in my initial reply

The CULTURE in Saudi Arabia is a fucked up implementation of Islam.

It was sinkingfeeling who tried to make the sub-thread about religion.

[burnsei sensei]

22. 620,000 Americans died over the issue of the abolition of slavery,

Not one Near Easterner, North African or Hindu Kush resident ever raised the sword to abolish slavery. Not one.
That's not ideology, that's historical fact.
End of conversation.

[slackmaster]

29. I think that makes Americans more qualified than most to criticize other cultures for slavery

Too bad the conversation ended before you had a chance to explain what you think it was about.

[burnsei sensei]

32. The mention of the 620,000 criticizes the U.S. as much

as it does the Near East.
Considering the power of debt in our country and others.
I'd bet good money that debt was an important reason for the presence of the woman in a house that was not hers.
I also think the 13th Amendment needs to be worded such that the buying and selling of human beings in any form amounts to slavery. Right now, it limits itself to the nature of work.

[slackmaster]

33. OK, you're not making any sense at all

I get it now.

[bobbieinok]

44. didn't Britain abolish slavery before 1860s without a civil war???

??????

France after French Revolution????

If the 2 are correct, US 'moral superiority' over slavery is where??????

[RaleighNCDUer]

64. The fact that a quarter million confederates died defending their right

to own people makes "Americans more qualified than most to criticize other cultures for slavery".

:eyes:

[RaleighNCDUer]

63. You have a strange understanding of 'historical fact'.

You say that as if culture is not maleable. Throughout history there have been numerous anti-slavery movements in the Near East and North Africa, and slavery never was an issue in the Hindu Kush, unless you are talking about the subjugation of women; as for that aspect, are you aware that through most of the 20th century women in Afghanistan had full equal rights with men, and there were a great number of educated female professionals ranging from politics to medicine to universities - I don't think they considered themselves to be slaves. Also, slavery in the Near East and N. Africa was a very different thing that Americans' concept of it - it was never hereditary, slaves had rights as well as duties, and it was not uncommon for slaves to rise to positions of power and influence.

You are looking at a snapshot and saying "This is history".

[sinkingfeeling]

23. If you can broad-brush all Muslims with an insult, I can point to our past sins.

[slackmaster]

27. Kindly point out where I made any broad-brush statement of any kind about all Muslims

:hi:

[bobbieinok]

47. or monks with Spanish conquerors didn't forcibly convert + enslave

Indians in New World????

And didn't early medieval era Christians enslave indigenous people in British Isles??? I'm thinking of the story of the pope in Rome who saw slaves from England and when told they were Angles (Anglo Saxon tribe) supposedly said "No, they are angels" (because fair skinned and blond). At least I remember reading this somewhere.

[dadzilla]

21. People act suprised...

This isn't a new story, it's been happening for years and across countries.

[Wednesdays]

24. Man's inhumanity to man

Maybe someday our species can come up with a way to prevent this, without impinging on human rights.

[superconnected]

30. Poor woman! And in her 50's too.

You can bet their employer is doing that to the rest of the help.

[rrneck]

31. Sounds like the Lucifer Effect

http://www.amazon.com/Lucifer-Effect-Understanding-Good-People/dp/0812974441/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1282752552&sr=8-1

Psychologist Zimbardo masterminded the famous Stanford Prison Experiment, in which college students randomly assigned to be guards or inmates found themselves enacting sadistic abuse or abject submissiveness. In this penetrating investigation, he revisits—at great length and with much hand-wringing—the SPE study and applies it to historical examples of injustice and atrocity, especially the Abu Ghraib outrages by the U.S. military. His troubling finding is that almost anyone, given the right "situational" influences, can be made to abandon moral scruples and cooperate in violence and oppression. (He tacks on a feel-good chapter about "the banality of heroism," with tips on how to resist malign situational pressures.) The author, who was an expert defense witness at the court-martial of an Abu Ghraib guard, argues against focusing on the dispositions of perpetrators of abuse; he insists that we blame the situation and the "system" that constructed it, and mounts an extended indictment of the architects of the Abu Ghraib system, including President Bush. Combining a dense but readable and often engrossing exposition of social psychology research with an impassioned moral seriousness, Zimbardo challenges readers to look beyond glib denunciations of evil-doers and ponder our collective responsibility for the world's ills.

[Divine Discontent]

56. or to say it simply - people are easily led to do bad by someone telling them it's just what they're

doing... sorta like the Germans in WWII. Thanks for the post.


oh, and prayers for that poor woman. to even think of pushing a hot piece of metal for any damned reason, into someone's body is so saddening...

[howaboutme]

35. Why not eliminate all religious doctrine and invoke the Golden Rule?

If people have empathy and understanding and treat others as they want to be treated we could forget all religious doctrine which in the end is more about ensuring institutional power of the various "clergies" than anything.

[struggle4progress]

65. What does this have to do with religion? It's a case of filthy rich people

showing their utter contempt for the poor. I have lots of money compared to you, so I get to treat you however I want! is an old old story

[cosmicone]

36. How peaceful of them ..... n/t

[Vehl]

37. This is horrible, and the guilty should be brought to justice. Btw, Lankan government is as guilty

The maids from southern/western lanka who are oft sent to work in the middle eastern countries face similar problems and have done so throughout the years. The government usually keep quite about it...not wishing to alienate its middle eastern donors...which is a crime.



At the same time, i find it quite ironic that the Lankan government has done/continues to do worse to its citizens..on the name of "fighting terror".But in fact it was these policies of the lankan government that went unchecked for 30 years that even led to the formation of the rebel groups in the first place. The Unicef, Amnesty international, MSF, HRW and other Ngos have repeatedly called for an UN investigation into the war crimes committed by the Lankan government, to no avail. There were around 20,000 civilian casualties last year alone when the government was "liberating" parts of the country....with 300 000 civilians imprisoned in internment camps.



Amnesty International
http://www.amnesty.org/en/ai_search?keywords=srilanka&op=Search&form_id=search_theme_form&form_token=2c5f2b0b40a3e4d98f8a833e22b7488b

Human Rights watch
http://www.hrw.org/asia/sri-lanka

Doctors without Borders
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/allcontent.cfm?id=71

[Vehl]

38. double post.

double post

[proteus_lives]

57. Disturbing.

Whoever did this, it was not the first time or victim.

[Mimosa]

58. Saudi couple "hammer 24 nails" into Sri Lankan maid

Source: reuters.com

(Reuters) - A Saudi couple tortured their Sri Lankan maid after she complained of a too heavy workload by hammering 24 nails into her hands, legs and forehead, officials said on Thursday.

Nearly 2 million Sri Lankans sought employment overseas last year and around 1.4 million, mostly maids, were employed in the Middle East. Many have complained of physical abuse or harassment.

L.T. Ariyawathi, a 49-year old mother of three, returned on Friday after five months in Saudi Arabia.

Her family only realized what had happened to her when she complained of pain and they took her to see the doctor, Foreign Employment Bureau officials said.
"The landlord and the wife of the landlord hammered 24 nails into her when she complained of the heavy workload," Kalyana Priya Ramanayake, media secretary of the Foreign Employment Bureau, told Reuters.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67P17420100826

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Mods, please delete. This was already posted (from another source) and I didn't see it.

[slackmaster]

59. "Culture Of Peace" again?

:argh:

[dkf]

60. They only figured it out after they took her to the doctor?

How in the world did this woman not realize these people pounded nails into her? I don't get it.

[Mimosa]

61. There was an D.U. earlier thread with more info

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4516850

[closeupready]

62. I'm sure it's all just a misunderstanding.

:sarcasm:

[Stuart G]

66. Nails Removed from 'tortured' Sri Lankan maid

Source: MSNBC, BBC

27 August 2010 Last updated at 06:18 ET

Nails removed from 'tortured' Sri Lankan maid
Ms Ariyawathie was deeply traumatised, doctors said Doctors have removed 13 nails and five needles from a Sri Lankan housemaid who said her employer in Saudi Arabia hammered them into her body.

LP Ariyawathie, 49, told staff at Kamburupitiya Hospital her employer inflicted the injuries as a punishment.

X-rays showed that there were 24 nails and needles in her body. Doctors said those remaining inside her body posed no immediate threat to her life.

The nails were up to 2in (5cm) long, a hospital official said.

"The surgery is successful and she is recovering now," Dr Satharasinghe said, according to news agency Associated Press.

Ms Ariyawathie, a mother of three, underwent a three-hour procedure.

Doctors said they would carry out further surgery later to remove the remaining nails.


Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38879983/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

[dkf]

67. Is this legal in Saudi Arabia?

[Stuart G]

68. I don't know...but the story says "..a strong protest has been made.."

Do you suppose anything will ever happen as a result of that strong protest?

from the BBC Story... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11109726

"We have launched a strong protest with the Saudi government through the external affairs minister, but there has been no response yet," Kingsley Ranawaka, chairman of Bureau for Foreign Employment, told the BBC.

[superconnected]

69. Remember - that family supposedly has a lot more servants

Wonder if they're royal.

[Stuart G]

70. Wouldn't be surprised...a cover up, as complete as possible

will result if it is..