This video is one of the most disturbing videos you will ever see. It's not only a video about a maid being beaten up, threatened and forced to get into the car of her employer.. No!! It's also about people standing there and seeing what is happening without doing anything!
I don't know if I am more angry at the employer or at the people watching this and doing nothing!!
I know one thing, that violence doesn't differ a wife from a maid from a child.... Violence is violence. Another person is being abused in our Arab World, not only in Lebanon. The whole Arab World is suffering from domestic violence. There are stories coming from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, UAE...
I ask myself over and over again: How can we help to stop this?
I noticed people prefer not to get involved, but that is unjust. Seeing this violence in front of your eyes and doing nothing is like you are beating that woman not literally but emotionally. How can you look into her eyes getting battered and go to sleep at night?!
If you ever witnessed a domestic violence, please do not hesitate to help. You can save a life! If you ever doubted that a woman.. any woman is being battered, offer to help. Suggest other options, comfort that woman that life doesn't stop here and she can start all over again. Offer to take her to her embassy if she was a foreign, offer to take her to a local NGO that will give her a place to stay. Do not turn your blind eye and pretend this didn't happen.
And educate your kids. Education is a key aspect to preventing the continuation of the cycle of domestic violence. It is important to teach today's youth about healthy relationships and respect for others.
Unfortunately, this maid is not alone. Hundreds if not thousands like her. Almost every day we hear such stories. No humanity! No conscience! And on top of that no law to protect these women.
My heart burn. I wish I live to see the day where no women on earth will be battered and laws protect their right to live with dignity and equality.
By Heidi Shebaro
Founder of "The Kindness Project in the Middle East", a teacher and a blogger
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