Saudi Arabia's Rahma Campaign Encourages Mercy Towards Foreign Workers

In a slightly older article I recently came across, the BBC highlights the plight of domestic workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the innovative methods the government is taking to raise awareness of the common abuses its estimated 1.5 million domestic workers face. According to Human Rights Watch, domestic workers are often treated like slaves under a legal system that does not allot any protections to migrant workers from their violent, coercive or exploitive sponsors.

The Rahma (Mercy) Campaign highlighting these injustices is aired on state-owned satellite television channels and national newspapers in Saudi Arabia, as well as in the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat. Print versions depict a maid with a dog collar around her neck sitting in a kennel, and a foreign chauffeur harnessed like a horse with a Saudi woman holding the reins.

In the video campaign (below), a Saudi man is seen shouting at his foreign maid for not ironing his clothes properly. Another scene shows him shouting racial slurs from his car at an Asian worker. 2 additional commercials have been aired to date and are also included in the following clip.



At the end of the first clip, the words appear, "Man la yarham, la yurham (He who shows no mercy, will receive no mercy [from God])," automatically equating inhumane treatment of other humans as a crime under Islam. Similar moralistic quotes pertaining to Islam conclude the other clips as well.

To quote the Director-General of the Saudi Advertising Agency, and supporter of the campaign, "we [Saudi Arabians] are obliged to treat them [helpers] well. Why ask them to do things that we can't bear ourselves? If we have mercy on them, then Allah will have mercy on us."

Many local media-outlets refused to endorse the campaign saying that it would be too shocking and that it makes Saudi Arabians look cruel and heartless.

Saudi Arabia opens its doors to some of the highest numbers of expatriate workers in the region but arguably offers the least safeguards to shield them from abuse, specifically regarding rights of movement, withholding of documentation, legal reprise against abusive sponsors, and protection from gender-based violence committed against housemaids and other female domestic workers.