My employer was always trying to rape me. I refused because I have a husband and children. [Starts crying] I tried to work for eight months because I have to pay a loan at home. I have a debt to my neighbors for my children’s treatment in the hospital. My husband doesn’t work.
On the night of Eid al-Fitr, everybody had gone out, the employer told me to clean the ground floor where my male employer lives. When I was on that floor, there was nobody else there, and he was there naked. My employer raped me. He pushed me, I tried to resist, but I couldn’t push him off. He raped me on the sofa.
He said, “I have not taken advantage of you, because I paid a lot of money for you.” I said, “You have taken advantage of me because you raped me.”
I got a loan for 2 million rupiah from my neighbor and now I will have to pay 5 million. The rest is now 10 million. If we can’t pay the money, they will take our house and land. The house is a small thing, but the important thing is our land.
[My employer] bought my tickets [home] using my salary. He used three months salary for the ticket and gave me [only] five months salary.”
There is a closet for dresses. I slept on the floor, I had a very thin blanket
Narrative credit to Human Rights Watch
Original Narrative can be found in Human Rights Watch Report “As If I am Not Human”: Abuses Against Asian Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia
