Women are becoming indentured housemaids through marriage. It is reportedly a growing trend within the Kingdom where a man takes a second wife for the sole purpose of making her nothing more than a maid or surrogate mother. The plight of one 20-year-old woman came to light this week when she told Al-Madina Arabic daily of how she was reduced to being a maid serving her husband's family. It was only after marriage that she discovered that her Saudi husband wanted her to live in the same house as his first wife. He reasoned that he could not afford another house for her. But to her surprise afterwards, her husband asked her to care of his first wife and her children. She had no choice but to obey and eventually ended up being the maid of the household. Another woman named Raja narrated a similar experience. After the death of her parents, she had moved to her uncle's house. But when he too died, she had no way of fending for herself and had to accept the first man who proposed to marry her, a man 30 years older than her. “He told my guardian he was a retiree and had two wives living with him in a small house in Jeddah. When the new bride Raja arrived at the house, she was shocked to see that there was only one bedroom. The two other wives were kind enough to offer her use of the bedroom for her wedding night, Raja said. The honeymoon lasted only a few days because soon enough the husband asked her to serve his other wives – who were also his blood relatives – and their children. “Overnight I was turned into a housemaid,” Raja said. Another woman named Faten married a contractor who bought an apartment for her to live separately from his first wife. “He was gentle until one day I found out that his first of 20 years was infertile and that he had married me to have children – for her. After I gave birth to two children he divorced me since I had fulfilled my purpose as his wife.” Shariah law does not permit such behavior, said Hashimyia Al-Haj, a social worker at King Abdul Aziz University. “The Islamic Shariah prohibits using women for purposes such as turning them into maids and surrogate mothers.” Al-Haj said women should not recklessly accept the first man who asks for their hand in marriage. Islam recommends that they should choose wisely to avoid being used by men, she said.
