HYDERABAD: It feels I have returned home after spending a year-and-half in hell, says Zabeena Begum, who was repatriated from Abha City in Saudi Arabia with the interference of Union Ministry of External Affairs. Zabeena (43) was allegedly being harassed at the hands of her employers, a nurse and her husband, in Saudi Arabia where she used to work as a domestic help.
Recounting her ordeal, She says: “I had left my husband’s house and was living at my brother’s place in Yakutpura. I didn’t want to be a burden on him financially, so when one Nuzath who runs a beauty parlor in his neighbourhood told me that a family in Saudi Arabia is looking for a domestic help, I went for it.’’
“At the house of my employers Ajjoos and Wala, I was nothing less than a slave. They paid me only for two months, which was 2,200 Saudi Riyals. I used to work for them day and night. I was hardly allowed to sleep and was not even given a proper meal,” adds Zabeena. She goes ahead to add that when help finally reached her in the form of Indian Embassy in Riyadh calling her employers to free her, she was threatened of dire consequences if she opened up in front of Police about atrocities she had suffered.
“While I was recording my statement with the police, my Kafil was standing behind me and pressing my hand signaling me not to speak much. Before I left for India, they paid me only 2,000 Saudi Riyals and kept my belongings. They also made me put my thumb impression on a paper which stated that there is nothing they owe me,” Zabeena says. Zabeena’s case was brought to light by Express on June 8 when it was reported with Fazil Khan of Society for Integrated Progress and Human Empowerment (SIPAHE) by her brother Hamid Khan. On June 9, Sushma Swaraj tweeted the story published in Express and asked the Indian Embassy in Riyadh to help her.
Another woman complains of torture
Meanwhile, one Shaik Shalu, husband of another woman Haseen Begum complained that she is being physically tortured at her Kafil’s house in Dammam. She was trafficked from Hyderabad.