Those Terrible, Terrible Maids

First of all, let me start of my saying that I love maids. Particularly my or my family's (even you, Sussana, who would tell my mother on me when I came home late or was even up and about the house after hours while I was in high school). But, something, anything, must be done to combat the scourge that is foreign domestic workers! Human Rights Watch clearly has no idea what is really going on.

First they abuse the poor Saudis by making unreasonable demands and running away en masse if they aren't spoiled by decent pay and a day off each week. They even had a dedicated series of "Be Nice to Maids" public service announcements.

Now they have turned their vicious eyes to the poor Kuwaiti men, tempting while they work and occasionally inveigling them into marrying them. Fortunately, the Kuwaiti government may step in to protect their boys. Nawal Al-Muqaihit, a third district candidate said that if she was elected to Parliament she would submit a proposal forbidding Kuwaiti men from employing attractive maid-servants in order to prevent them from getting married.

In a more serious tone, she has a point, only in that high rates of out-marriage can threaten a culture, particularly one that is already surrounded by a large number of foreigners. But I doubt attractive maids are the primary cause. If anything, such a measure may be in the attractive would-be maids wishing to avoid h

High Divorce Rate Among Nationals Due to Second Wives

I just saw this older article discussing the high divorce rate among Emirati men. Apparently 31.9 % of all divorces among UAE Nationals are due to the men taking a second wife. According to a study published by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs magazine, 28% of all marriages registered by Emirati men are to foreign women, and most of these are second marriages.

I'm not sure what the cause of this "second foreign wife" phenomenon is, but a few years ago I heard a story about a phenomenon amongst the Taliban, whereby the already-married Talibs arrived in Kabul (sans village wife) and married again to a more sophisticated and exciting city wife. These cases could be the same; "first I married, the socially-acceptable choice, now I marry the one I really like/hot on." Or it could be a case of expenses; marrying within the community costs tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of dirhams, something that a man may not want to do twice. Or it may simply be the lack of good local options for a second wife; clearly bigamy is upsetting to the first wives; perhaps unmarried women also find it upsetting, and chose not to marry already-married men (original story here).

Alternatively, if a man would marry again over what are clearly his wife's strenuous objections, then maybe she just doesn't want to be with a man who could do something that upsetting to her.

Anyway, it's an interesting statistic.

PS In case you were wondering, 23.7% of divorces stemmed from financial problems, 34.4% childlessness (trying again with a different spouse. are there no fertility doctors to work out what is going on? Or are these divorces the result of people who have been, and are are seeking a spouse without confirmed fertility problems?), while 21.4% were the result of parental intervention.