Famous beauty blogger wants slavery back;says backlash is islamophobic

[Melech 9,900]

The beauty blogger who sparked outrage after complaining about new laws giving migrant workers better rights has refused to apologise for her remarks, instead accusing her critics of attacking Islam, the hijab and Kuwait. 

Sondos al-Qattan has attracted global condemnation since she posted a video to Instagram last week in which she expressed frustration at newly implemented changes to Kuwait’s kafala system, which now mean Filipino migrant workers can keep control of their own passports and have the right to four days off a month.

“How can you have a servant at home who gets to keep their passport with them? If they ran away and went back to their country, who’ll refund me?” Ms Qattan said in the now deleted post. 

“I don’t want a Filipino maid anymore.”

Despite widespread criticism pointing out Ms Qattan’s woeful understanding of migrant labour abuse in the Gulf state, and the fact that several leading beauty brands, including Max Factor Arabia, have severed ties, the Kuwaiti social media star has repeatedly defended her remarks. 

In a new video posted to her now private Twitter account on Thursday, Ms Qattan called the backlash to her comments a “foreign media campaign” designed to attack Islam, the hijab, Kuwait and the wider Gulf region.

“Of course I did not have to offer any apology, because I was telling the truth. 

“Keeping a domestic worker’s passport is deemed an enslavement and racism [by these people]. Why judge me [over keeping] my worker’s passport, with the aim of ensuring my safety?

“These people express more outrage over my remarks than they have over humanitarian crises and massacres in Syria, Iraq and Gaza. Are these humanitarian values?”

Ms Qattan also called on her 2.3 million Instagram followers to boycott the brands that have dropped her sponsorship deals. 

Kuwait, like most Middle Eastern countries, operates a kafala sponsorship system for migrants who mostly work in unskilled cleaning and construction jobs.

The extremely poor working conditions have been extensively documented by rights groups, which call it “modern day slavery”. 

In Kuwait, Filipino workers were given new rights after a maid was murdered by her employers earlier this year, leading to a diplomatic standoff in which the Philippines demanded better rights for its 200,000 citizens living there. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/kuwait-blogger-passport-racism-filipino-worker-islamophobic-uae-sondos-al-qattan-a8464741.html

 

 

[Andy McQueen 4,484]

WTF?!

[Jinzo 9,639]

What a horrible human being  and she's not that pretty. 

[Melech 9,900]

NSFW video in spoiler. A maid fell out of the window. The Kuwait employee filmed and didnt try to save her even if the maid begged her to. She fell, but she survived.

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIH7fKo0u2k

 

[Ryusei 61,502]

Unfortunately slavery still exists over there and people are being trafficked from poor countries to serve wealthy people. A sad reality. What a disgusting person.. she clearly doesnt have any beauty on the inside

[My Enigma Heart 1,915]

It breaks my heart that there are some people who are so close-minded and seflish. I, myself, am a Filipino and people here work their asses off and leave their families to go abroad just for their children to have a bright future. She doesn't have a right to complain like that when I bet that she herself was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. 

[weed 78,870]

Wow.... what a terrible person

[Woohoo 6,534]

Kuwaiti here, she is a talentless racist indeed. She serves no purpose why is she even famous? She says that she doesn't regret her idea and for some reason she's still relevant. Some beauty companies cut her off, so yayha.

[McMonster08 4,528]

And on a recent statement, she said, 

"Don't talk about this anymore. There are more important things in life. I'm thinking of Botox." (C) 

Filipino here. Gurl, just stick to taking pictures with products when face is all you've got.

How unfortunate.

 

[blueberryx 30]

On 7/29/2018 at 3:24 PM, Live4TheARTPOP said:

Kuwaiti here, she is a talentless racist indeed. She serves no purpose why is she even famous? She says that she doesn't regret her idea and for some reason she's still relevant. Some beauty companies cut her off, so yayha.

SAME!! I'm from Kuwait!!

To be honest it's beyond deplorable and much worse than people realize. Just one of many, many reasons I had to move out of the country. 

On 7/29/2018 at 2:45 PM, Melech said:

Kuwait, like most Middle Eastern countries, operates a kafala sponsorship system for migrants who mostly work in unskilled cleaning and construction jobs.

That's an understatement. Migrants work in virtually every domain servicing and keeping the country running, without them the country would come to a standstill. Waiters, refuse collection, nannies and housekeepers, drivers, secretaries, office "boys," etc. It would be socially unacceptable for a local to take on any such job. Beyond that, offices, corporations, rely on foreigners to occupy positions that natives wouldn't have the skills, training, motivation etc. to take on. 

There's no legally established minimum wage for non-Kuwaitis, so it's really dependent on your employer and their attitude if you're fairly compensated.

On another note, related to the video posted of the maid jumping off the building, this is sadly a very regular occurence. Suicide among most often housekeepers is a regular (weekly) occurence, and usually stems from their horrible living conditions and unrealistically heavy workload. Employers take away more than passports, some confiscate cell phones, or worse, withhold paying their salaries for months if not longer, and it's not easy to report this kind of thing let alone have it addressed. 

 

I could keep going on but I'd rather not.