WUNRN
Amnesty International
Domestic workers in
© Amnesty
International
4 November 2010
Rhaya is a 19-year-old from a poor family
in
Rhaya washed clothes in different houses while living at her sister Enny’s
house. Enny, is the fourth wife of Abang Setia, with whom she has a young
child.
About three months after Rhaya started living at her sister's house, Rhaya was
raped by Abang Setia. After he had raped her, Abang Setia told her not to tell
anyone what had happened or she would be killed.
Three days later, Rhaya returned to her parents’ house, not telling anyone what
had happened. But six months later, when her pregnancy was obvious, she told
her parents and her sister.
Rhaya’s father reported the rape to the police, and Rhaya received some support,
including from civil society organizations.
But when people in Rhaya’s village learned she was pregnant as a result of
rape, the people, including the head of village, said that they could not
welcome her condition. Being pregnant without a husband, they said, would bring
‘Aib’ – shame – to the village.
Rhaya’s father, wanting to protect his daughter, decided to move house,
relocating far away so that Rhaya would feel safe from the villagers’
intimidation. They eventually found a new place and waited for the baby to be
born. But their new house was not comfortable. It had no windows and no
ventilation and they had to use old boxes to sleep on.
Three months after they arrived at their new home, the people in their new
village learned that Rhaya was pregnant without a husband, and that her
pregnancy was the result of rape. As the local pressure mounted, their landlord
asked them to leave.
Rhaya’s parents, alarmed by the new turn of events just before she was due to
give birth, desperately began looking for options. Fortunately, a
representative from a civil society organization brought her case to the
attention of a government crisis centre to help her arrange free medical care
from the local general hospital.
Initially, there were problems because Rhaya had moved to the new village and
did not have a local ID. However, in the end, Rhaya was able to get the care
she needed and gave birth to a healthy baby girl by Caesarean section. Her baby
was soon adopted.
Rhaya is now trying to rebuild her life and is considering the offer of another
job as a domestic worker.