Viral Video Shows UAE Woman ‘Humiliating’ Servant

Saudi woman Fawzia al-Harbi, a candidate for local municipal council elections, shows her
REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser
Ali Waked

JAFFA, Israel – A video in which a woman from the United Arab Emirates praises her servant’s household abilities while appearing to treat the worker as an object has gone viral on Arab social media.

In the video, the woman describes the “phenomenal” skills of her black servant that “she got as a gift,” and asks another employee to answer her questions about the servant, who is also seen in the video, slightly embarrassed, holding a drink.

Watch the video here:

 

“Because of blessed month of Ramadan, I received this gift from a friend in Saudi Arabia,” the female employer is heard saying, referring to the servant.

“What a gift. What a gift,” she adds

“I want you to tell what she can do,” the other employee states. “I want them [meaning watchers of the video] to be jealous. I want them to be jealous. Tell them what she can do.”

The Arab news media reported the video was meant to make female viewers jealous ahead of Ramadan, a period when Muslim women are particularly burdened by household chores.

Social media users disapproved of the woman’s humiliation.

“She’s so primitive, Allah forbid,” Hur wrote.

https://twitter.com/msha3er_333/status/740070686908133377

“The woman’s eyes say why is she filming me,” Mariam wrote. “You don’t have to humiliate a person only because they are poor. Only poverty drives them to work for cruel, mentally unstable rich people.”

https://twitter.com/m77ddm/status/740068474505068545

Nur came out in the landlady’s defense: “It’s one servant out of many. That woman needs a servant, that’s why she got her as a present, and the servant will be duly paid.”

https://twitter.com/nour94860435/status/740116551811117057

“That woman is stupid and ignorant, and hardly seems aristocratic,” one user wrote. “She’s the one who should be a servant, but we live in sad times.”

Citizen believed she had done no harm, “in no way did she insult her servant.”

“She filmed a human being, not an object,” someone retorted. “She is a stupid woman, and those who turned her into a celebrity are even more stupid.”

https://twitter.com/msha3er_333/status/740141332098908160

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