Layla Quran

Layla Quran
Adalah Center for Human Rights Studies
Amman, Jordan

A couple of days before I left Amman, I entered the Terra Sancta school gymnasium, where hundreds of members of the Filipino community gathered for their annual basketball/volleyball league award ceremony. The gym was packed and Filipinos in Amman, working in various fields, including domestic work, cheered as awards were given out. Earlier that month, I attended the summer Sri Lankan music festival, and before that, spent the Muslim Eid holidays celebrating with the Indonesian community. Wherever I looked, I saw strong, vocal domestic workers living life, and also becoming increasingly aware of their rights as workers through the Domestic Workers Solidarity Network and Adaleh Center’s legal trainings.

While it is important to recognize that many domestic workers in the Middle East do face repulsive conditions, branding domestic workers as sad, pitiful women subject to the whim of both their employers and the looming global economy does little for the cause of the workers themselves. It is, frankly, much more nuanced than that – and domestic workers deserve a more critical analysis of their working conditions and their struggle for change in the Middle East. By speaking out about their conditions, domestic workers make public what is private: the work they perform within the private realm of the house and the ways in which their employer and other entities attempt to infringe upon their rights.

The Domestic Workers Solidarity Network will continue to meet, and will garner more members. As one of the founding members, Joy, told me, the Network has become a place where workers can turn to, where they can receive legal advice and voice their grievances, and where they can develop their relationships with other domestic workers in the country.

Layla Quran
Adalah Center for Human Rights Studies
Amman, Jordan

On a recent Friday morning, dozens of Sri Lankan domestic workers gathered around a large table at the Adalah Center for Human Rights in Amman. The workers came with questions.

At the head of the table was a lawyer from the center and a leader from the Sri Lankan domestic workers’ community in Amman who served as a translator. He explained how there are parties in Jordan, ranging from recruitment agencies to employers themselves who either do not know or do not want to share with workers the rights they have in the workplace, and that it was important for workers to understand that they could turn to the Adaleh Center for legal advice. This is the first year the Adaleh Center has hosted these legal trainings for domestic workers, and workers often come in large numbers.

Jordan is in a unique position in the Middle East in that it is the only Arab country to have labor laws that include domestic workers. In 2008, it introduced new regulations concerning the rights of domestic workers and the responsibilities of employers and recruitment agencies. However, a 2011 Human Rights Watch report, “How Jordanian Laws, Officials, Employers, and Recruiters Fail Abused Migrant Domestic Workers” found that, despite these regulations in place, migrant domestic workers still face the same abuse they face in other countries without these laws.

Despite laws on paper, employers and recruitment agencies still take advantage of domestic workers, sometimes because the workers do not know their legal rights or are too afraid to speak out. The onus should also not have to lie solely on workers to stand up for their rights. Employers and agencies should respect their workers and there should be harsher consequences for those who do not. Legal trainings held by the Adaleh Center are important because they give workers another opportunity to learn about what is and is not acceptable for their employer or agency to do. They empower workers to speak out against abusive conditions, and to take the proper steps when their rights are infringed upon.

Layla Quran
Adalah Center for Human Rights Studies
Amman, Jordan

On a sunny Friday morning a few weeks ago, I shared a taxi with Joy, a Filipina domestic worker living in downtown Amman. The streets were quiet, as Friday is a day off for most residents of Jordan’s capital city. And for many domestic workers in Amman, Friday is a day of gathering; a time when they can take a break from their often arduous schedules and come together as a community.

We were headed to a meeting for the Domestic Workers Solidarity Network, Jordan’s first domestic workers’ rights group founded and led solely by domestic workers. As we entered the Jordanian Women’s Union office, we could hear the excited chatter of women as the meeting set to begin. Domestic workers from the Filipino, Bengali, Sri Lankan, Indonesian, and Ethiopian communities in Amman gathered around breakfast pastries and coffee before settling into their seats in the meeting room.

The main topic of discussion for the meeting was the structure of the Network, including a discussion of what it means to be a member of the Network, setting of bylaws, and how to expand the group in the future. Questions raised included if the group should include undocumented domestic workers, and workers who may have started as domestic workers but now work in another field. Workers chimed in on how they want the Network to look in the future.

At the end of the meeting, workers formed a line behind a small table where a lawyer from the Adaleh Center for Human Rights advised each worker on legal issues they were facing. The lawyer answered questions from workers about how to obtain confiscated passports from employers, best steps to follow in dealing with abusive employers, and how to legally leave Jordan to return to their home countries. Although many of the workers were in challenging situations, they knew they had legal rights in the country that were meant to protect them, and they took the initiative to be at the Network meeting to demand their rights as workers.

Layla Quran
Adalah Center for Human Rights Studies
Amman, Jordan

Every summer in Amman, the King Hussein Park amphitheater on the western outskirts of the city holds dozens of music festivals and concerts. Under the cloudless sky, young and old fill the venue as the music drifts into surrounding alleyways, inviting onlookers. Among the musicians who performed at the theater last summer was Iraj, Sri Lanka’s hottest pop singer. The venue was packed with thousands of Sri Lankans, who would leave as quickly as they entered the theater, going back to work at garment factories, agricultural farms, or in private homes as domestic workers.  They are among the 1.5 million migrant workers in the country. This summer, I plan to return to Amman to document their fight for equality and fundamental human rights.

Domestic workers are often overlooked in mainstream media. The image of the disempowered domestic worker is most commonly seen, and sentiments toward them are usually those of pity or disregard. What would happen if these workers could be viewed as powerful, resisting forces in the country? How might this shift the way employers treat them and the way the workers interact with their employers? In the precarious environment of the home, where work is performed in an indeterminate space and time, how can domestic workers demand better treatment from their employers? These are questions I hope to help answer over the summer.

The Adaleh Center for Human Rights Studies is an NGO that advocates for the rights of all marginalized peoples in Jordan. The organization served as a partner along with the Solidarity Center in the launch of the first Domestic Workers Solidarity Network. I will follow the activities of the Network this summer and speak to domestic workers who actively resist the hegemonic narrative of helpless victim. The Network includes women from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and the Philippines. It is the first of its kind in the country and sets a precedent in the region, as it is difficult for migrant workers to join unions there. For domestic workers in Jordan, the Network can be a way to build strong connections with other workers and further develop a sense of community.

Follow me as I share what I learn from them this summer!