Mona

(A work of
fiction based on the lives of Ethiopian and non-Ethiopian women who have worked
in the Middle East as maids … In memory of Alem Dechasa*) 

Mona is
under police custody. She looks distraught and depressed. Her once long hair
has been cut short. She appears as if she just came out of a fight club. Her
face is terribly bruised. Her eyes are swollen. She wants to make a call to
Ethiopia. But that is only a dream as she is currently locked in a
maximum-security prison somewhere in the Middle East. She must find a way to
let her relatives know what has happened to her. She has to get in touch with Salima, her close friend. But how?
Her eyes are filled with tears again. The realization that she may never see
her relatives is already killing her; before even facing the death penalty that
those who imprisoned her are talking about…

Mona comes
from a small town in Ethiopia. She met her best friend Salima
at a Christian worship center here in the Middle East. Mona and Salima have been close friends ever since they met each
other. Their real names back in Ethiopia were Monaliza
(after Mona Lisa) and Selamawit (peaceful one). They
had to modify their names before they came to the Middle East so that their
employers would think they were Muslims. It was their broker’s idea. He ordered
them to remove the cross necklace from their neck too. Otherwise, he
threatened, he would give the opportunity to other girls. He said that the
employers preferred Muslim maids or those who were willing to convert. “You
want to make money or not? Keep your faith to yourself and act like a Muslim!”
the man shouted. They listened to him, and they obeyed what he ordered them to
do. They needed no obstacle in the way of their “Middle East Dream.” They had
borrowed so much money, most of which had already been used for various
expenses—including a broker’s fee and airline ticket. They had to get out of
the country by any means necessary, and paying back that money was their
priority. Thus, Monaliza became Mona, after the
Arabic name Muna, meaning wish, desire. And Selamawit became Salima, the same
meaning as the original one.

Alima and Ayesha are two other friends of Mona.
They have always been Muslims. Alima was born in
Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Abeba, and Ayesha in
Eritrea’s capital, Asmara. Because the best place for these two to meet their
fellow Ethiopian and Eritrean sisters is at the worship center, they too go there
whenever they can, and that is how they first met Mona and Salima.
The four of them are now very close friends. For these young migrant workers,
national and religious differences have no place because in this harsh
environment, they need each other’s support more than anything else in the
world as they work as domestic workers, maids, in (upper) middle class Middle
Eastern households.

Salima and Mona work in the same
neighborhood. Also Alima and Ayesha work more or less
close to each other. Salima and Alima
are the lucky ones from the group; they both have very kind employers that pay
them well and treat them nicely. Unfortunately, for Mona and Ayesha, the
situation is very different; they have been dealing with disturbingly abusive
households.

Ayesha has
been working for a four family household since her arrival from Khartoum after
she ran away from Eritrea’s labor camp, risking her life. Here job description
includes: taking care of two small kids, cleaning the house, and cooking for
the family, among the many responsibilities. The husband and the kids are nice
to her. She speaks good Arabic because of her stay in Khartoum. But the wife is
very mean to her. She treats her worse than a wicked witch. This lady finds
excuses to physically and verbally abuse Ayesha. One of the reasons is that she
can’t stand the fact that Ayesha is a beautiful African woman. She hates seeing
her face. She spits on her when she feels like it. She tries everything to
break Ayesha’s spirit. She is paranoid that her husband might sleep with
Ayesha. The husband is a nice gentleman, and is aware of his wife’s jealousy.
He has done everything possible to tame her insecurity. But the lady is
impossible to tame. The man has never crossed his line. He only admires
Ayesha’s hard work and how she is good at dealing with the children. His two
kids love Ayesha like crazy. But the wife fails to appreciate that. Ayesha is a
threat to her. So she abuses her whenever she can since she cannot fire her
without her husband’s consent. Once she hit her with a hot skillet; the marks
are still visible on Ayesha’s skin. And this has never been reported to anyone.
The husband did take Ayesha to a clinic for a check up,
but he told the doctor she had an accident, and that was it. And when the wife
found out the husband took Ayesha to the clinic, she was furious. She told her
husband to stay out of it. “Let her rot!”, she said.
Despite the never-ending abuse, Ayesha still works there because she likes the
husband and the kids. She is willing to tolerate the abuse until she finds a
better place.

Mona’s
case is worse. She has switched employers twice. It has only gotten horrible.
She has slaved for over a year and she still has not paid back the money she
owes people in Ethiopia—the reason why she is still here, though she wants to
leave this hell. Mona’s first employers were a family of five: Three sons,
wife, and husband who traveled overseas for work frequently. Here, not only was
she abused by the wife, but she was also harassed by the three sons who attacked
her with racial slurs and attempted to rape her constantly. One day she was
almost raped by the older son as she was cleaning his room, but before it
happened the wife luckily showed up. However, when Mona complained about the
son, the wife beat her up with an electric cord, and accused her, “how could
you dishonor my innocent son?” Mona ran away from that household.
She never went back and she never claimed her nine months
worth of salary, which she was told she would be paid at the end of the
year instead of every month.

Mona had a
tough childhood. Born from a working class family, she joined the work force
when she was just six years old, selling fruits in the streets. Because she was
beautiful, they named her Monaliza. Mona’s father was
an elementary school teacher. And her mother worked as a traditional midwife.
Four other children were born after Mona. As an eldest child, Mona had to carry
the burden of the family on her shoulder, as she grew older. In addition to
looking after the four children, she had to help her mother dealing with
household tasks. Mona’s dream was to finish school and to go to university so
she could study engineering like her neighbor’s son. She was a top student in
school. But the household tasks made it impossible for her to focus on studies.
Her father retired early because of a car accident. That left her and her
mother to be in charge of the whole family. She was forced to quit school from
the 9th grade, after passing the 8th grade national exam with high scores. And
when her mother saw the constant harassment Mona was facing from rude men, she
gave her up to one man who promised to be a good husband.

Mr.
Husband soon decided that Mona must go to the Middle East like the other girls
and make money for the family. He borrowed a large sum from his friends to fund
her trip. Mona spoke no Arabic. She barely knew English. She was only good at
her native tongue, Amharic. Let alone go to the Middle East; she had never left
her small town. She did not want to leave. But for the sake of her family, and
the husband, she convinced herself she could do it. After she arrived here, she
wanted to go back right away. She was totally lost. Confused.
It was painful to go through the culture shock, never mind the added abuse. One
day she telephoned her husband crying, “I don’t want to stay here. I want to
come home.” Husband responded, “Are you crazy? What about my money, and the
money I borrowed? Who is going to repay it? You better stay there. Don’t you
come over here. Or else I will sue you and your
family!” She cried every day and every night. She talked to her mother as well.
Her mother cried over the phone, “I wish you could come back, daughter. But …”
It was pointless. She understood that nobody wanted her over there. Even though
she hated it over here, she realized she had to endure the suffering until at
least she made enough money. Unfortunately, the longer she stayed, she wasn’t
even getting paid despite working like a donkey.

After she
ran away from the first place she worked, she found a new household. In this
household, there are three people: A husband, a wife, and a daughter who
studies abroad. Sadly, it seems Mona’s luck only leads her to the wrong place.
Here, the husband and the wife have been harassing her, one after the other. The
husband does inappropriate things that make Mona uncomfortable and the wife
angry. He is simply a pervert; he has abused other maids
who were here before Mona, maids who hailed from Sri Lanka, Philippines, and
Indonesia. His irresponsible behavior has always created a friction between the
maids and his wife. Mona’s situation is not different. The wife never confronts
her husband since she is afraid of him. But when he steps out, she becomes the
devil incarnate against the maid. Do this, do that, non-stop. If Mona says she
is tired, she gets beaten. And often she gets sent away to clean the lady’s
friends’ messy houses.

Yesterday,
something terrible happened. As Mona was washing dishes, the husband sneaked
behind her and grabbed her bosom. She screamed. The wife came in. She saw her
husband standing very close to Mona. She questioned, “Is everything okay?” He
told her to ask the maid why she was rude to him. And he walked out. Then the
wife began beating Mona. Finally, Mona couldn’t take the abuse any longer. She
retaliated. She hit back. But she hit the lady so bad that she knocked her
down. The lady fell on the floor, unconscious. And Mona panicked. She shook the
lady. The lady did not wake up. She screamed for help. But no one appeared. She
then called police, and the lady was confirmed dead. Mona was taken to police
station. The husband went to the prison, and shouted, “Murderer. Murderer.” And the media reported, “An Ethiopian maid
murdered her employer’s wife. She will be facing the death penalty, no doubt.”

Mona now
sits in the cold prison cell. All alone. Her tears
fall like the two rivers that pass through her small town. “I’m not a murderer,
I’m not a murderer. She hit me, and I hit her back. It was an accident. I’m not
a murderer.” She keeps telling the wall. The wall listens. But everyone calls
her a murderer. She is not even allowed to have a visitor.

How Mona
misses her close friend Salima. She misses Ayesha and
Amina too. She is particularly worried about Ayesha.

No one is
around to tell Mona, “It’s okay, you will be alright.”
Instead, she has been charged guilty before any trial.

***