Indonesia Tries to Raise Money to Save Maid From Beheading

AOL News, AOL News Staff, Mar 3, 2011

Indonesia is trying to raise half a million dollars to save a maid from being beheaded in Saudi Arabia for killing her boss after she said he tried to rape her.

Darsem binti Dawud Tawar, an Indonesian national from West Java, was convicted in May 2009 of murdering her Yemeni employer, The Jakarta Globe said. The Riyadh court sentenced her to death by beheading. In Saudi Arabia, beheadings are usually carried out by scimitar in a public square.

Darsem says her employer tried to rape her and she was acting in self-defense.

Darsem binti Dawud Tawar, an Indonesian maid,
has been sentenced to death by beheading in Saudi
Arabia on a charge of murdering her employer, who
she says tried to rape her.(Dok KBRI Riyadh)

The man's family has agreed to forgive Darsem if they are paid the equivalent of $530,000 by July. The custom of paying such compensation is known in Arabic as "diyat" or blood money.

However, even if the money is paid in time, Darsem would still be required to serve a prison term.

Kusuma Habir, a spokeswoman for the Indonesian Foreign Ministry, told the Jakarta newspaper the government has collected $262,000, or about half of the sum it needs. The government has been seeking donations through television and through social-networking sites such as Facebook.

But an advocate for migrant workers said the government should pony up the blood money itself.

"Donating money to people out of sympathy is one thing, but for the government, Darsem should not be a charity case," Umi Farida of the National Network for Domestic Workers Advocacy told the newspaper.

"Helping her is an obligation. Why would the government need to gather donations from the public when they can allocate funding from the state budget to help her?" Farida asked.

Advocates say foreigners, especially women, who come to Saudi Arabia to work as domestic help are very vulnerable to abuse by their employers. Last year, a Sri Lankan woman who worked for a maid in Saudi Arabia said her employers used to torture her by hammering nails into her. Doctors said X-rays showed there were 23 nails in her body.

In January 2008, another Indonesian migrant worker, Yanti Sukardi, was beheaded in Saudi Arabia on charges of killing her employer. She was accused of suffocating the woman and stealing her jewelry.

Darsem binti Dawud from Subang, West Java, has been
sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia for murdering her
employer. (Photo Source SCTV)

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Govt Gathers Funds to Save Indonesian Maid from Beheading