Where does the deplorable culture of having housemaids despite being poor come from?

[Riftvalley]

Stop being silly. It’s mostly the upper middle classes. The average Somali wife has like 7 kids and a house bigger than the UK box houses with no man to help her. If she has the extra coins, of course it makes sense for her to get a bit of help.

Also, no those women aren’t just sitting around since they have lots of kids to keep them occupied.

Always find it funny seeing men complain about maids because the reason why is because the maid in their minds should be the wife. Somali men back home don’t help at all. They just get her pregnant and will be out of the house all day even if unemployed or aren’t working long hours. No man would comment about a bachelor man having a cleaner come in a few times a week despite being single but a mother of 7 having help is an issue because you see wives as maids who also gives birth to your kids.

Furthermore, a lot of the maids tend to be relatives who are treated well and part of the family. To add, every single society in the East it’s normal to have one and it was normal to have one whilst one parents were growing up.


So I’d say, stop trying to make a mole out of a mountain. All of this talk of ‘laziness’ coming from a man from a culture that expects women to wake up at the crack of dawn whilst the men sleep and are served hand and foot.

Somali men in Somalia aren’t allowed in the kitchen. It is a restricted zone.

 

[Somali Saayid]

Sexual abuse by maids against boys and vice versa is common in Somalia.

wtf really? Where did u hear this from?

 

[Idilinaa]

Shared this study on treatment of maids in Djibouti in another thread, but i don't know much this applies to Somalia though:

Somalis have maids in Kenya, Somalia and Djibouti but i hardly see us mistreat them or some scandalous stuff like that come out about us.
The relatively decent treatment of Ethiopian maids in Djibouti compared to
the slave-lord relationship we hear happening in the Middle East, is due to the
exposure of Djiboutians to ‘other types’ of Ethiopians beyond the likes of us,the maids

https://blogs.soas.ac.uk/ref-hornresearch/files/2020/02/Close-and-yet-far.pdf

Maids in Somalia/Djibouti can for example leave after a days work, while in Saudi/UAE they are imprisoned and even tied up back in the house. We also don't treat or consider them to be slaves

I don't really have any direct experience with maids in Somali households outside of my stay in Egypt.

 

[Yaraye]

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Look at the thread. No one has seen a poor person with a maid. So, what are you talking about?

 

[Angelina]

Shared this study on treatment of maids in Djibouti in another thread, but i don't know much this applies to Somalia though:


I don't really have any direct experience with maids in Somali households outside of my stay in Egypt.

I have seen how maids are treated in Somalia and generally it was very respectful. My aunts and uncles maids were treated as though they were part of the households and would be helped. They’re treated like extra help rather than being expected to run the whole household. For example if the maid is cleaning the house, the mother or daughters would be cooking the meal. Maids would
Often hang out with the women of the family ect like watching Tv with us ect. The cultural attitudes to helper is very different to the ME in which maids would be seen as inferior and from inferior cultures. Our helpers are also often relatives which makes them feel like equals and even with if ajnabi Somalis don’t have a culture of believing people are inherently lower due to lack of finances. We all have poor relatives hence the dies of poverty being a marker isn’t part of our culture.