We went to a labor agency in Jurong West. They kept our Indonesian money, cosmetics, and praying garments. They said it would be given to us on our return. The agency told me we are not allowed to pray because the employer doesn’t like it. The Indonesian agent also told me I wouldn’t be able to pray. I felt very sad.
─Aisyah Fatah (not her real name), Indonesian domestic worker, age twenty-one, March 4, 2005
Human Rights Watch interviewed domestic workers who reported they were forbidden from attending church if they were Christian, or praying or fasting if they were Muslim. In many cases, employment agents were the first to order domestic workers to stop praying, and confiscated their holy books, prayer shawls, and prayer rugs. In one case, a domestic worker reported:
The agent in Singapore was cruel…. I was wearing a head scarf. They took it and threw it away…. He took all my family phone numbers, my prayer books, my scarf, and prayer shawl. He searched my bag and took all of these things out roughly.279
Another worker, Kartika Hatmoko, said, “When I arrived, my madam [employer] said I was not allowed to pray. When I came here, the agency took away my praying attire.”280 One domestic worker told Human Rights Watch, “They said I cannot pray, that I cannot fast during Ramadan.”281 Kanthi Unisa, a Sri Lankan domestic worker, said, “I asked my agency, I want to go to church. They said if you want an off day, take S$25 [U.S.$15] off your salary per day.”282
Many domestic workers told Human Rights Watch that one of their main recommendations to the Singapore government would be to protect their freedom to practice their religion. Tuti Prihatin, a domestic worker, said:
They don’t give us freedom to practice our religion. They almost sent me back. If you want me to stay here, I must practice my religion. If I pray, I remember my God. The Singapore agency took my Holy Koran. It made me very, very sad. Even money is less important to me.283
After a lively discussion with several fellow Indonesian domestic workers about recommendations to the government, one domestic worker said, “We should be given freedom to worship. We have to be given freedom to practice religion. Make it punishable for employers who don’t comply.”284 Another added that it was not only freedom to pray but from coercive proselytizing, “[My employers] are Christian, and they want me to be Christian…. They told me if I was Christian, they would give me an off day every Sunday. This is what makes me saddest. They don’t let me fast, I cannot read the Koran. I cannot even touch it.”285
Article 18 of the UDHR establishes, “the right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion…and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.”286 The Singapore Constitution states that, “Every person has the right to profess and practise his religion and to propagate it.”287
The restrictions employers and labor agents place on some migrant domestic workers’ freedom to fast, to pray, and to attend religious services in accordance with their religious beliefs constitute a clear infringement of their freedom of religion as protected under international human rights law. In some cases, confiscation of prayer materials and the Koran as well as targeted religious insults designed to humiliate domestic workers could also be considered a form of psychological abuse and degrading treatment.
Taken from: http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/singapore1205/6.htm#_ftnref284
NUS Muslim Society Official Website
Majlis Ugama Islam Singapore (MUIS)
NTU Muslim Society
NP Muslim Students' Society
NYP Malay Students Network
TP Nur Ikhwan
RP Malay Cultural Group
SP Malay Language Society
Mendaki
Association of Muslim Professionals (AMP)
Do you have any enquiries/feedback for us?
Mail us @ enquiries@nusms.org.sg
or you could contact the NUSMS Blog team as follows:
Blog Manager - Ariff Abdul Aziz
ariff.aziz@nus.edu.sg
Graphic Designer - Nur Fauza Sari
potter_like_sweetapple@hotmail.com