Working mothers are among those most affected by the hectic pace of modern life. They are expected to juggle everything: from work, to personal and social lives, to taking care of their children and meeting their family’s needs. Many of them rely on full-time domestic staff for help – and end up spending less and less time with their young children.
A recent campaign in Singapore, "I Give A Day Off", tackled this issue by posing an important question for mothers: Does your maid or nanny know your child better than you do?
The behavioural change campaign was initiated by Transient Workers Count Too, a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving conditions for low-wage foreign domestic workers in Singapore.
It featured a video, titled Mums and Maids, in which mothers and domestic staff were quizzed about the interests of the young children in the family: their dream job, their favourite subject in school, their best friend's name and what they do when they have nightmares. While the maids answered the questions correctly, many mums were fumbling for answers. According to the video, 74 per cent of maids had more accurate answers than mothers.
The campaign drew a link between the parent-child bond and domestic workers’ right to have a day off. The aim was to underline the idea that a weekly day off for nannies and maids would give parents a better chance to bond with their children.
The campaign has generated considerable debate online in the past week, with some viewing it as “provocative” or “insensitive towards mothers”. However, it succeeded in calling attention to the plight of domestic staff who can work for months or years with no rest days.
Despite the fact that Singapore has a law entitling domestic workers to a weekly day off, the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics estimates that 40 per cent of them are not granted this right.
In the UAE, the situation is not very different from Singapore. Families hugely depend on domestic staff to take care of young children.
At least 146,000 female domestic workers are employed. While some families do hire skilled nannies, many just rely on maids to look after their children. Domestic staff may be legally entitled to a weekly day off but may be unable to insist on it. Domestic staff are excluded from UAE labour law due to the sponsorship (kafala) system and their unique live-in arrangement. One can only guess how many families grant their staff daily and weekly rest periods.
Many of us have heard stories of maids working long hours – up to 18 hours per day in extreme cases – and being required to fulfil multiple duties, such as cleaning and cooking, in addition to caring for children.
Last year, the Ministry of Interior introduced a new standard work contract to guarantee the rights of both domestic workers and their employers. Though the contract specifies working hours, it does leave some room for these and days off to be negotiated between the two parties.
In most cases, these workers are unskilled and poorly educated, and come from low-income countries. Many of them would agree to any option presented to them. The absence of strong legal protection leaves them vulnerable to abuse.
That’s where the “I Give A Day Off” campaign could come in. It makes the case for giving staff a day off by proposing that the parent-child bond might be strengthened in that way and that participating in domestic duties could help family members come together.
Unfortunately, many parents who spend almost no time with their children do not consider the consequences this could have on their child’s psychological development. Young children need direct parental influence; they need daily interaction, emotional identification and the feeling of belonging to a family unit. These simple activities can have a long-lasting effect on children’s intellectual development and character traits.
For this country, parental contact is critical if children are to become proficient in the Arabic language. Parental support of language development at an early age – even by simple daily interaction – augments school lessons by providing children with an advanced vocabulary.
Parents have to keep in mind the huge responsibility involved in having and raising children. They should also realise the importance of granting domestic workers their right to some time off.
aalmazrouei@thenational.ae
On Twiter: @AyeshaAlmazroui
Greatest of All Time
Starring: Vijay, Sneha, Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan
Result
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-3 – Group 1 (PA) $65,000 (Dirt) 2,000m; Winner: Brraq, Ryan Curatolo (jockey), Jean-Claude Pecout (trainer)
7.05pm: Handicap (TB) $65,000 (Turf) 1,800m; Winner: Bright Melody, James Doyle, Charlie Appleby
7.40pm: Meydan Classic – Listed (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,600m; Winner: Naval Crown, Mickael Barzalona, Charlie Appleby
8.15pm: Nad Al Sheba Trophy – Group 3 (TB) $195,000 (T) 2,810m; Winner: Volcanic Sky, Frankie Dettori, Saeed bin Suroor
8.50pm: Dubai Millennium Stakes – Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (T) 2,000m; Winner: Star Safari, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
9.25pm: Meydan Challenge – Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,400m; Winner: Zainhom, Dane O’Neill, Musabah Al Muhairi
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Israel Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
Rating: 5/5
Company%20Profile
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Juliet, Naked
Dir: Jesse Peretz
Starring: Chris O'Dowd, Rose Byrne, Ethan Hawke
Two stars
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
The%20specs
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UNpaid bills:
Countries with largest unpaid bill for UN budget in 2019
USA – $1.055 billion
Brazil – $143 million
Argentina – $52 million
Mexico – $36 million
Iran – $27 million
Israel – $18 million
Venezuela – $17 million
Korea – $10 million
Countries with largest unpaid bill for UN peacekeeping operations in 2019
USA – $2.38 billion
Brazil – $287 million
Spain – $110 million
France – $103 million
Ukraine – $100 million
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Padmaavat
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Jim Sarbh
3.5/5
Did you know?
Brunch has been around, is some form or another, for more than a century. The word was first mentioned in print in an 1895 edition of Hunter’s Weekly, after making the rounds among university students in Britain. The article, entitled Brunch: A Plea, argued the case for a later, more sociable weekend meal. “By eliminating the need to get up early on Sunday, brunch would make life brighter for Saturday night carousers. It would promote human happiness in other ways as well,” the piece read. “It is talk-compelling. It puts you in a good temper, it makes you satisfied with yourself and your fellow beings, it sweeps away the worries and cobwebs of the week.” More than 100 years later, author Guy Beringer’s words still ring true, especially in the UAE, where brunches are often used to mark special, sociable occasions.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
MATCH INFO
Quarter-finals
Saturday (all times UAE)
England v Australia, 11.15am
New Zealand v Ireland, 2.15pm
Sunday
Wales v France, 11.15am
Japan v South Africa, 2.15pm
Our legal consultant
Name: Dr Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
'Project Power'
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback
Director: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman
Rating: 3.5/5
