Durban mother free at last

After 200 harrowing days in Saudi Arabia a Durban mom returned home this week, with her dream of providing a better life for her family shattered.

Tears flowed freely as a relieved Naadia Sheik Hameed arrived on Sunday with family and friends waiting to welcome her.

“There were times when I honestly believed I wouldn't make it back. I lost all hope. I was suicidal,” she told the Independent on Saturday.

Sheik Hameed was well known for feeding thousands of people through her non-profit organisation, Tiny Steps Care Team, but conditions changed and she ended up being the one in need.

The Westville resident thought a “tax free” teaching job in the Middle East would bolster her family's finances and applied for several posts online. Her husband and their 8-year-old twin girls and 5-year-old daughter would join her once she was settled.

Instead Sheik Hameed was locked in a legal battle with the school in Jeddah for over four months because it changed the terms of her contract and refused to give her permission to return home after she became ill.

She said what seemed like a lucrative contract at first, turned out to be a sham as the school she joined made her sign a new contract on arrival, and then another at a later stage which essentially left her out of pocket.

In addition the promised perks like free accommodation, free air tickets, and full medical insurance, the reimbursement of money she spent to get there also turned out to be false. She said the school had also promised to pay 50% of her children’s school fees once they arrived but that was also not included.

Instead she was made to pay for several other expenses including stationery for her class. According to Sheik Hameed, she was threatened and bullied at the school when she stood up for her rights.

The experience left her emotionally distraught, her hair fell out, and a medical diagnosis revealed that she was depressed and had suffered a mental breakdown.

Unable to teach because of poor health, the school refused to grant her an exit permit to return home and demanded that she pay R350 000 to be released from their employment contract.

She suffered a major psychological breakdown and the Natal Memon Jamaat (NMJ) paid her husband's transport costs to visit her. He arrived just as she was evicted from the school’s apartment and they were left without any money or a place to stay.

“I was desperate, I had no idea what to do. We didn't even know the place and there were language barriers,” she said.

Eventually the a group called South African Muslims in the Gulf (SAMiG) as well as the NMJ took care of them.

They even went on Umrah. “That was an NMJ attempt to restore spiritual healing - as the lawyer explained we had to wait until court dates were set.”

Sheik Hameed said she was shattered when a South African embassy official allegedly told her that they could not offer any assistance as she had entered into a contract with a private company.

The South African expat who represented the school and who she had met in Durban offered no help and said, “This is Saudi Arabia not South Africa, things are different here.”

“In sharia (muslim law) of the country the employer is seen as your sustainer of your earnings so you need to be obedient to your employer. In other words, whatever they tell you, you need to do so whether it goes against human rights or if it's against your dignity or whatever, you just have to do it. I mean dogs are taught to be obedient to their masters, I'm not an animal,” said Sheik Hameed.

She said there was also an element of racism as people of Indian origin, especially those with dark skin, were relegated to menial jobs and despised by locals in Saudi Arabia.

Sheik Hameed said that while she had several job offers for teaching posts in the Middle East before she left South Africa, she took the one with the lowest pay simply because it was close to Mecca and Medina, the two holiest pilgrimage sites for Muslims, thinking that the quick train trip from where she lived meant that she would easily be able to reach there.

She said she had done thorough research before signing up with the school but had ignored the negative online reviews posted by the school’s former employees. She also dismissed a warning by a South African who alerted her to the unhealthy working conditions at the school.

After months of legal wrangling and threats that all the stories written about her plight had to be taken down by the media organisations, or jeopardise her case, a judge finally granted her permission to return home. However, she is still not allowed to name the school.

“The judge did give us 30 days; for me to reopen the case to counter sue them or them to reopen against me. So I can share my journey but I still have to play it safe because in the contract I'm not allowed to share their name,” she said.

Human rights activist Selvan Chetty from Port Shepstone was one of the many people who stepped in to assist Sheik Hameed.

“We all put pressure on the government and we reached a stage where the officials were telling her that she had complained to too many people, now they don't want to touch her case.”

Chetty said he failed to understand why the government could not assist a “defenceless citizen”.

He also warned that her situation was not unique as there were many South Africans who had encountered similar problems while working abroad.

“The government has an absolute duty and responsibility to ensure that the welfare of the citizens, wherever in the world they are, is protected especially if we have bilateral relations with those countries and we do have relations with Saudi Arabia.”

Chetty said just because a contract was invalid or had been changed did not mean that any government had the right to violate the human rights of South African citizens.

“If you can't protect the rights of our people, then you don't belong in those offices, you don't belong in the foreign embassy. Because you are there to protect South African interests, South African citizens, trade, among other duties.”

In 2023 Chetty successfully secured the release of another South African who was “trapped” in Saudi Arabia. He said that just like Sheik Hameed, the woman’s living conditions were substandard; with broken furniture and crawling with pests when she arrived in Riyadh. Her salary was also much lower than what she had been promised.

The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) was not available to comment on the matter.