Dream of getting lucrative salary in Saudi Arabia turns into nightmare for Hyderabadi woman

Hyderabad: 38-year-old, Hyderabadi woman, Noor Jehan was rescued from her employees in Saudi Arabia where she was working as domestic labour. Noor Jehan is the resident of Asad Baba Nagar in Bahadurpura. As her husband Mohammed Azam was steeped in debt, Noor Jehan decided to go to Saudi to earn a living. She was lured by an agent with promises of hefty salaries. She was first flown to Sharjah, on a tourist visa, then taken to Dubai and finally to Medina, where her woes began.

She was forced to work in five different houses; where she was tortured, starved and even crammed in a car under the hot desert sun for two days. She had to work without food. And nobody was there to listen to her pleas. She was also put in solitary confinement if she complained about work. Unable to suffer the harassment, when she expressed the desire to return home, her infuriated employer confined her in a car for two days without food or water. She had to stealthily go into a nearby mosque to attend nature’s call and drink water.

In the second house where Noor Jehan worked there were four families with 40 family members. She was shackled with work. After suffering unspeakable ordeals in four different houses, she was finally able to sneak out and call her family in Hyderabad, thanks to a Bangladeshi national who took pity on her and allowed her to use his cell phone.

After receiving her phone call, Noor Jehan Begum’s husband Mohammed Azam lodged a complaint with the police. City police acted swiftly on the complaint and mounted pressure on a local agent from Kanchanbagh to bring her back. MBT leader Amjadullah Khan, who was approached by the family, pursued the case with police and also wrote to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj and urged the consul general of India in Jeddah for help.

After three months of torment, she returned on December 16 last year.