The Musings
5
Friday,
January 11
Read: John
8: 1-11, Galatians 3: 26-29
Rizana
Nafeek. This is the name that is making headlines today in most of the national
and international news. The news that is being beamed worldwide states
"Rizana beheaded". Who is Rizana and why was she beheaded and why is
this poor woman from Sri Lanka catching worldwide attention?. Rizana was a Sri
Lankan domestic worker working in Saudi Arabia. She was arrested in 2005 for
allegedly killing a baby of a Saudi National, who was under her care. When she was arrested she
was only 17 years old, as she was one of the countless woman who got cheated by the recruitment agency. The recruitment
agency had illegally documented her papers to show that she was 23 years old. Although Rizana said that the baby had died
due to choking while being fed, the Saudi government convicted her of murder
and sentenced her to death. A number of international organization has been
fighting for her Rizanna for the last so many years. One of the tragedies of
Rizanna's case is that she had no lawyer to defend her until she was sentenced
to death and she did not have any competent interpreter during her trail. In fact her sentence violated international
law, which prohibits death penalty for crimes committed before age of 18. In
the last days, the President of Sri Lanka Rajapakse and even the parents of
Rizanna appealed to King Abdullah to pardon Rizana but all the pleas fell on
deaf ears. The Saudi Arabian government on the contrary affirms that Rizana is
guilty of killing the infant after she had an argument with the child's mother.
Finally Rizana was executed this Wednesday causing an international outrage,
because Rizana was only 17 when the killing took place and her execution is considered
as a breach of international children
rights. We don't know the truth about the killing of the child nor whether
Rizanna was guilty or not but the beheading of Rizana has opened up lot of
issues that needs to be addressed. According to the International Labour
Organisation,the beheading of Rizann brings to the fore the inhuman existence
of domestic workers working in different parts of the world especially in gulf
countries. In Saudi Arabia itself, there are more than 1. 5 million workers
mainly woman and girls who are employed as domestic workers. In land where the
laws are barbaric and archaic, with no emphasis on human rights, the poor and
the desparate who leave their native land out of sheer poverty, to find some financial
hope, end up as slaves condemned for ever, bearing not only physical abuse but
also sexual abuse and being forced to live in isolation without any contact
with the outside world. In Gulf countries it is a common sight to watch these
domestic workers enjoying a day off on Friday. strolling and sitting on the
park benches. That is the only recreation that they may have sometimes after a
long period of time. Thus the beheading of Rizanna has highlighted not only the
plight of the domestic workers but also has brought about a debate on the
rights issue of these domestic workers. When we live in this world and when we
hear about such horrific issue, how do we as Christians respond to these
issues? What are the issues that we need to consider to make a faith response
to such issues where people are denied rights and to laws that are sometimes very barbaric.
One of the basic
truth that we can find in the Word of God is the affirmation of human dignity
and worth. In Genesis 1:26 we find that God created every human being in His
image and in His likeness. It is this biblical truth that helps us to affirm
that every human being is precious. unique and has a dignity and worth. In a
world where human race is often divided on the basis of the color of skin, race
and ethnicity or even on economic lines, the lines of discrimination are drawn
from these. Thus the understanding today in the minds of the people is that if
I am rich, my financial status and my economic standing entitles me to suppress, discriminate and oppress those who are poorer than me. If the colour of
skin is of a particular color, then I consider the people with other skin
colour inferior and my hence my right to
discriminate or abuse them. If I am of a particular caste, race or ethnicity,
then people of all other race or ethnicity is lower than me and hence the right
to abuse or oppress them. It is important for us to affirm that one of the
basic faith affirmation in the Word of God is that we all are one, and we in
terms of human dignity and worth we all stand in the same ground, neither
higher nor lower. It is in this context that Paul in his letter to Galatians
affirms that "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or
female for you all are one in Christ Jesus" [ Gal 3:28]. This verse affirms
that irrespective of our gender, our race or ethnicity or our financial status
we affirm our oneness of human race, the equality of human dignity and worth
through Christ. It is not that the rich, the powerful and the rulers have one
kind of human dignity while the lesser known, the poor and the common people
have a different element or sense of human dignity. In the same way when we
look at John 8, we find a very unique way as to how Jesus treated the woman
caught in adultery. In this passage we find Jesus affirming the woman who was a
sinner, and this teaches us that though fallen
and guilty, the sinner has a human dignity and even the guilty has certain
human rights and dignity. It is these rights and dignity that cannot be
violated and needs to be respected at all times. I think the incident of Rizana
highlights that in the world we live,
irrespective of whether a person is guilty in the eyes of the law, the
individual deserves the right to dignity, the right to tell their story so that
justice could be fair and true. When our society is deaf to the cry of people who are denied
basic rights and dignity and are not able to affirm their worth, then whatever be the discoveries that human
kind has made, we are still living in an outdated and archaic society. Rizana
may be guilty, but she represents countless number of woman and children who
are crying out for their basis human rights and dignity. Let us remember them
in our faith journey .
