A Saudi court has sentenced a domestic worker from Kenya to 100 lashes for giving birth outside marriage.
The ruling, issued last month, shows the limits of a decade of social and legal reforms in a kingdom where women can be jailed and punished for “illegal pregnancy.” The sentence is a harsh turn in what has been a terrifying ordeal for a mother who has tried for more than a year to return to Kenya with her child but has been blocked at every turn.
The mother, Esther Wanja Muthoni, is one of thousands of East African domestic workers who were recruited to work as housekeepers and nannies in Saudi Arabia. A New York Times investigation last year showed how Ms. Muthoni and others wind up trapped in a bureaucratic maze if they become pregnant.
Ms. Muthoni and her 1-year-old son, Abudy, are victims of an exploitative industry that recruits African women to Saudi Arabia in a labor pipeline from which top Kenyan government officials profit. Hundreds of Kenyan women have been killed, and reports of rapes and beatings are common.
For women who become pregnant, giving birth brings added punishment. The children of unwed mothers are routinely deprived of birth certificates in Saudi Arabia. Kenya’s diplomats, who could issue birth certificates and help mothers and children get home, instead frequently ignore them, insult them and solicit bribes or sex.
“I am so afraid,” Ms. Muthoni, 40, said in a phone interview last month. “I don’t think I can endure those lashes.” » | Abdi Latif Dahir and Vivian Nereim | Abdi Latif Dahir reported from Beirut, Lebanon, and Vivian Nereim from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. | Tuesday, November 10, 2026
Imagine being so cruel as to whip a poor young mother simple for giving birth! Only a barbarian would do such a thing. Little wonder Islam is hated and feared throughout the world! — © Mark Alexander
