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All Journal AL-MAIYYAH: Media Transformasi Gender dalam Paradigma Sosial Keagamaan
Umar Sheikh Tahir
Columbia University
Religion Education Social Sciences Other

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Invisible Labor, Sacred Narratives: The Paradox of Protection and Exploitation of Women Migrant Workers in Saudi Arabia Umar Sheikh Tahir
AL-MAIYYAH : Media Transformasi Gender dalam Paradigma Sosial Keagamaan Vol 19 No 1 (2026): AL-MAIYYAH
Publisher : Center for Gender and Child Studies, Institute for Research and Community Service, Institut Agama Islam Negeri Parepare.

Show Abstract | Download Original | Original Source | Check in Google Scholar | DOI: 10.35905/almaiyyah.v19i1.16984

Abstract

Women migrant domestic workers in Saudi Arabia occupy a paradoxical position within labour governance: they are formally protected yet often face restrictions on mobility, communication, and autonomy. While previous research has examined legal vulnerability and exploitation under the Kafala system, less attention has been paid to how socio religious meanings shape both control and women’s everyday agency. This study examines how women migrant workers negotiate protection, exploitation, and sacred narratives in everyday labour relations. Using a multi-origin qualitative design, it draws on semi structured interviews with 42 participants, including 30 women migrant workers from Indonesia, the Philippines, Ethiopia, and South Asian countries (Bangladesh and Sri Lanka), and 12 institutional informants. Data were analysed thematically through inductive and deductive coding informed by structural vulnerability, sacred narratives, and agency. The findings show that protection mechanisms may also function as forms of control through mobility restriction, communication monitoring, document retention, and employer dependence. Sacred narratives likewise have a dual role: they may legitimise obedience and unequal authority while also supporting resilience, moral interpretation, and claims to fair treatment. Women’s agency is expressed through strategic compliance, relational negotiation, informal support networks, and selective resistance. The study advances a structure culture agency perspective by showing how institutional vulnerability, socio religious meaning making, and relational agency interact in shaping migrant women’s experiences. Effective protection therefore requires both stronger institutional safeguards and greater attention to the cultural and religious meanings embedded in labour relations.
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