If you do a deep dive on this, you find out that Arabs pushing their African maids/slaves out of upper-story windows is actually "a thing", though it hasn't received a ton of media coverage.
E.g. this 2011 BBC report on Malagasy maids in Lebanon, which mentions that, among many other abuses, they were sometimes deliberately crippled by being pushed out of windows.
Or, this 2014 comic, which dramatizes the experience of an Ethiopian maid in Saudi Arabia, who, in addition to being raped by the man of the house, was eventually pushed out of a window by her mistress after demanding her wages.
Apparently it's not exclusive to African maids. In 2017 a Moroccan maid in Saudi Arabia was thrown out of a window by her employer.
In 2010, a Kenyan maid accused her Saudi employer of throwing her out of a third-floor window, breaking her legs and hands.
All in all, maid defenestration may not be its own "thing", but may be one of many abuses and occupational hazards visited upon foreign servants in countries that place little value on their lives. There have been numerous deaths by falling among maids in Singapore and Hong Kong.
By which I mean, I don't know if pushing your maid out the window is a institutionalized practice in Arab states. It might just be the result of employers getting creative with abuse, or demanding that the maids do unsafe tasks. But it *is* really weird that it happens at all.
Also, here is a link to the full comic that recounts the story of Almaz, the Ethiopian maid who was pushed out a window. A very eye-opening look at the treatment of foreign domestic workers in the Gulf states.
positivenegatives.org/story/almaz/
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.