Women protest the abuse of South Asian domestic worker in front of employer's home

Women protest the abuse of South Asian domestic worker in front of employer's home

This is a photograph of a 2001 demonstration organized by Andolan Organizing South Asian Workers. The twelve women are demonstrating in front of a residential home to demand reparations for Aniq Khan, a domestic worker who had been abused and abandoned by the Bangladeshi diplomat family employing him. [1] The photo features eleven women standing on the sidewalk holding signs in Bangla and English with slogans against worker exploitation and unfree labor. The site of the protest is a family home surrounded by other homes with yards and lawns. Nahar Alam, a founder of Andolan and Chaumtoli Huq, a movement lawyer, had rescued Aniq Khan from the home they were standing in front of and organized the demonstration with Andolan members such as Razia Begum, volunteers, and allies such as CAAAV. [2] Andolan was an organization of New York City's South Asian immigrant domestic workers advancing feminist labor and survivor justice.

This protest was one of many organized by Andolan in front of employer homes. These protests pressured employers to pay reparations and publicized private homes as sites for worker abuse. This was a transformative tactic which exposed the power imbalance between South Asian low-wage immigrant domestic workers and their wealthy (mostly) South Asian employers who controlled their living conditions, wages, and immigration statuses. [3] The protest tactic led to the dissolution of the Domestic Workers Committee in Sakhi which Andolan organizers were originally a part of. These protests compromised the private lives of the board members and funders of the non-profit Sakhi as they were exposed for complicity in labor exploitation. [4] Andolan battled similar conflicts of interest and the contradictions of the non-profit industrial complex [5] as they tirelessly organized against state violence and gendered labor abuse.

Andolan lost the lawsuit against the employer. The employer was an ambassador who evaded accountability when he was promoted and relocated by the Bangladesh government. The domestic worker was stranded in the U.S and could not return to Bangladesh because his family was being threatened by the politically powerful employer. However, Andolan was able to win political asylum for Aniq Khan. [6]

[1] The story about the protest is from an audio caption by Nahar Alam for another photo of the same protest in South Asian American Digital Archive's "Andolan Records" archival collection: https://www.saada.org/item/20190806-5886

[2] Andolan Archive Project: https://www.facebook.com/andolanarchiveproject; Andolan's archived website: https://web.archive.org/web/20110131105247/http://www.andolan.net/

[3] Das Gupta, Monisha. (2003). The Neoliberal State and the Domestic Workers Movement in New York City. Canadian women's studies = Les cahiers de la femme. 22.

[4] Alam, Nahar. "Domestic Workers Do Their Homework." Samar: South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection 8 (Summer/Fall) (1997): 15-20.

[5] The phrase "non-profit industrial complex" was coined by INCITE! And a definition can be found here: https://incite-national.org/beyond-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/

[6] The story about Aniq Khan is from the audio caption by Nahar Alam for another photo of the same protest in South Asian American Digital Archive's "Andolan Records" archival collection: https://www.saada.org/item/20190806-5886

2001

Shromona Mandal

This post was completed as coursework for “Bitter Melon: Race, Foodways, and Urbanisms of Asian America” at New York University, taught by Minju Bae.

Copyright is held by CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities

Photograph

Photo298