Beauty Brands Cut Ties with Kuwaiti Blogger as She Commented on Domestic Workers

Two international domestic brands have reportedly cut off their ties with a Kuwaiti blogger who said domestic workers should not be given days off, highlighting resistance to reforms to end widespread labour abuses in the Gulf state.
Sondos al-Qattan, who has 2.3 million followers on Instagram, was heavily criticised on social media after she posted a video on July 10 in which she attacked measures introduced in May that grant Filipinos working in the oil-rich Gulf state one day off per week and prevent employers from keeping their passports.
“Max Factor Arabia is taking this incident very seriously and has immediately suspended all collaborations with Sondos,” said the company, which had worked with Alqattan.
“Sondos’ comments are personal and do not represent the values nor the principles that Max Factor Arabia stands for,” it told the Thomson Reuters Foundation in emailed comments on Wednesday.
On May 11, Kuwait and the Philippines signed an agreement regulating domestic labor, following a diplomatic crisis that led to a ban on Filipino workers going to work in the Gulf country.
In a post in Instagram the influencer said on Monday night, “the passport of any expat employee should be in the possession of the employer to protect the employer’s interest”, adding that “we are all equal humans”.
> Shiuly Rina