Shame on you Ministry of Human Resource Development!

The ad in Arabic with some highlights on the translated quotes!

In the news, a vacancy advertisement published by the Ministry of Human Resource Development in “Alintibaha”  Arabic daily on Thursday, calls on “qualified” Sudanese female candidates to apply for jobs in Kuwait.

The brazen ad, which met with a very angry and justified reaction by Imams, social commentators and much of the public, does not stop at limiting the vacancies to “the fair sex”, but goes further to demand that applicants should be “Good-looking and non dark-skinned”!

In fact, not only is the ad racist, but many of the above critics considered it a call for prostitution; since other “ credentials” included objectionable requirements such as: “three different colored photos of the applicant, clearly showing the body from head to toe”!, and information about height, weight, diseases and surgical procedures “if any”!

Alintibaha hastened to publish an apology to its readers the next day, but what is really disturbing is that the shameless ad was submitted to the daily by an official body; “External Staff Recruitment” at the Ministry of Human Resource Development, where we are expected to believe no one noticed the content of the advertisement! And this coming from a ministry whose mission in essence is to provide dignified and decent work for Sudanese abroad.

Three years ago, and before the separation of South Sudan where “The Citizen English-daily” was distributed, the paper was banned from publication for one day, because an advertisement for a sport activity included the logo for Beer Company; despite the fact that the beer, which is not distributed in Sudan, was not the focus of the ad. The printing and publication council justified the move by saying the ad offends the morality and religious beliefs of the community!

It should be interesting to see how the “Council” reacts to this illegal ad, and whether it will hold any of the parties involved responsible. We hope it will deal seriously with the matter away from biased double-standards!