The uncomfortable looks came first. As Jane Tiozen, a domestic worker from the Philippines, dipped her feet in the swimming pool of an upscale beach club in Lebanon, she could feel the disapproving eyes of guests on her.
That is when the lifeguard ordered the 33-year-old to exit the pool as ‘the help is not allowed to swim in it.’
Jane, who has worked as a nanny for a family in Beirut for eight years, told Metro: ‘I could sense something was off.
‘Then the lifeguard approached me and told me to get out of the pool. “You are not allowed to swim,” he said.
‘I was shocked. Everyone was staring at me. My whole body was shaking and I could feel that I was starting to cry.’
Incidents of racial and class-based segregation, like this one, are a window into Lebanon’s kafala system, considered a form of modern-day slavery by some human rights organisations.
Under this legal framework – also operating in Jordan and many Gulf states – migrant domestic workers are bound to their employers and denied basic labour rights. Employers are even permitted to take away their passports.
As a result, in many beach resorts across Lebanon, unwritten rules dictate that those considered ‘the help’ are not allowed in pools.
Aware of the physical and sexual abuse that some of her colleagues face, Jane admitted she is ‘one of the lucky ones’ to find a ‘good’ family.
The single mother explained that the incident on June 13 is the first time she has experienced such direct discrimination, but claimed there is a lot of racism in Lebanon and it has become socially acceptable.
Her employer, Maya Nassar, a radio host on Virgin Radio Lebanon and ‘Ms Fitness Universe 2025’, was appalled at how staff treated Jane and caused a scandal, as she put it.
Having grown up in the country, she is aware of this ‘unwritten rule,’ but it was the first time she witnessed it.
The mother-of-four told Metro: ‘There are beach clubs that have rules that people of colour cannot swim in the pools, essentially targeting those who come to Lebanon mostly to work in a house as a helper or as a nanny.
‘These are typically low-paid jobs. There is this horrible mentality that they are not clean, that they have diseases, they are not classy. People want to keep beach clubs “high-end” and having these workers swim is seen as “low class”.
‘I have no idea why these rules still exist. Jane is part of the family and we were extremely angry and upset for her. My children were very confused as they did not understand why she is not allowed in the pool with us.’
Recalling the incident, Maya said that the lifeguard tried to make excuses, saying that he was ‘just doing my job and my job is not to allow maids and helpers to swim’.
She added: ‘What really annoyed me is that he stereotyped Jane. Because she is Asian, he decided that she is the nanny.
‘She could have been anyone. She could have been an ambassador. But he profiled her.’
Neither Jane nor Maya want to name the beach club where the incident happened.
Instead, Maya wishes to pressure the industry as a whole into overturning their internal ‘racist’ policies and in general, help change public perception that domestic workers from South East Asia and Africa ‘spread disease or that they are inferior to us.’
She posted a video on Instagram, where she boasts more than 300,000 followers, in which she and Jane detail what happened at the beach club.
Since releasing it, Maya has been approached by hundreds of people who claim that their employees were also discriminated against at resorts in Lebanon.
Others have not been so kind to her campaign. Maya shared screengrabs of her WhatsApp chat with mothers at her children’s school.
One of them read: ‘The beach resorts are not discriminating – they are just responding to the high demand from their regular visitors and owners.
‘Implementing rules based on this demand is a business decision, not a form of discrimination. Calling for a boycott would likely cause more harm than good, and it is not a solution we should support.’
A recent discussion in the r/Lebanese group on Reddit also proved that Jane’s experience is not unique.
User John Aiden complained that his children’s nanny, who is Filipino, is not allowed to enter most pools in Lebanon.
He wrote: ‘It seems to offend people for some reason. The same goes for beaches (supposed to be public!) and on top of that, they are asking her to wear a bikini, which she does not feel comfortable with [because of her religion].’.
Under Lebanese law, denying people access to swimming pools – public or private – based on skin colour or socio-economic status is considered to be discriminatory and potentially illegal, but enforcement varies greatly.
Maya compared it to the 2011 public smoking ban – a major cultural shock in the country.
She said: ‘The law is not enforced. It is like smoking. Smoking is illegal in public spaces and restaurants. But it is not applied.
‘People smoke anywhere and everywhere. So, it is the same with the beach clubs.
‘Many people feel that they are high class, they are sophisticated. It is a very sick and wrong thing that is happening in our country and I really wish that this would stop.’
In 2006, filmmaker Carol Mansour produced a documentary called ‘Maid in Lebanon’ depicting the gamble these women take when they go to work in the country.
Almost 20 years later, not much seems to have changed for the 200,000 migrant domestic workers, and racism is only one of the issues they face.
Human Rights Watch and Lebanese organisations have documented for years how the kafala system gives employers huge control over workers’ lives, leading to an array of abuses, including forced confinement, and verbal, physical, and sexual abuse.
Aya Majzoub, former Lebanon researcher at HRW, said about the system in 2020: ‘Lebanon’s restrictive and exploitative kafala system traps tens of thousands of migrant domestic workers in potentially harmful situations by tying their legal status to their employer, enabling highly abusive conditions amounting at worst to modern-day slavery.’
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