Published : 11 Nov 2026, 07:02 PM
Updated : 11 Nov 2026, 07:02 PM
A Kenyan domestic worker in Saudi Arabia has reportedly been sentenced to 100 lashes after giving birth outside marriage, prompting rights groups to condemn the punishment as an act of violence.
The Guardian reported that Esther Wanja Muthoni became pregnant during a brief relationship with an Egyptian man, who has since left the country.
Muthoni told the New York Times after the ruling, issued last month, that she feared she would not be able to endure the punishment.
“I don’t deserve this,” she said.
Sex outside marriage is a criminal offence under Saudi Arabia’s legal system. Rights advocates say women are disproportionately affected, particularly migrant workers who become pregnant and are abandoned by the fathers of their children.
The Guardian said Muthoni’s case came to light after she was taken to hospital.
Medical facilities are required to report unmarried women who give birth to the authorities.
Ekaterina Porras Sivolobova, founder of the non-profit organisation Do Bold, which advocates for migrant workers in the Gulf, said many unmarried women avoided detection by giving birth at home.
“Most of them give birth at home, that’s why they aren’t reported,” she said.
A 2024 Guardian investigation found that some Kenyan mothers were stranded in Saudi Arabia after the fathers of their children abandoned them to avoid arrest for extramarital sex.
Their children also faced difficulties obtaining exit visas to leave the country.
Maryam Aldossari, acting director of the UK-based rights organisation ALQST, said Muthoni should have been returned to Kenya rather than punished.
“It just shows the hypocrisy behind so-called Saudi reform,” she said, questioning the country's claims of progress on women's rights.
Saudi Arabia announced reforms in April 2020 to end flogging as a judicial punishment.
The Guardian, however, said the changes applied only to ta’zir offences, where judges have discretion over sentences.
Flogging remained possible for some hudud offences, which carry fixed punishments under Islamic law, including adultery and alcohol consumption, according to an ALQST report published in 2021.
Sivolobova said securing support for Kenyan mothers had been difficult, adding that she had struggled to obtain assistance from Kenyan authorities.
The case also comes amid a postponed visit by Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls.
She had planned to raise specific cases during her trip to Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi government was approached for comment, the Guardian reported.
