200 domestic workers the Philippines are stuck in the Philippine embassy in Saudi Arabia, much like Julian Assange, unable to leave because of charges of illegal sex. In some cases, this is because they were raped by their employers.

Islamic law treats a woman's testimony as less than a man's, so a woman who claims to have been raped gets convicted and punished. That is one of many gross injustices in Islamic law.

Many Muslims disapprove of that approach to law, but there is no denying that Islam is where it comes from.

Cruelty in the name of Islam is no less evil than cruelty in the name of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism or Buddhism. There are people who advocate making a special case for Islam, in response to western colonialism and US aggression against some Muslim countries (though Saudi Arabia isn't one of them). That's no excuse!

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are not alone in this. The UK has a similar law which is ' turning domestic workers into modern-day slaves'.

Domestic workers are enslaved in other places too.

This is why I do not support calls to prevent enslavement of prostitutes by banning some aspects of prostitution. Shall we ban domestic work, or employing domestic workers? The methods of trafficking and enslavenment are used in many areas of work.

North Koreans are working in slave-like conditions in other countries.

I suspect they have been sold into slavery by the North Korean regime.