Ms. Dama’s post on the video-sharing app TikTok, a parody of the song “Renee” by the American indie rock duo Sales, vents about the stresses of her job as a house cleaner for a family in Saudi Arabia, where she has worked since leaving her native Kenya in 2019. One of several videos of hers that have spread widely on the platform, it has amassed more than 900,000 views and nearly 6,000 comments since it was posted in August.
Far from home and in unfamiliar settings, domestic workers in the Gulf, like Ms. Dama the vast majority of them women have long used social media to keep in touch with friends and family. As the popularity of TikTok exploded last year, they have increasingly turned to the platform to open up about their lives and working conditions many of them saying they are overworked, sexually harassed and targets of discrimination.