Key facts
- Esther Wanja Muthoni, a Kenyan domestic worker, was reportedly sentenced to 100 lashes for giving birth outside marriage.
- Rights groups said the case came to light because a hospital reported the birth to authorities.
- ALQST said flogging remained a possible punishment for hudud offenses including adultery after a 2020 reform.
- A planned visit by UN special rapporteur Reem Alsalem was postponed last week, she said.
- Muthoni told the New York Times she feared she could not endure the lashes and said she did not deserve this.
A Kenyan domestic worker in Saudi Arabia has reportedly been sentenced to 100 lashes for giving birth outside marriage, under a legal system in which sex outside marriage is a criminal offense. The Guardian reported on November 11, 2026 that the ruling was issued last month.
The woman, Esther Wanja Muthoni, was recruited to work as a housekeeper and nanny in Saudi Arabia. She reportedly became pregnant during a brief relationship with an Egyptian man and said the child's father had since left the country. Muthoni told the New York Times she was afraid she would not be able to endure the lashes and said: "I don't deserve this."
Rights groups said the case came to light because Muthoni was taken to a hospital, and hospitals are required to report single women giving birth to the authorities. Ekaterina Porras Sivolobova, founder of Do Bold, a non-profit that advocates for migrant workers' rights in the Gulf, said most such women give birth at home and are therefore not reported. She said she had not been able to get help from the Kenyan authorities to support these women.
Maryam Aldossari, acting director at the UK-based rights organization ALQST, called the ruling an act of violence and said Muthoni should have been sent back to Kenya rather than punished. "It just shows the hypocrisy behind so-called Saudi reform," Aldossari said, referring to Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince.
Saudi Arabia announced a reform in April 2020 to end flogging as a judicial punishment, but ALQST said in a 2021 report that it applied only to ta'zir offenses, where judges have discretion, and that flogging remained possible for certain hudud offenses including adultery.
A planned visit to Saudi Arabia by Reem Alsalem, the UN special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, was postponed last week. Alsalem said she had intended to raise the situation of specific cases during the visit and would do so separately through established channels if the visit did not take place soon. The Saudi government was approached for comment.