'A Father Forced Young Son To Clean Deep Well In Saudi'

By Fauzia Arshi | Jeddah

In the aftermath of the death of a six-year-old Saudi girl in a well recently, social media watchers have highlighted a video showing a man lowering his young son into a well to clean it.

Last week, the government formed a committee to identify and close deserted wells across the country. The move follows a public outcry over Lama’s death in the abandoned Tabuk well.

The four-minute video shows the Saudi man placing his young son into what seems to be a 20-liter metal paint bucket tied with rope. The father then steps onto one of the unsecured wooden planks covering the opening and proceeds to lower the clearly distressed seven-year-old boy into the well, which appears to be about 15 meters deep.
The father asks his son to hold onto the rope and says: “Be strong.” As the camera focuses on the bucket being lowered, another child standing on the edge of the well says: “He is shaking.”

At the bottom of the well, the boy places some garbage into the container for about two minutes. His father then pulls him up again, scraping the tin and the youngster’s arms against the hard walls of the well.

The video, dubbed the “Adventures of Abdulrahman Al-Harbi,” was posted on YouTube almost a year ago. It is not known where the video was filmed.

The video received a surge of hits on Thursday, with people expressing concerns over such practices and open wells.

Abdul Abdullah said: “There should be rules to protect innocent children against irresponsible fathers. Didn’t he think that something could go wrong and he might lose his child?”

“If the rope snapped, it would have been catastrophic,” said Abu Fares. “I’m really sad to see other bloggers liking the video,” he said.

“We want the authorities to identify and arrest the father, and investigate him for jeopardizing the life of the child. No father can do this to his son,” said Huda Al-Esaimi.

“There is very little oxygen at the bottom of a well and the child could have lost his life if something went wrong,” said Fahd Al-Shammari.

Some bloggers, however, loved the video. “Kudos to the father and son. This is how to raise children to be real men. Let them say farewell to fear and intimidation,” said Albattar on YouTube.

“There is nothing wrong with a father teaching his son to break the fear barrier at an early age,” said one blogger.