(CNN) -- Sri Lanka will limit the amount of women that go to Saudi Arabia to work as housemaids as outrage continues over Saudi Arabia's beheading of a Sri Lankan teen.
Officials this week raised the minimum age for female domestic workers so that no women under the age of 25 would be allowed to go to Saudi Arabia to work as a maid, said Keheliya Rambukwella, a government spokesman.
The move comes after the beheading of housemaid Rizana Nafeek that occurred earlier this month. Nafeek was 17 when a baby she was caring for in Saudi Arabia died. She was convicted of killing her employers' son in 2005. The family said she strangled the 4-month-old boy after being asked to bottle-feed him, but Nafeek said the infant accidentally choked on milk.
Human rights groups and the Sri Lankan government had lobbied for leniency in the case but on January 9 she was put to death.
Saudi officials defended its action days after the execution.
"The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia categorically rejects any interference in its affairs or in the provisions of its judiciary under any justifications," a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency read.
The statement went on to say complaints about the case "draw on false information about the case and are issued without full knowledge of the circumstances of the case itself."
The new rule also raised the minimum age of maids seeking to work in west Asian countries to 21.
how can the baby choke on the milk? When feeding the child from a bottle you have to hold the baby at a certain angle and pay atten to how their mouth is moving etc.
the bottle should also be at an angle
im sure the child must have started coughing? I dont think he would choke without making some sort of noise or physical action?
i dont agree for the punishment to be that harsh, but having said that, i have never lost a child and hope i never will so i dont know how it feels from the parents point of view.
