JEDDAH, 21 August 2004 — A Saudi poetess has complained to the National Human Rights Association (NHRA) that she had been tortured by her former husband and her family had put her under house arrest after divorce, Okaz reported yesterday.

Dr. Rashid Al-Mubarak, a senior official of the organization, told the daily that the case had been referred to the NHRA’s family committee. The paper did not name the poetess, who made her suffering public through a website.

The NHRA has promised the woman that it would intervene quickly if she faces any threat and takes her case to court. She said she had run away from the house of her father six days after she gave birth to a baby. “The family handed over the baby to my former husband. This prompted me to run away from the house to save my life,” the paper quoted the woman as saying.