JEDDAH,7 January 2005 — Saudi girls absconding from home is no longer strange news. Family restrictions bring out the rebellious spirit in girls.
According to Al-Watan newspaper, more than 850 Saudi girls have run away from their houses prompting psychologists and sociologists to urge parents to reconsider their methods of bringing up children.
Dr. Nawal Mishkhas, the first Saudi psychiatrist, believes that the main reasons for the phenomenon are family problems. “The responsibility falls on family problems most of the time and the way they treat their daughters.”
She added that family ties used to be much stronger and the girls used to turn to their parents, especially their mother for help. “These family ties are not as strong as before.”
Arab News met with Dina, a girl who tried to escape from her parents house when she was 18, due to physical abuse.
“My father used to hit me at the slightest provocation, leading me to go to school bruised. The easiest solution for him was always to hit me. He used to have strange rules in our house. I wasn’t allowed to speak on the phone with my friends, if he ever caught me doing so, he would suspect that I’m speaking with guys.”
She tried to flee the country to Europe three times, but her attempts resulted in failure and got her into more problems.
Maha is another runaway girl who tried to escape her parents’ house, and even commit a suicide because of marital problems. Her parents always fight, Maha explains. “I couldn’t sleep, or study with my parents outrageous and continuous quarrels. Our house was more of a war zone. I never felt secured or loved.”
When she felt that there was no security at home, she thought she could find it somewhere else. Maha tried to run away several times but was always too scared to go forward with her plans. Then she started thinking about suicide.
Neglect is an important cause that prompts teenagers to look for care and attention elsewhere. Amal, 26, said, “my parents have always neglected me, I had no one to listen to me. My father was always busy with his work, and my mother with her friends, I never felt I am of a concern to them.”
She tried every single way to build bridges of communications with her parents until “the idea of running away dominated, when I was a teenager, but I fought to study abroad, and that’s how I escaped them,” said Amal.
“There is a flaw in the upbringing of our children, which affects the child. They might run away out of a desperate call for attention, or because they are neglected,” said Mishkhas. Female teenagers might try to escape in a form of “acting out,” as a result of carelessness, neglect, and lack of love, or misunderstanding within the house.
Dr. Mishkhas said that when a girl returns home or is found after the escapade, she and her family would be put through psychiatric treatment and counseling, in order to solve the problems that led the girl to take such an action.
Five to six cases of runaway girls are reported to the Psychiatric Hospital annually, she said.
