JEDDAH, 27 February 2006 — Little Abdul Rahman lies in intensive care at Riyadh’s King Khaled University Hospital; his two-year-old body battered and bruised, the toenails ripped out of his feet. His mother and stepfather both are mentally ill. His mother, 22, is facing charges of child abuse. Abdul Rahman also faces an uncertain future when he is released.
The story began Wednesday when his mother arrived at the Riyadh hospital with the battered child. She was arrested later on charges of child abuse. When visited by the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), a picture emerged of a disturbed woman capable of having a child but incapable of understanding the responsibility of raising one and a house that could never be a home.
“Abdul Rahman is now in the ICU until he recovers from the physical abuse he underwent,” a hospital source told Arab News. “Abdul Rahman suffered several bruises that marked his body, and his toenails were cruelly removed. There is no set date for him to be discharged from the hospital.”
The source said the young boy’s father and maternal uncle have visited him. NSHR members visited the mother in the hospital to investigate the incident. She denied beating her son and showed no reluctance to giving the child to his father.
“When I asked her if she would give her son to his father, she didn’t refuse the suggestion, though she didn’t praise her relationship with her former husband, either,” said Thuraya Shaikh, a member of the human rights society.
According to Shaikh, the mother said it was out of concern for her relationship with her new husband that she would surrender custody to the boy’s father, her previous husband.
When the NSHR members asked the woman’s in-laws about the incident, they said they didn’t hear any screams from the child, and they claimed to have no idea about what happened. They said they wouldn’t try to interfere with the private matters of their son and his wife, even though they live under the same roof.
NSHR members also visited Abdul Rahman in the hospital and brought him some presents. “The boy looked mentally normal and stable to us,” said Shaikh. “He happily received the presents and hugged me tightly, refusing to let go of me when we wanted to leave.”
Shaikh suspected that Abdul Rahman has never known warm hearts or sympathy. She also said that his mother and stepfather appeared unable to create a healthy environment for the boy, though she noted that the matter currently is in the hands of the police, not the NSHR.
What’s ahead for Abdul Rahman? The hospital source said the boy’s father might take him, but the little boy has very few guarantees of anything right now.
