RIYADH, 7 November 2006 — Shocking photographs of sexually abused children in the Kingdom were shown to physicians and pediatricians attending a symposium entitled “Child Abuse” at the National Guard Hospital in Riyadh yesterday.
Addressing the participants, Dr. Enaam Raboei, chairperson of the Child Protection Committee at the MSD Hospital, said that 217 cases of children who were sexually or physically abused have been reported since 2002 in the Western region of the Kingdom alone.
She said King Fahd Armed Forces Hospital reported 105 cases, Maternity and Children’s Hospital reported 42 cases, Al-Noor Hospital in Makkah reported 20 cases and the Social Welfare Office reported 50 cases.
Dr. Raboei said she had personally come across cases where fathers had been charged with impregnating their daughters and were now in jail.
During her presentation, Dr. Raboei said cases of fathers sexually or physically abusing their children were on the rise in the past six years. She also revealed examples of several sexual abuse cases that had been dropped by courts in Jeddah because of the fact that by the time the investigation reached court and an official medical examination was made, vaginal and anal wounds had healed.
In one case handled by Raboei, a 14-year-old Saudi girl was admitted to hospital. Her medical history showed that she had been suffering from bleeding in her rectum for four years. A medical investigation showed that her hymen had been partially torn. On a projector screen, the audience was shown a picture drawn by the girl showing her father sexually assaulting her in the vaginal part of her body.
Dr. Raboei said that the drawing, together with other evidence provided by health experts, were dropped by a court. “The court dropped the case because the tear in the hymen had healed by the time the court had ordered a medical examination,” she said, adding, “Three of my other cases were also dropped by the court for the same reason.”
In relation to another case, Raboei talked about a four-year-old Saudi boy who was admitted to hospital with an anal tear. She also spoke about a deaf and mute nine-year-old- girl with a history of vaginal bleeding. The girl had been abused by the family driver.
The audience was also presented with photographs of the vaginal and rectal areas of children who had been admitted to hospital. Some of the children’s drawings showed the brutality of the abuse that they had experienced. “One father threatened to kill me if I went to court with the sketches,” said Dr. Raboei.
According to Dr. Lori Frasier, a child abuse specialist from Utah in the US and one of the main speakers at the conference, child abuse is a hidden crime. “Believe it or not, most physicians in the United States and in this country are not specifically trained in this area,” she said, adding that it takes special training and expertise for physicians to determine whether a certain case is of sexual or physical abuse.
Dr. Frasier said the history of a child was crucial in unraveling the truth. “The physician needs to know how to take good history directly from the child,” she said, adding that by law, physicians in the United States are required to report sexual or physical abuse to authorities or face charges. She said that having such symposiums was crucial to create awareness and educate medical staff about sexual and physical abuse. Her presentation, which will continue today, is about the findings of sexual abuse cases, how to determine them and how to diagnose them.
Dr. Randell Alexander, another child abuse specialist who came from Florida, US, spoke about child abuse as a health problem and not just a social problem or a legal problem. “I showed some research that suggests that child abuse underlines many adult health problems,” he said.
He added that sexual abuse was a “major health problem” in the US. “It helps to explain why adults die early. It has a lot to do with some of the cancers, heart problems and strokes. Lifestyle behavior as an adult depends on what sort of lifestyle you had as a child,” he said.
