JEDDAH — The story of the woman who somehow escaped a few days ago from the Riyadh Central Hospital and made her way to the Shelter Home in Jeddah has put the spotlight once again on the increasing number of incidents involving abused women.
The story also highlights the shelters’ shortcomings. The woman went several times to a shelter in Riyadh in order to escape her family and the last time she was there, she attempted suicide. Finally, she managed to come to Jeddah but it was the weekend when ministries, organizations and charities, including the National Society for Human Rights, are closed. Fearing the police who would return her to her family and with no hotline number to call for help, she might have spent the night in the street if she had not managed to contact the home shelter which took her in even though it had closed.
This is not an uncommon dilemma for abused women. Even after they have escaped, the usual “option” presented to them is to return to their abusers. “All people at the shelter must be transferred there from the police, a hospital or the human rights society. The shelter does not usually accept women who walk in from the street,” said a social worker at the Home Shelter in Jeddah.
Thinking that their ordeal will be over once they are in the shelter, these women are subjected to further insults and neglect. “Their problems are not solved and they are more often pressured to return to the place they escaped from,” the social worker pointed out.
The shelter should be able to provide the women with psychological treatment, social support and empowerment programs but does not. Instead, the women are prevented from making outside contacts or having visits.
“The Bir Charity Organization which supervises the shelter consulted a UNICEF expert who suggested a plan for helping abused women through empowerment programs. Unfortunately, however, the shelter, which opened less than a year ago, was put under the Ministry of Social Affairs. The ministry disregarded the UNICEF suggestions and implemented its own plans that are bureaucratic, unsympathetic and not supportive of the women,” explained the social worker.
Because of the ministry’s unyielding and inflexible procedures, many women who came to the shelter were eventually returned to the very places where they had been abused. The social worker cited the example of a woman who had been sexually assaulted by her brother and then escaped. She was then returned to the care of her brother for lack of evidence.
Another story is of a girl who escaped her abusive father but was then returned to him which led to her suicide. “The cases should be handled differently. We should be able to accept women in the shelter directly. We should have a 24-hour hotline,” she said bitterly.
The director of the women’s department at the Ministry of Social Affairs, Nora Al-Asheikh, told Arab News that the main purpose of the shelter was to stop harm to the abused women. “There is a team of social workers and psychologists who study each case and determine the next step,” she said.
According to her, if there are no obvious signs of physical or psychological abuse, the woman is returned to her family because some of these women are falsely accusing their family of abuse to escape strict rules.
“Sometimes it is a conflict between a parent and child or a husband and wife. We try to solve the problem at our offices and recommend they seek help at family guidance offices,” she explained.
If there is evidence of abuse, the woman is cared for and transferred to the appropriate agency. If she is divorced, she is transferred to the Social Security Department which provides her with a stipend and if she does not have a home she is provided one through the Administration of Endowments. The woman is initially allowed to stay for three days in the shelter, but can stay longer if necessary until the team makes its decision.
“We don’t provide financial assistance or employment training or rehabilitation at the shelters. That is done by the charity organizations. We also don’t provide legal advice but can put the woman in touch with the court. We don’t allow visits or phone calls except under our supervision. This is a shelter to protect the women, not a hotel,” Nora Al-Asheikh said.
