MAKKAH, 2 May 2006 — It is difficult to believe that a father could torture his own family members and expose them to physical harm that might even lead to death, but it is true in the case of a man who turned the life of his family into hell.
The wife, who wanted to remain anonymous because of tribal traditions, describes living with her husband along with her six kids as a life of hysteria. The wife said that the troubles with her husband began the moment they got married and worsened over the last ten years of the marriage when she found out that he was taking drugs.
The man started to attack his wife and put pressure on her. At one time he tried to push her down the stairs. She was saved by her children. He beat her up all the time and at some point hit her on the head with a stick and on other parts of her body.
He stabbed her once with a knife in an attempt to kill her but she escaped with minor injuries when her sons intervened. She complained to police who made her husband sign a paper promising not to attack her any more.
The attacks did not stop even after he signed the paper at the police station. He came back home after three days in a bad temperament because of drugs and attacked her. She escaped to the living room and managed to close the door. She heard something hitting the door; when she opened the door, he threw a butcher’s knife at her. She left her home to stay at her eldest daughter’s house. To pressure his wife to come back, he started attacking his daughters. He threw his two eldest daughters out of the house in the middle of the night. They stayed outside the house in the dark for 40 minutes until their brother arrived from his night job and took them inside.
The father did not stop at this. He took all his children out of school except the youngest daughter. The woman said she contacted the human rights group and sought help. They told her that the only way was to go to a court and apply for a divorce.
Abdullah, the son, said that his father is abusing his mother every day. He said, “He kicked us out of the house many times. He took me and my brother out of school and forced us to sell shoes and “miswaks” in front of the Holy Mosque. Whatever we earned he took from us to buy drugs. He used to insult my mother in front of people. When I asked him to stop, he kicked me out of the house and now I am living with my mother in my sister’s house.”
The daughter, 21, said that her father was threatening to send all of them to a juvenile house. She said she could not believe that a father could threaten his children like this.
“He kicked me out of the house in the middle of the night. He was beating us with anything he could get. I left school because I did not want to be seen with injuries on my face,” said the daughter.
The head of the Psychological Department in King Abdul Aziz Hospital in Makkah, Dr. Rajab Abdul Hakeem, said it was important to separate the mother and her kids from the abusive father. He said the father should be treated in a hospital and admitted to a rehabilitation center.
He said: “The pills the man uses are called Abu Malaf. They hit the nervous system and the person is affected by hallucination that makes him suspicious. If the person takes these pills for a long time he may become dangerous and may kill anybody.”
