JEDDAH, 8 October 2006 — The case of a Saudi couple who were divorced by a judge in absentia at the request of the wife’s family appears to be making its way to an appeal and possible reversal. “I’m very optimistic and expect a happy ending,” Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem, the couple’s lawyer, told Arab News by telephone yesterday after he filed his objection to the court ruling.
The Ministry of Justice announced before Ramadan that it would be taking up the appeal. On Wednesday, the office of Justice Minister Abdullah Al-Asheikh contacted the husband, requesting the objection memo be submitted directly to his office on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Fatima, the forcibly divorced wife of Mansoor Al-Timani, and her two children — a two-year-old girl and a nine-month-old boy — languish in prison, arrested along with her husband in Jeddah earlier this year by secret police for being an unwed couple living together.
They had been married for over three years when the wife’s family intervened and requested the divorce on the grounds that the husband misled them on his tribal background.
Lawyer Al-Lahem told Arab News that he has heard of similar cases where families have intervened on marriages based on tribal discrimination. “It’s not common, but it has happened in several cities,” he said. “Sometime the judge will dismiss the case; on others he may agree (with the family).”
The judge in the present case declared the marriage void on July 20, 2005 over the objection of the couple, who refused to attend most of the hearings.
The couple’s troubles began when the family of 34-year-old Fatima sought the divorce from Mansoor, 37, on the basis that he lied about his tribal background when he approached the family seeking their approval for the marriage. Mansoor denies misleading them.
“That’s all nonsense,” he told Arab News yesterday. “They asked about me and even came to visit me at my place of work in Al-Jouf where I lived at the time.”
According to Mansoor, he and his wife were unaware of the judge’s ruling until February, nearly seven months after they were formally divorced in absentia.
The couple attended only one of the numerous hearings on the divorce.
“I went to the third hearing with my wife at the time and the judge asked her if she agrees with her brother’s claims. Her answer was a firm ‘no’,” said Mansoor.
Arab News attempted to contact Fatima at Al-Dammam prison, but officials there said only face-to-face interviews were allowed.
Mansoor said the couple decided not to participate in the divorce proceedings. “To us it was a closed case,” said Mansoor. Unfortunately for the couple, the judge ruled in favor of Fatima’s family. Mansoor said he had been harassed on numerous occasions by his in-laws. “Her brother and half-brothers called me several times and issued threats,” said Mansoor. “Sometimes their children would call and annoy me.”
In order to get away from the family, Mansoor said he and his wife and children moved from Al-Jouf to Qasim in the central region and then later to Kharj in the Eastern Province.
Each time they moved, he had to start over with a new job.
“Those were stressful times,” he said. “We moved from one city to another to avoid clashing with anyone. We only wanted to live in peace.”
Then the police informed the couple that they had been divorced seven months earlier. Mansoor said they hid out at the house of one of Fatima’s aunts in Kharj.
Eventually Fatima’s family discovered where they were and, according to Mansoor, forcibly took his wife and children to the family’s house in Dammam.
After that, Mansoor said, the family blocked communication with his wife, but they managed to talk occasionally by telephone.
“She told me that she doesn’t buy the court’s decision and still feels that we are married,” he said, adding that his in-laws were treating his children like they were from a lower-caste thanks to his tribal background. “My wife tells me this but there is nothing I can do about it.”
Mansoor said he approached his wife’s brother to say that they were victimizing his children. “He said to me: ‘Why did you have children in the first place?’” said Mansoor. “How can you argue with someone with that mentality?”
Mansoor said Fatima managed to escape with her children and the husband and wife traveled to Jeddah where they were told they could seek help from an official, but nothing panned out.
“We felt stuck at that point,” said Mansoor.
Soon afterward, the couple were caught in Jeddah by the secret police, charged with cohabitating as an unmarried couple, and sent to Al-Dammam prison.
Mansoor stuck by his wife in prison even though officials said he could walk free so long as he had a sponsor.
“At first I refused to get out of prison and leave my wife there with the children,” he said. “But I was told that I wouldn’t be of any help inside. I had to get out.”
So Mansoor left Fatima in jail and began working to reverse the judge’s ruling that got them in legal trouble in the first place. For her part, Fatima also has the option to leave prison so long as she returns to her family.
“She feels that prison is safer,” said Mansoor. “She still fears what her brother and half brothers might do.”
The case has attracted considerable national attention. It was the subject of a recent episode of the political satire program “Tash 14”, which lampooned the judge who made the initial ruling. Mansoor has appeared on national television in tears while the program played a recording of his wife from prison, saying she wishes to remain married to her husband.
Until the appeals process is complete and a final verdict is given, Fatima will remain in Al-Dammam prison with her two children. Fatima will spend the rest of the holy month of Ramadan in jail having committed the crime of living with her husband.
