JEDDAH, 16 November 2006 — A woman who claims to have suffered from 25 years of drug abuse by her husband is trying to obtain a divorce and custody of her four children, the daily Al-Watan reported yesterday.
“I couldn’t do anything,” said the woman who was not named in the report. “I tried hard to pull him out of drug addiction, but I didn’t succeed.”
The woman says that her inability to obtain custody has prevented her from seeking divorce until now. She said that she moved out for five years, but chose to return because she couldn’t get custody of the children.
“I have three boys and a girl and I have chosen to stay with them to protect them from their aggressive father,” she said.
The woman claims that her husband encouraged two of her sons, ages 18 and 20, to obtain drugs for him. She says her boys now suffer from addiction.
The woman also claims that her brother-in-law offered help in raising her children, but when her husband heard of the plan he burned the home down.
She said that her husband has turned the home into a torture house and regularly beat her up in front of her children.
The woman also claims that her husband has shown pornography to their 13-year-old daughter and has tried to get their 15-year-old son to try drugs. When she intervened, she said her husband locked the three of them in a room for two months.
According to Al-Watan, the woman now lived under the protection of social services with her daughter and her youngest son though she still doesn’t technically have custody of her children.
The woman said she has lodged a formal complaint against her husband, in which she sought divorce and custody of her children so that she could cure them of their drug addiction.
