DAMMAM, 16 January 2007 — A 26-year-old widow has been forced to seek refuge at a safe house run by the Women’s Social Supervision Office in Dammam. The woman moved to the shelter home to escape her half brother’s sexual harassment and financial exploitation, Al-Watan newspaper reported yesterday.
The woman lost her husband a few months ago in a car accident. His death unfortunately left the woman at the mercy of her half brother, as she has no other close relatives in the Kingdom. Her Asian mother was divorced several years ago and returned to her native country. Now that the young woman has found a safe shelter, she hopes to get her share of her inheritance and live in peace with her mother who will shortly return to the Kingdom.
She said her brother had begun to harass her when she was in her final year in intermediate school. She never told anyone about his behavior for fear of the consequences. In those days, she used to spend the nights locked in her bedroom or a bathroom, fearing her brother’s nocturnal visits, she explained. Most of the time when he came to her, he smelled of alcohol, she said.
“Things worsened after the death of my father 11 years ago when my brother became my legal guardian. He rejected all the young men who came asking to marry me. Sometimes he beat me and once I complained to police. Fearing that I would make more revelations about his behavior, he soon arranged a marriage for me with an old man,” the woman continued.
Though the man had other wives, she accepted him without protest because she wanted to escape from her brother at any cost. Unfortunately for her, the husband died in a car accident four months after the marriage. The sudden loss was such a shock that she had a nervous breakdown and was admitted to the psychiatric ward at the Saudi Aramco Hospital.
Some therapists there learned about her real problems and referred her to the social protection so that she could be safe from both sexual and financial exploitation, she explained.
