JEDDAH, 7 February 2007 — Rania, a 27-year-old successful Saudi physician at the Aramco Hospital in the Eastern Province, is in her last month of pregnancy and anxiously awaiting an appeals court decision regarding her marriage that her father wants brought to an end.
Rania Albou-Enin told Arab News how she has been struggling with her family. Meanwhile her husband, Saud Al-Khaledi, languishes “illegally” in an Alkhobar police jail, said her lawyer Ibrahim Al-Behairi.
Rania says that her father is unemployed and her mother does not work. She earns SR10,000 a month and has been supporting her family since she is the only one in her family who holds a university degree. After graduation, Rania has been paying her family’s house rent and other utility bills. “I completely understand that I have to help and respect my parents. I have never had a problem with that,” she says.
The problem with her family began when Rania expressed her wish to marry Al-Khaledi, an engineer and a brother of her friend. Rania said her parents knew Al-Khaledi and that his parents and uncles had visited her father several times to ask her hand in marriage. “Each time dad would say OK. But he wouldn’t reply to them,” she said. Rania said that since the day she expressed a desire to marry, her family has physically and emotionally abused her. She said that her parents want to financially exploit her and force her to keep supporting them. By allowing the marriage to go ahead, her parents would in effect be losing a golden goose. She added that even her younger brothers, the oldest of whom is 22, sometimes used to beat her.
She said that her mother had told her that she could meet Al-Khaledi whenever she wanted and could even have a relationship with him, but she should forget about marrying him. “I have always obeyed my parents but I couldn’t do that. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said in a hadith that an individual cannot obey another individual if that order contradicts Islamic Shariah. My mother doesn’t have a problem in me conducting an affair but on the other hand will not let me marry,” said Rania.
After Rania saw no hope in changing her family’s decision, she decided to seek the help of the Saudi judiciary. She went to a court in Alkhobar and asked Judge Omar Al-Tuwaijri to file a lawsuit against her father complaining that he prevents her, without any reason, from marrying Al-Khaledi. Usually, in such cases and according to Islamic law, if the legal guardian of a woman denies her the right to marry without any valid reason, the courts can pass a ruling declaring the guardian to be ineligible. A judge would then assume the role of legal guardian.
Rania’s father did not show up at the first hearing which was adjourned by the judge because of her father’s absence. “If he doesn’t want to let me marry in the first place then of course he won’t willingly show up at the court,” said Rania, adding that she pleaded to the judge that she did not want to return to her family. However, her calls were ignored.
The physical abuse Rania received at home was nothing compared to what she received when her father found out that she had filed a case against him. “I was beaten up badly and was locked up so I wouldn’t be able to pursue the case,” she said, adding that she has medical records to prove that she was physically abused.
After her relationship with her family improved, Rania went back to work. A year ago, she decided to go to Bahrain and marry there. At a Bahraini court, she met a Sunni Bahraini judge called Abdullah Al-Khalifa. She narrated him her story, after which Al-Khalifa appointed himself legal guardian and married her to Al-Khaledi.
“I didn’t marry on my own as my father keeps saying. My legal guardian was a knowledgeable judge and according to Islamic law there is nothing wrong with this as my father refused to let me marry,” she said.
After returning from Bahrain, she called her parents. “My father first went to the governorate and said all sorts of lies. He said that I’m a minor and that my husband had kidnapped me. Later he filed a lawsuit at the Alkhobar court even though my husband is a resident of Dammam,” she said.
Ironically the judge was the same in whose court Rania had filed the initial lawsuit against her father before fleeing to Bahrain. Although he knew of her case, he still ruled for annulment on the basis that her legal guardian was absent and that there was tribal incompatibility between the couple. Rania says that she continually told the judge that she was pregnant.
Rania and Al-Khaledi did not agree with the ruling. Alkhobar police then contacted Al-Khaledi asking him to bring Rania back to her father or else face prison. “My husband refused to hand me to them as I am a woman fering my reputation. Also I was pregnant and had high blood pressure,” said Rania.
Al-Khaledi decided to go to prison and was there for three months until an appeals court asked the judge to try to broker a settlement between Rania’s father and the couple. Al-Khaledi was allowed to go free for 20 days during which Rania’s father kept refusing peace offers and insisted that the couple be divorced and the expected baby placed in an orphanage. As a result, the judge returned back to his original ruling and Al-Khaledi was sent to prison where he has been for the last two months.
Currently Rania is hiding at a secret location in the Eastern Province. Her family and even her husband do not know where she is. She says she is safe but fearing for the future of her baby who is expected to be born in the coming days. “I don’t want to give birth in a shelter home and then end up seeing my baby being taken from me. I’d rather give birth at home and die but make sure the baby is in safe hands,” said Rania, who was crying while speaking to Arab News.
Rania’s lawyer, Ibrahim Al-Behairi, said that they are waiting for the next appeals court decision. “I’m not optimistic though. After the appeals court upheld Fatima’s forced divorce, I expect that the case will now be taken as a legal precedent,” he said, adding that his office has received another six similar cases recently.
Al-Behairi said Rania’s case is similar to the case of Fatima, a mother of two who was divorced in absentia by a judge at the request of her half brothers. Al-Behairi fears Fatima’s case may open the floodgates to future similar interventions that run contrary to Islamic principles.
