JEDDAH, 8 March 2008 — The Supreme Judiciary Council is expected next week to look into the case of Fatima, the 34-year-old Saudi woman who was forcefully divorced from her husband by a judge in 2005 at the request of her half-brothers, press reports said.
Lawyer Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem confirmed that the National Society has presented Fatima’s case to the council for Human Rights (NSHR).
“We hope that the council will issue a verdict in favor of Fatima and her husband Mansour,” he said in comments published yesterday.
In a highly publicized case, a judge in Al-Jouf nullified Fatima’s marriage to Mansour Al-Timani, 37, on July 20, 2005.
The court issued its decision after Fatima’s half brothers filed a divorce case saying that Mansour had lied about his tribal background.
By that time Fatima and Mansour were already parents of two children. Fatima remains in a social care center for women in Dammam, and refuses to return to the custody of the men who arranged for her marriage to be nullified.
Hussein Al-Sharif, head of NSHR’s Western Province branch and a law professor at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, said that although a higher court in January 2007 upheld the verdict to nullify the marriage, there is still a way out.
NSHR President Bandar Al-Hajjar had sent an official letter to the Royal Court asking for the case to be reviewed.
The NSHR provided along with the letter two studies, based on Islamic law, concluding that the divorce was invalid.
Meanwhile, Fatima said she had canceled the power of attorney given to Al-Lahem about one-and-a-half-years ago to defend her. But the lawyer said he had not received any verbal or written information about the cancelation.
“She has every right to cancel the power of attorney. My role as a lawyer ended with the endorsement of the verdict by the court of appeal,” he said.
Al-Timani said Al-Lahem has no right now either to make any statement or interfere in Fatima’s case.
“After Fatima entered the Dammam refuge Al-Lahem has lost interest in the case,” he added.
Speaking from her Dammam refuge, Fatima also accused Al-Lahem of forgetting her case after leaving her in the center about one-and-a-half years ago.
“I had tried to contact him several times but he did not respond. I would like to make it known to everybody that Al-Lahem is no more my legal agent.”
For more than two years Fatima continues to yearn to be with Mansour. “I want to go back to my husband. I will never submit to anyone who wants to ruin my family,” she told Arab News. It seems that as the time passes, Fatima is becoming more resilient about her case. At the refuge, Fatima looks after her son Sulaiman.
