RIYADH: The governmental Human Rights Commission (HRC) intervened on two occasions to force men to send their children to school.
Both cases took place in the Eastern Province and involved divorces earlier this year with the fathers winning custody.
The first cases involved a seven-year-old boy whose father was keeping him out of school to inflict revenge on his ex-wife. Despite numerous attempts by the ex-wife’s family, the father insisted on keeping the boy out of school.
The other case involved a six-year-old boy who was kept out of school by his father until his ex-wife would return to him.
Both women went to the HRC to seek interventions. Despite repeated mediations, the men refused to put the boys in school. As a result the HRC filed cases against the two men at the governor’s office, which ordered them to place their children in school under threat of losing custody.
The HRC said it is monitoring the situation to ensure the children are in school in the new semester, which begins on Saturday.
