According to a recent press report, a woman was admitted to a hospital in Riyadh using a stolen national identity card and underwent a caesarean section giving birth to a baby boy.

The woman whose identity card was stolen only found out what happened when she went to see a doctor at the hospital. Her file showed that she had given birth to a baby boy, which of course was untrue.

There are no statistics on the number of times when family cards have been abused. The above, however, shows that such incidents do occur.

Dana Turki, a 29-year-old mother of three, said her ex-husband used their family card to take his ex-fiancée to a hotel for a night together. “A few years ago I discovered that my husband had proposed to another women but they never got married because I didn’t allow them to do so,” she said.

Turki explained how their family card had been missing for months and that she later discovered that her ex-husband had used it to take his fiancée to a hotel. “No one in the hotel checked the identity of the woman who was accompanying him,” she added.

Another woman, Noura, who asked for her surname not to be mentioned, said her husband would take other women to hospital when he thought they might be pregnant. “I tracked him one time and saw him with a woman going to this small clinic frequented by expatriates where doctors aren’t strict like in big hospitals,” she added. Noura wanted to report to the police that another woman was using her family card but said she was unable to face her husband if she did so. “I found out later that the woman underwent an abortion using our family card,” she said.

Most of these incidents in which family cards are misused can be described as identity fraud. This is perhaps even more common in the Kingdom where it is hard to verify women’s identities due to cultural practices.

Although hotels and furnished apartments are supposed to double check identities and family cards, men can easily force receptionists not to check the identities of accompanying women saying it would be against their traditions.

Ahmed Husseiny, who works as a receptionist at a furnished-apartments building, said he has often received guests who were not married and wanted to rent apartments. “The owner told us we should double check identities especially when the woman is covered. We also usually ask for a woman’s national identity card to see if the names match in both cards,” he said.

Husseiny said his boss cares for his business reputation and wants to avoid getting into trouble with the police. “I once asked the couple to leave when they refused to show us the woman’s identity card,” he added.

Another receptionist at a furnished-apartment building said asking guests for their family and identity cards is a normal procedure that needs to be done each time a couple comes in. “We once had a couple who stayed for more than two weeks. I was always suspicious because they didn’t leave the room for days. We also couldn’t ask them for their identities everyday. We’re only supposed to do so when they first come,” said Karim Abdel Asim.

He explained that after the couple left police came looking for the woman who had apparently run away from home. “We weren’t sure if it were the same woman because she was covered every time we saw her, but her height and weight descriptions matched,” he added.

“The police have ordered us to check the identities of people who come here because prostitution and drug dealing often takes place in small furnished apartments and hotels,” he said.