“I feel devastated every time I look at the sadness and despair on (daughter) Raghad's face,” he said.

He asked the society to talk to the Ministry of Education to get her registered at the school.

The father said he had registered Raghad as directed by the school itself and submitted his daughter's details through her mother.

He added that the school gave them a letter to submit to the school’s health unit for her medical examination.

“Her mother took the results and vaccination documents to the school, which then informed us that Raghad had been accepted,” he said.

“We were told to come to the school at the beginning of the academic year, but a day before she was due to start we received a letter from the school informing us that she had not been accepted.”

The father said when he contacted the school, he was told that her acceptance was conditional and not final.

He said he took the matter to the department of girls’ education in Jeddah and received a message on his mobile after two weeks telling him that Raghad had been accepted at the school.

“Our happiness was short-lived. A few hours later we received another message saying that our daughter had not been accepted,” he said.

The father said he had no other option but to refer the matter to the NSHR in the hope that it would resolve the problem by talking to the concerned authorities.

The NSHR has pledged to talk to the Education Ministry in the hope of finding a solution.

According to a source at the NSHR, Raghad might not have been accepted at the school because, at six, she was under school age.  The source, however, remained hopeful that she would eventually be accepted.