“The young ladies are denied their right to get an education or seek jobs and lead a normal social life like others,” an official source told Arab News.

They are not even allowed to talk over the telephone with the outside world except during a few prescribed hours, the source said.

“However, one of them who is a school teacher and not allowed to work for over a year has been permitted to work since the beginning of the current academic year,” the source added.

But she is not allowed to use a computer for preparing teaching notes or preparing test questions, he said.

“They have been admitted to the center to get the protection and dignified treatment that they were denied at their own homes. Their present condition is so pathetic that they have to fight with a crowd of stray cats to eat the meals served to them,” the source said, questioning whether the ministry is actually living up to its guarantee of protection for victims of family violence.

The source added that young women are also not given the opportunity for psychological or social development, let alone access to any recreational programs.

“On the contrary, they are mistreated and humiliated by officials at the home,” she said, suggesting that staying at home would be better than staying at the center.

Member of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) Suhaila Zainal Abideen told Arab News that forcing young women to live with senile citizens amounted to another kind of torture.

“I don’t think the government is incapable of allocating necessary funds for a separate home for victims of family violence,” Zainal Abideen said.

She added that based on the feedback from women, most shelters for women in the Kingdom treat abuse victims as criminals.

She said shelters for women in the Kingdom needed a code of conduct stipulating how abuse victims should be treated.

The present regulations for dealing with inmates were coined with scant consideration for victims’ rights and a lack of consultation with human rights organizations, she claimed.

“One of the reasons for violence against women is the incorrect interpretation of the traditions and verses of the Holy Qur’an. The most notable among such errors is the interpretation of a verse on the relations between husband and wife. The Holy Qur’an says ‘And beat them,’ while dealing with a disobedient wife,” said Zainal Abideen.

“But the sentence is mistakenly interpreted as a religious sanction to treat women poorly. The real meaning of these Qur’anic words is not to hand out a physical beating, but to keep away from the wife as an expression of displeasure.”

She added that she planned to propose to the NSHR to make all employees in the ministry dealing with shelters attend workshops and programs so that they learn not to violate human rights.

Commenting on increasing reports about human rights abuses in the country despite the efforts of the NSHR, Zainal Abideen said the problem is so deep-rooted that seven years of effort from the society cannot eradicate a practice that is centuries old.