They said the payment should come in the form of a direct deduction from the fathers’ bank accounts and transfered to their ex-wives’ accounts.

Ex-wives interviewed by Arab News claimed that fathers often left the financial burden of raising their children with them after divorce.

They also highlighted the cases of fathers who tend to ignore the alimony requests for children.

The aggrieved women are proposing that courts should facilitate salary deductions from the fathers’ bank accounts.

Saudi lawyer Omar Al-Kholi points out that there is no law to force a father to pay alimony to his children.

An ex-wife will have to file a lawsuit and wait for one to two years for the court ruling.

“Fathers are expected to support their children financially after the divorce, under the Shariah law. Sadly, fathers tend to ignore this responsibility,” he said.

“A mother who files a lawsuit has to wait for a long time to receive a verdict,” said the lawyer.

“The ruling could take up to two years and she may have to work or beg to find money by that time.”

Al-Kholi said he supported calls to deduct the alimony directly from the husband’s account and called for punitive action against divorced men who neglected their responsibilities.

Many mothers told Arab News they had suffered a lot from ex-husbands who ignored their responsibilities toward their children. The men do not show any interest even if the mothers do not have enough money to feed their children.

Umm Amal, divorcee and mother of four, suffered a lot to raise her children.

Umm Amal, who was married at the age of 17, alleged that her husband did not take care of the family.

He later decided to divorce her and told his children that he would not be responsible for those who decided to stay with their mother.

The children decided to stay with their mother and she was forced to work to provide them with financial support.

Umm Amal said the man simply told her to go to court when she demanded alimony for the children.

Relating her ordeal, Maram said her ex-husband denied any responsibility for his daughter.

Unlike Umm Amal, Maram received full support from her family which persuaded her not to go ahead with the court case to avoid a long legal battle.

She said the father even ignored the children’s request to visit them frequently.

The struggle of Khadeja, a divorced mother of five children, is also painful.

She said her 14-year-old handicapped son needs SR100,000 a year in medication and care expenses.

His father denied any responsibility toward him and the other children.

Khadeja said she is struggling to make ends meet despite receiving support from philanthropists and charities.

The huge responsibility of raising her children brought her immense suffering.

She said she tried to file a lawsuit but gave up the case because of long procedural delays.

Nasreen Khaled, 26, grew up hating her father because he abandoned her when she was still an infant.

She said the court should step in to force the father to pay alimony soon after the divorce.

The father’s financial status should be taken into consideration when deciding on the amount to be deducted from his account, she said.

Saudi national Tareq Ali, 30, also abandoned by his father, said: “If the judge is good enough to rule against people indebted to companies and force them to pay a percentage of their salaries, then the same can be done with fathers who abandon their children.”