RIYADH, 15 June 2003 — The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs is to establish a new agency for social protection whose main task is to protect children from physical and psychological abuse in the family. This comes against a background of growing awareness of domestic violence in the Arab world, Al-Jadeeda reported.
Abdullatif Ahmad, manager of the social department in a hospital in Dammam, told the magazine violence took many forms. “It can include verbal, physical and sexual abuse. It may also take the form of social, economic and psychological abuse. Women and children are the most abused groups because they are often in a weaker position.”
Studies of domestic violence in the Arab world reveal that 70 percent of violence occurs in big cities.
The heads of families, such as fathers or eldest brothers, are responsible in 80 percent of the cases, while the victims in 75 percent of cases are women and children.
According to sources at King Abdul Aziz Medical City for the National Guard in Riyadh, there were more than 100 reported cases of domestic violence in Riyadh in the past three years, mostly against women. While more than 60 percent of victims recover from this abuse, the rest carry the tangible effects of abuse for the rest of their life.
All studies conducted in the Arab world shows women as primary victims and husbands as the attackers. In Egypt for example the percentage of violent men is as high as 71.9 percent. Husbands in most cases assert a right to punish their families in any way they see fit.
The percentage of violent husbands was 42.6 while the percentage of violent brothers reached 37. In Saudi Arabia, studies show that 90 percent of domestic violence is committed by males, 50 percent by husbands against wives.
Samah, 23, is from a medium-sized family. She was the fifth after one boy and three daughters. Her father had been dreaming of another son, and when she was born he was so angry that he left and never came back.
As a result, Samah bore the brunt of abuse from her family, who blamed her for her father’s desertion, including her mother.
Her mother accepted the first suitor who came along, a man who was already married with children. Financially unable to maintain two houses, her husband asked Samah to live with his first wife.
She did and was treated like a servant by the first wife, who took every opportunity to humiliate her. When Samah became pregnant, the first wife and her eldest son took advantage of the husband’s absence on business to tie Samah up and beat her almost to death.
The son called the ambulance and claimed that Samah had arrived at the house in this condition. Samah lost her baby and is now in a mental hospital.
Another example is the story of a man from Alkhobar who used electric shocks to discipline his son. He also beat his son up and tied his hands to the bed for several hours so tightly that one of the hands later had to be amputated.
Dr. Nasser Al-Muhaizei, a lecturer in social science at Imam Muhammad ibn Saud Islamic University, told the magazine it was important for a family affected with violence to seek family therapy.
“The government must intervene to take care of children if the father is proved to be violent and poses a danger to his family,” he said.
“If the father cannot be rehabilitated, there are always alternative families to take care of children.
Families must be educated and made aware that violence is not an Islamic tradition,” he added.
