JEDDAH, 10 April 2006 — A man and his wife are being held by Makkah authorities in connection with the fatal stabbing of his nine-year-old daughter. Local newspapers reported the murder a few days ago and said that the father will record his confession in court. According to initial police reports he will tell the court that he did not intend to kill his daughter but only to discipline her.
However, according to Arab News sources, the coroner found signs of severe physical abuse and stab wounds on the girl’s body. The man and his wife, who is the girl’s stepmother, allegedly collaborated in abusing the girl while she was with them during the past year, and now each is accusing the other of causing the death.
Family members close to the girl’s biological mother say that the mother and the father divorced a long time ago after she suffered physical abuse at his hands. She kept custody of the girl in accordance with Islamic law until the girl turned seven. The father then began demanding custody of the girl, especially after his ex-wife had remarried. The father won custody last year. The mother appealed the court’s decision but was denied custody. She was given visitation rights, but the father generally prevented the mother from the court-ordered visitations with impunity.
“I will never forgive him. I will continue with the procedures and press charges,” said the mother, crying.
When the mother did get an opportunity to see or speak to her daughter, she noticed signs of abuse. When she reported this abuse to authorities, she was ignored, she said.
The brother of the father once intervened on the mother’s behalf, taking the girl into his custody. The father then accused his brother of kidnapping the girl and got her back.
Sources told Arab News that after stabbing his daughter and realizing that she might have died, he and his wife washed her blood with Clorox and took her to the hospital where he told the emergency personnel that he doesn’t know what is wrong with her.
When they examined her, they found she was already dead and that she had suffered multiple fractions and stabs. When they asked him, he said that she used to hurt herself. The hospital immediately called the police who came and arrested him and his wife.
A few days before the incident, the biological mother had sent a letter to the Makkah municipality begging the governor to intervene before the father killed the girl, but it was too late. Neither her school nor the neighbors tried to help the girl even though they must have seen the bruises and heard her cries.
The father and his new wife later had a son, who died as a toddler, and they currently have a daughter together.
Reports of child abuse cases have been increasing in the media during the past few years, revealing the shortage or even outright lack of laws and procedures that protect children from their abusers.
Some steps have been taken to establish shelters for abused women and children and discussions have been organized on the issue at high official levels. Basic necessary measures, such as police intervention and punitive laws, have yet to be implemented.
A major problem is that the rights of the parents are granted priority over the rights of the child. The father, who is more often the perpetrator of domestic abuse, is also favored under the current system in accordance with social norms.
Intervention by authorities is virtually nonexistent. Police do not have the authority to enter homes and bring abused children under public protection. A legal guardian’s permission is required to medically treat children, and, according to law, wives cannot report domestic abuse by husbands to the police.
Social workers, school teachers (who often are the first outside the family to observe signs of abuse) and family members aware of abused children have been asking for proper laws and procedures that would enable them and the police to take action before it is too late.
In the case of the nine-year-old victim in Makkah, it remains to be seen if the girl will get justice posthumously.
According to Islamic law, a father who kills his child is not eligible for the death penalty, but exemptions are made by the state in particularly egregious cases.
Depending on the circumstances of this case, the father is likely to serve a jail sentence of a number of years if he’s found guilty. The mother may receive monetary compensation for the death of her daughter.
