The Kingdom was recently shocked and outraged to learn of the torture and subsequent killing of a nine year-old girl by her father and stepmother. The case has forced Saudi society and decision-makers to confront an ugly truth: The shameful reality of domestic violence and domestic abuse in Saudi Arabia. The required action is a stronger and more decisive response by the highest officials and by all members of the public.
The public reaction so far has been one of dismay, followed by the usual practice of pointing the finger of blame at one or more institutions, including the police, the Ministry of Social Affairs and the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR). As the case of the little girl — Ghosun — indicates, however, the question of responsibility is more complex than it appears.
In the one-and-a-half years since its establishment, the NSHR has received approximately 2,000 calls from individuals, 40 percent of which were abuse-related. At present, according to the complaint, the NSHR has the mandate to direct callers to those institutions authorized to take action. Ghosun’s mother allegedly made numerous calls, but tragically, all to no avail. This underlines the drastic and urgent need to develop a system in which reports of abuse are met by immediate and effective multi-agency responses.
The Family Protection Department at the Ministry of Social Affairs does have the authority to take a child into custody, but the mechanisms that must be in place for this to happen before it is too late must be developed and the public made aware of what they are and how they can be used.
The situation is not without hope. At the NSHR’s Jeddah branch, which is currently investigating Ghosun’s case, those in charge insist that change is under way. The society, which cooperates with the Ministry of Social Affairs and the police, is making an important contribution to the fight against domestic abuse through increasing public awareness, counseling, referrals, capacity building and acting as a policy adviser.
As NSHR Vice President Jawhara Al-Angari points out, the attention that the media has given to domestic violence in recent years has been a wake-up call for a country that simply refused to accept and believe that such a problem existed within its own borders. While Al-Angari maintains that the media has a vital role to play, communicating the magnitude of the problem to the public is only one of the many steps required.
Political will is a crucial element in the fight against domestic violence. Often, necessary but difficult legislative, policy and organizational changes require high-level political support. In Saudi Arabia today, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and the government have indicated that the political will to undertake necessary measures is present. The new initiative by royal decree to establish the National Family Protection Program (under the umbrella of the National Guard), is indicative of high-level political commitment. Such commitments will provide the necessary momentum for consolidating the kind of comprehensive national strategy needed to make real progress in the area of domestic violence.
It is crucial that others join in the process. Indeed in order to succeed, a number of other key players must be included, such as the government itself, social and health services, the police, the courts, schools, religious leaders, the media, youth and the many charitable organizations that operate throughout the country.
Reem Al-Harithi, clinical psychologist and head of training and recruiting at NSHR, knows how important it is to have all of these groups on board. Her account of a four-year-old girl brought to the hospital emergency room on seven different occasions proves this. The red flags of abuse clearly visible on the child’s body should not only have alerted medical professionals, but also should have resulted in procedures being taken to protect her from her abusers, rather than sending her back to them.
It has since become mandatory for hospitals to report such cases when they are encountered. It is sadly true that many victims don’t come to hospitals in time, if at all. The NSHR, therefore, wants to go a step further, by making a failure to report cases by institutions and individuals who are aware of abuse punishable by the law.
Domestic violence elicits varying reactions from the public. Perhaps one of the most dangerous and counterproductive is simple denial or the assertion that the problem is exaggerated or that it is a Western phenomenon that does not exist in this part of the world. As Al-Angari states, however, it is more likely that what we see and hear of domestic abuse is only the tip of the iceberg.
Domestic violence by its very nature happens behind closed doors in the privacy of a house or a family dwelling. Its victims are often those most vulnerable and defenseless, namely women and children, who either cannot, or choose not to, report the violence. The fact that the perpetrators of the violence are all too often male heads of household exacerbates the problem.
Al-Harithi tells of an eight-year-old victim beaten so viciously by his father that surgery had to be performed to reattach parts of his internal organs. Upon questioning, the father remained defiant and unrepentant, maintaining that his actions were sanctioned by religion. He announced subsequently that nobody could touch him. Ironically, the light sentences usually given to such offenders in the current legislative climate indicate that the man’s defiant words are sadly true.
Domestic violence cannot be addressed by half-measures. Sentences that are not proportional to the severity of the crime make a mockery of the justice system and leave perpetrators undeterred. Such sentences confirm the perverse and misguided notion that for abusers, the right to abuse, violate and sometimes take the lives of their family members remains unchallenged by the system. This begs the crucial question: Who is the system meant to protect: The victim or the victimizer?
As Al-Angari stresses, it is important to maintain a degree of optimism, particularly in light of King Abdullah’s vision and the changing attitude of the public. The growing awareness that the media has promoted and the emerging role of an organization such as the NSHR are both encouraging.
Also, examples from the region show measures that can be taken to tackle the problem of domestic violence. Al-Angari herself believes that there is no need to reinvent the wheel. In neighboring Jordan, for example, the creation of a special family protection unit within the police force is an impressive example which has yielded and is yielding positive results.
As Al-Harithi explains, victims must come into contact with trained and qualified professionals, from the police to doctors and counselors so that they may receive appropriate care, and so that their cases may be properly dealt with.
In Jordan, statistical information, although still insufficient, is providing more evidence necessary to insure better interventions in the future. Unless such information is gathered and shared here in Saudi Arabia, it will be difficult to develop an effective necessary inter-agency response to our problem of domestic abuse.
And of course there remains the undeniable fact that prevention is better than cure. How much better for all concerned that these cases of violence never occur in the first place! Perhaps this requires a longer term process consolidating the non-negotiable rights of all members of society to live a violence-free existence. A society in which Islamic values of justice and “takaful” are practiced is one in which no child would suffer. Nor is it a society where people who knew of her plight would choose to stand by and look away, abandoning her to unspeakable suffering and death.
It is too late for nine-year-old Ghosun. It is not, however, too late for others, and the public can only hope — indeed it should insist — that Ghosun’s death was not in vain. Hopefully her story will generate enough attention to result in improvements to the system, greater public awareness, and greater national commitment to fight domestic violence and abuse.
What is so devastating about Ghosun’s death is not only that she suffered so much, and that she died so horribly, but that she died knowing that nobody came to her aid. If any good can come of this terrible incident, it must be that this never be allowed to happen again.
(Farah Daghistani is the Executive Director of the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development (JOHUD), a non-governmental, non-profit organization committed to promoting rights-based, sustainable development in Jordan and the Arab world. She lives between Jeddah and Amman.)
