JEDDAH, 7 May 2006 — A 12-year-old girl was admitted to hospital in Jeddah with severe physical injuries allegedly resulting from domestic abuse, Al-Watan newspaper reported yesterday. According to the girl, the perpetrator was her stepmother.
“Sarah has broken teeth and marks of kicks and blows all over her body, and she is in a state of terror and tension,” said the girl’s grandmother, who is a social worker in Jeddah.
Sarah’s mother, whom her father divorced seven years ago, learned of the alleged abuse after the girl was allowed to visit her. The mother said she went to the police when she found signs of abuse on her daughter. Police took the girl to hospital.
Sarah described her ordeal to the newspaper.
“While my father went out for dawn prayers a couple of days ago, my stepmother pushed me to the wall with such force that my teeth broke. Then she locked me up in the maid’s room to keep my injuries from my father. She threatened me with severe punishment if I told any one about this or other things that she did to me,” Sarah said.
Following their mother’s divorce, her three children — Sarah and her two brothers — lived with their grandmother. When the mother remarried, their father took the children away to stay with him.
When the mother learned that the children had a very hard time at their father’s house she petitioned the courts for custody. Though the lower court rejected her plea, the court of appeals permitted the oldest of the children to stay with the mother because he expressed his desire to leave his father’s home.
Sarah and the other brother remained in their father’s custody, but the mother was granted visitation rights. The father ignored the visitation order until police intervened.
After discovering the signs of abuse, the mother said she refused to send her daughter back to her ex-husband’s household.
Samir Al-Faisal, a legal consultant, said the woman will be allowed the child’s custody if she succeeds in convincing the court that the father is not competent to take up the children’s responsibility.
She can submit police statements, medical reports and witness testimony to win her case, Al-Faisal said.
