MADINAH, 1 August 2007 — Yahya, Ida and Mariam are children of a Saudi married to a non-Saudi woman. Their father recently died of a heart attack leaving them with no citizenship, according to a report in yesterday’s Al-Madinah newspaper, which didn’t mention the nationality of the mother, the family name or the names of the parents.
While children of Saudi men married to foreign women are more easily made citizens than children of Saudi women married to non-Saudi men, the process still requires a lengthy bureaucratic procedure that involves fees.
Yahya, 18, speculated that his late father’s SR2,000-a-month salary was insufficient to allow him to afford the cost of ensuring citizenship to his three children.
“I don’t know why he didn’t get us our official documents, maybe because of his bad financial status,” said Yahya.
Because Yahya and his siblings are not Saudi citizens they cannot enroll in government schools and they cannot afford the huge fees at private institutions.
A friend of the family was quoted anonymously by Al-Madinah newspaper as saying that the father’s family has ostracized the kids and the mother fearing they will seek their help. The mother and kids now live with the woman’s cousins.
The mother said her husband traveled a lot, which she says is why he never bothered to go through the official procedures of attaining citizenship for his children.
“He died last year leaving us in a miserable condition,” she said, adding that without proof of citizenship they cannot access the father’s 112 months worth of insurance benefits.
“My children can’t go to school and charity organizations have refused to help us,” she said. “No one empathizes with us. I am asking authorities to look into our case. I fear that my children, especially Yahya, might develop psychological problems.”
The National Society for Human Rights office in Madinah showed concern regarding the issue. Muhammad Al-Aufi, a member of the group, told the newspaper that his organization does indeed help out people with different situations and that it is willing to help this family.
Al-Aufi didn’t elaborate except to mention a different case of a family in a similar situation that the NSHR recently helped out.
The case involved seven children whose father didn’t get government permission to marry their foreign mother who was eventually deported. Al-Aufi didn’t say what exactly the NSHR did to help this family.
Intermarriages between Saudis and non-Saudis often occur without consideration of the legal and cultural complexities that sometimes end up revoking such marriages.
According to Abdullah Al-Hamoud, chairman of Awasser, a Saudi charity that looks after the welfare of Saudi families abroad, the Kingdom protects the rights of children from marriages between Saudi men and non-Saudi women.
Recently the Shoura Council approved legislation granting citizenship to foreign-born women married to Saudi men, as well as widows of deceased Saudis.
