RIYADH, 9 August 2007 — A breakdown of family values, lack of emotional support and misuse of polygamy, among other factors, have created a situation in which some 1.5 million Saudis are suffering from mental depression.
These shocking statistics were disclosed in the Saudi TV2 channel program on social issues in the Saudi society. The program, entitled “Life Stories,” features interviews with children and women who come from broken families with their lives shattered and a future that looks bleak.
It is conducted by Dr. Parisa Saed Al-Hashem, a clinical psychologist, who told Arab News that her TV feature on domestic violence and social abuse reflects the Saudi government’s keenness to allow such issues to go on the air for the first time in decades.
Every week the victims of domestic violence and divorcees are interviewed either in the studio or in their homes, where they speak to the channel’s staff with the voiceover in English. Later, Parisa takes up questions from the listeners who give their own analysis at the end of the interview.
Parisa, who has been running the feature since the beginning of this year, told Arab News that the “Life Stories” series has highlighted some stark facts of life in society.
“The breakdown in family values is the result of a toxic relationship in the family and lack of emotional support,” she said. “Also, there is a lack of social network in the society that could rise to the challenge in an emergency situation.”
Elaborating, she said there is no hotline for those in distress. If a woman knocks at the door of the police, they send her back to her husband’s home. As for children, they are referred to the child care centers, where they are sheltered, fed and clothed. But still they find an aching void in their lives which the creature comforts fail to bridge.
The crisis, she said, is the outcome of a “tunnel vision” that prevents a husband from looking anywhere except his own interest. “Customs and traditions have got mixed up with Islamic values. The provision of polygamy is being abused, as newspaper reports and my own interviews have borne out.”
In one such case telecast on the channel, a mother of nine children explains how her husband, who used to love her in the beginning, started neglecting her to the point where her 21-year-old son had to support her by dropping out of school.
“It is a pathetic story all the way. No woman would like to share her husband with another woman or women. But she has no choice except to accept the inevitable. Similarly, no child would like to see another woman in his/her father’s life. All are a silent witness to a saga of tragedy in their lives,” she said, adding: “What this society badly needs is education, education and more education, so that everyone is made aware of their rights, duties and responsibilities.”
Parisa said she hopes that the Saudi government’s initiative would rouse the conscience of the society in the interest of these hapless victims.
