In a single day, wire services carried three items of news from Jeddah, New York and London. The three stories shared a common theme albeit with different characters and backgrounds. All three dealt with specific cases of child abuse and murder. The Jeddah story is as follows: The Jeddah court sentenced the father of Areej, the nine-year-old girl who was tortured to death, to death. His wife who was his accomplice received five years in jail. As Arab News reported last week, Areej died in the middle of last year and officials from the Red Crescent Society discovered her body outside her home and, suspecting she had been tortured, informed police.
Security agents then arrested Areej’s father and his second wife. The two later confessed to torturing the girl to death and said they had beaten her and pressed a hot iron on different parts of her body. The court gave its verdict after hearing both sides. The girl’s mother — who was divorced from her father — and her uncle appointed a lawyer to represent them in court. The National Society for Human Rights also followed on the case. On the same day of the Areej verdict, a court in New York sentenced a mother to 43 years in jail for failing to save and help her seven-year-old son who was tortured and starved by his father. The father was sentenced to 29 years in jail.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Britain was horrified by a similar case, just as shocking and tragic. The daily papers carried the story of Baby P — 17 months old — who was systematically beaten and tortured by his mother and her partner. The pictures of the baby were a daily item on all major TV programs and in newspapers. The case also was discussed at length with the emphasis on the role of social care in Britain. It turned out the baby had been seen by social workers and doctors who wrote reports on his various injuries. He was initially taken from his mother, but was later returned to her. The discussion continues in Britain with the Prime Minister Gordon Brown vowing to prevent any repeat of the case and Parliament looking at the matter as one of top priority.
No matter how we look at things, it seems that child abuse is a world problem with different countries dealing with their cases in their own way. It is interesting, however, to note that despite the measures taken and the severe punishments handed out, the problems do not end. So what is the solution?
In Saudi Arabia, the case of Ghosun, another child who was tortured to death by her father and his wife, is still very much in people’s minds. Although the Saudi courts treated the case with severity — both the child’s father and his wife were publicly beheaded — we still must wonder if severe punishment alone is going to prevent such things happening in future. The judge in the Ghosun case said in his verdict that there were increases in the number of cases of child torture, especially after the children’s parents are divorced.
In such cases either the father or the mother vents his/her anger against the partner and turns the anger toward the child. What can official bodies do in such situations? Create a social care organization that takes care of those children and keep an eye on all children in the Kingdom? And can society play a role? How about mosques and religious scholars?
As a society that heeds religious opinion, maybe it’s time our sheikhs and imams talked openly about, and addressed, this issue. Such things are an important part of their role and we would like to see our mosques dedicate weekly sermons to humane actions and humanitarian behavior, using examples from the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) life. Of course, mosques alone cannot prevent abuse; a wider initiative is needed in order to protect our children.
