ABHA: Princess Adela bint Abdullah has promised to draw the attention of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to the dilemma faced by the 10-year old Fatimah Dulaim Al-Aed Al-Qahtani, a girl declared illegitimate 10 years ago at the request of her mother’s husband.
The princess announced her decision to intervene in the girl’s case at a regional conference on child protection under way in Riyadh. Fatimah accompanied by her mother and four uncles was present at the conference.
They had arrived in Riyadh a month ago to draw attention to Fatimah’s plight.
The court in the southern town of Janoub Dhahran declared Fatimah as illegitimate though there was no evidence to prove it. The judge did not direct the father to prove that he was not her father by subjecting to modern methods, such a DNA test. Instead, the judge accepted a declaration under oath as conclusive evidence against his wife that the child was born out of adultery.
The mother was struggling to establish her fidelity saying her husband was the only man she had slept with and DNA tests on her 11 children would prove this.
