RIYADH: Fatima (not her real name) only discovered she was married when her aunt tried to admit her into a rehabilitation program in Jizan.
Fatima, who is mentally and partially physically disabled, was married off by her father to a man she had never met for money.
“Nine years ago, when Fatima was 14, she was in a car crash in which she sustained an injury to her brain, leaving her in a coma. When she came out of coma she had suffered memory loss and paralysis in one side of her body,” Fatima’s aunt told Arab News, requesting her and her niece’s names not be published. The aunt said that she and her older sister have been caring for Fatima, her two sisters and three brothers following their mother’s death six years ago. She added that before her death, Fatima’s mother enrolled her into a rehabilitation program.
“It was when I tried to readmit her in the program in Jizan that I discovered that she was married. The rehabilitation center requested a new paper saying Fatima was no longer on her father’s family card according to their database but on ‘her husband’s’ family card,” said the aunt.
The aunt added that she was able to find out Fatima’s “husband’s” name and workplace. “We then filed a complaint at a court and a police station in the Makkah area, but no action was taken,” she said, adding that she pursued Fatima’s rights for four years, arguing back and forth with her father, who did not care for her, especially since she was now no longer getting welfare benefits.
The father was, subsequently, arrested in relation to another case and so the aunt filed a case with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) in Jeddah a year ago.
“The HRC questioned the father in prison where he admitted marrying Fatima off without her consent and for taking advantage of her situation,” she said. She added that, Saad, the man who was recorded as Fatima’s husband and who lives in Dhahran, then divorced Fatima, allowing her to regain her rights.
Bandar Al-Iban, president of the HRC, said in a press release that official bodies, including Saad’s employer, cooperated with each other in committing him to respond to the complaint.
Al-Iban also said that Saad said he is married to a woman from the Empty Quarter and that he has two sons with her and so paid Fatima’s father so he could give Fatima’s identity to his wife. The HRC then forced Saad 0to divorce Fatima, remove her from his family card and hand her a dowry, now delayed.
