TABUK: Princess Adela bint Abdullah has lent her support to the National Family Safety Program’s (NFSP) awareness campaign in Tabuk. A forum on family safety and domestic violence has been prepared and planned by the King Abdul Aziz Charitable Association, in collaboration with the National Family Safety Program, to take place at the Prince Salman Center.
The forum is to be held to define domestic violence, child abuse and neglect. It also views the social phenomenon from a judiciary and security prospective.
Princess Adela underscored the role of media, government and educational establishments in raising public awareness toward the issue. “It is the responsibility of all government and private sectors, policemen, judges, lawyers, teachers and of course media to fight violence against women and children through preaching and educating families,” said Princess Adela.
The princess said one in every six women is abused verbally, physically or emotionally every day. She added that 90 percent of abusers are men, usually husbands or fathers.
“This is not a small number and needs to be fully considered,” said Princess Adela. “The National Family Safety Program’s aim is to clearly set a number of objectives and work hard to support the victims socially and psychologically. Child abuse is increasing in the Arab world.” Abdulla Al-Shireef, secretary-general of King Abdul Aziz Charitable Association, mentioned that the Saudi society is still unable to understand the true concept of violence.
Maha Al-Muneef, executive director of the NFSP said that the abuse of women and children is a very broad issue.
“We need to define it first as an act against humanity at first and then a crime against society,” said Al-Muneef. “In specific, sexual abuse against children does exist in our country, however, not being often spoken about because of our conservative societies.”
“Through the NFSP, we try to talk to both the victims and those who victimized them in order to make the criminal aware of his crime and to teach the victim to know when exactly to take a self-defense action,” said Al-Muneef.
“Some studies show that people who were abused as children are vulnerable to social, psychological and health problems. They most likely develop coronary diseases, hypertension, diabetes and depression. So the NFSP, is not just raising these slogans, but working to build a society where all women and children, have enough self-confidence to defend themselves and report abuse.”
