The underage wife and her mother told their story to Arab News.
The mother said her own marriage ended in separation and she chose to stay with her daughter, away from her “eccentric” husband. “My estranged husband left us to face the unknown. Not only that, but he victimized his own daughter when he forced her to marry her cousin in order to settle old accounts with my father,” she said.
Amid tears, the mother told Arab News that her son-in-law, who was an AIDS patient, transmitted the fatal disease to her daughter.
“My husband knew very well that his nephew was not only an AIDS patient, but also a criminal who went to jail and lost his job for taking drugs,” she said.
The mother went on: “I received a telephone call from the prospective husband's parents, asking for my consent to marry my daughter to their son despite the fact that we were not on speaking terms. At that time, I had no idea about his sickness or criminal record, so I agreed and convinced my daughter, who was only 16, to marry him. I made all the necessary arrangements and took my daughter for a medical checkup at Hira General Hospital in Makkah, where she tested negative for HIV. The groom did his medical checks at the Qunfudah General Hospital, and he and my husband made my daughter sign the marriage contract without allowing her to read it, taking advantage of my absence. The marriage was concluded and my daughter was left to live with her sick husband in his hometown of Qunfudah.
“I remained constantly in contact with my daughter over the telephone. Every time she told me that her husband took her to hospital for tests, and he brought large quantities of medicines. My daughter said her husband told her that the medicines were for kidney failure.
“One day my daughter called me and she was crying. She told me that she accidentally found out that her husband was an AIDS patient. She came to know this when she heard him talking to one of his doctors. I immediately called him and asked him to stay away from my daughter. Instead, he took her to the Qunfudah General Hospital and seated her among a group of doctors, who told her that AIDS was not a serious disease and that it was just like diabetes and hypertension — something everyone can live with. The doctors made my daughter sign a pledge that she was fully aware of the disease and ready to face all consequences.”
The daughter intervened at this point to say that after she had signed the pledge, her husband took her home and had sexual intercourse with her repeatedly. “Then I became very weak and told my mother of what had happened.”
Her mother continued: “I took my daughter to Makkah for a medical test, which proved that she had contracted the devastating virus. I asked the husband's family to tell their son to divorce her, because she was in a very bad psychological condition and felt hatred toward her husband. When he refused to divorce her, I took the case to court, complaining against the physical and mental abuse inflicted on her by her husband. The judge turned our request down and, instead, asked us to pay the husband SR20,000 for a khula divorce.”
Supervisor of the NSHR in Makkah and member of the Shoura Council Sulaiman bin Awwad Al-Zaydi confirmed that the society received the complaint of the woman and was following the regular procedures. He said the society talked to the parties the women mentioned in her complaint and took the case to the officials concerned, who are now studying the case.
Lawyer and legal consultant Sultan Al-Harithy said the man did a great harm to his wife by concealing from her the nature of his disease. He said the wife had every legal right to ask for divorce and compensation.
The lawyer said the Qunfudah hospital was also to blame for not informing the woman about her husband's disease and not warning her about the seriousness of AIDS.
Spokesman of the Ministry of Health Faiq Hussain on his part said that if the woman was truthful in her allegations about the doctors at the Qunfudah hospital, she had every right to sue the hospital.
