Saudi lawyer Khalid Abu Rashid said yesterday that he regularly received calls from women who complain about their husbands divorcing them or marrying other women after taking money from them to build family houses.
“All of them are working women, mostly teachers. The problem in all these cases is that these women do not document any financial dealings with their husbands,” Abu Rashid said. He urged women to keep proof of all money transactions with their husbands.
Women who attended the session raised questions on different issues concerning women, especially in relation to marriage, divorce, custody rights and child support. The event highlighted the women’s legal rights, which might not be recognized by the public and have been misused because of “general ignorance,” explained Abu Rashid.
According to Saudi law, which is based on Shariah, women can keep their children after divorce until the age of seven. Then, a boy can choose to stay with the mother or go to the father, while a daughter goes immediately to the father after the age of seven. However, custody has given rise to several problems because of delays in court procedures.
A woman who attended the course posed a question that highlighted the struggle women face, as a child below seven could remain with the father as long as the court delayed considering the case.
Hussein Al-Sharif, NSHR general supervisor in Makkah province, said, “We proposed legislation to speed up these cases and send it to the Council of Ministers. We also called on the Ministry of Social Affairs to contribute to solving the problem by studying each case individually so as to decide who should get custody of the children.”
Another heated topic discussed was marriage between Saudis and non-Saudis. A woman asked who should get custody of the children when a Saudi woman married to a non-Saudi man is divorced. Lawyer Abu Rashid answered that this was a complex matter, since the custody would be determined according to the legal system in the country of the father.
According to Al-Sharif, the NSHR has received a number of complaints from Saudi fathers who want to get back their children taken away by their mothers. “We are not against the right of people getting married to a person of their choice, but these kind of marriages create more problems,” said Al-Sharif.
The suspension of the legal guardian when he is preventing the woman from getting married was also highlighted, with Abu Rashid explaining that the judge could replace the legal guardian in such cases.
“The tribal compatibility is considered in marriages only if it is not harming the woman. It is not considered if it is delaying the marriage. The legal side of the issue can be solved, but the social effect of incompatible marriages could lead to serious complications,” he elaborated.
A woman who leaves her husband after a fight and goes with the children to her family does not get any financial aid from the husband. She gets it only after divorce and if she is keeping custody of any of their children, explained Abu Rashid, who received many questions about payment after divorce.
“If a woman keeps her children and pays for them but does not make a complaint about nonpayment from her ex-husband for a long time, she can still claim payment and reimbursement of what she had already spent on the children,” said Abu Rashid.
He added that he receives many complaints with regard to child support. “Some mothers complain that SR1,000 or SR500 is not enough to support their children. But the amount of payment depends on the income of the father and the judge has his discretion.”
According to Al-Sharif, the NSHR has proposed that a judge receives statements from each bank in the Kingdom to determine the amount.
“Some fathers tell the judge that they only earn SR3,000 in salary from the public sector job. However, they could be simultaneously working in the private sector and draw salaries as high as SR50,000 a month,” explained Al-Sharif.
