It's a tragic tale of a woman who undergoes persecution at the hands of her abusive husband, who repeatedly exploited her, mistreated her and, the worst of all, refuses to accept his fatherhood with his only son.

Umm Mohammad, persistently abused by her ex-husband before being finally divorced, is now in a legal wrangle where she is battling to prove her son's paternity.

“I was forced to marry my ex-husband,” Umm Mohammad told local media while narrating her years of suffering at the hands of her husband.

“I hadn’t even turned 20 at the time and got pregnant three months after the marriage.”

“When he found out I was pregnant, he started beating me up and abusing me verbally. He even forced me to take medicine that was unfit for human consumption.”

“He eventually told me he had divorced me and that the divorce had been finalized at a Yanbu court the month before, but continued to live with me under the same roof,” she said.

“After I received the divorce deed, I moved to my family’s house, but he soon called me to say that he wants me back and that he was sorry for all the pain he caused me.” “I believed him and we lived in an apartment and then moved to a hotel. During that time, he subjected me to all kinds of physical and psychological torture.”

“He used to beat me up and threatened to publish my photos with him in his house. He even said he would tell the world that the baby wasn’t his if I didn’t abort.”

“I ran away to Yanbu to file a complaint against him. I then filed a complaint with the human rights office in Madinah. The case was referred to the Bureau of Investigation and Public Prosecution,” she added.

“I eventually gave birth to my son, Mohammad, who was born with a heart problem as a result of the herbs I forced to take.”

“He was underdeveloped and required open heart surgery,” she continued.

Ali Al-Mohammadi, director-general of Madinah’s maternity hospital, has appealed to the Madinah governorate to issue an ID for the child and has demanded coordination between the Ministry of Interior, Yanbu governorate, human rights commission and the child’s father to be able to treat the child and provide him with a bed in the hospital, but the man refused to acknowledge his son and failed to show up.

Madinah Gov. Faisal bin Salman sent a telegram to the Yanbu governor to oblige the child’s father to issue a birth certificate, but the directive has yet to be carried out.

Umm Mohammad, however, said her son has no national ID, accusing authorities of refusing to carry out the directives issued by the area’s governor, confirming that her son has not received any treatment either.

She called on authorities to punish her husband and force him to acknowledge the child through DNA testing.

Omar Al-Azeibi, the legal adviser, said the father should acknowledge his son, who will remain his kin no matter how much he denies it.

He confirmed that authorities would carry out tests to prove the child’s paternity.

Al-Azeibi added that the father should be punished for slander and for forcing his wife to take medicine that almost killed her and the baby.