Saudi children left behind

THIS IS THE title of a website crated by a group of foreign women that are mothers to children who have been abandoned by their Saudi fathers. The website holds a lot of letters, photographs, and videos documenting the life that these Saudi fathers had lived with them before fleeing back to their country and leaving a perplexed and grieving family behind.
I’m sure that many of us are not at all shocked at the stories on the website, since we often hear about a friend or a cousin that was involved in such activities.
The amazing thing is finally we see a group of people talking about it publicly instead of whispering about such a taboo issue. Demanding in loud and clear voices the rights of many Saudi children that are forgotten for reasons they are innocent of.
There are hundreds of cases brought every year to Saudi courts regarding abandoned Saudi children. Many of them get turned down, because evidence supporting their claims such as DNA tests, are rarely considered in Saudi courts.
Firm governmental laws and strict social traditions regarding marriage to foreigners make it hard for Saudi fathers to come forward and claim their children and bring them to live in Saudi Arabia.
This is not an excuse for this unforgivable behavior, but an important factor in a complicated situation. It’s not just the legislative and social issues that we should be concerned with. There is the human factor, which we all could be involved in — by giving the subject the attention it deserves and sheading a brighter light on the hardships faced by families left behind by Saudi fathers, and there are many such examples.
A great example is a member of the Saudi Shoura Council, Najeeb Al Zamil, is involved very deeply in cases regarding abandoned Saudi children abroad.
He is the founder of Back to the Roots Association, established in 2004 to help in uniting these abandoned children with their Saudi families. Other Saudi civil organizations were established to provide financial assistance to Saudi children outside Saudi Arabia and give legal and social consultations to their families.
I believe it would be appropriate to end with a few words from a letter sent by one of the mothers to her Saudi Husband:
“I want to tell you that I and my son are grateful to God that sent good people to help us to overcome our ordeal. I am very concerned about people like you that can abandon an innocent child in this world without feeling any kind of remorse or regret.”

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