Custodial dad finally loses custody of 9-year-old son--after he beats him with electrical wires, electric iron (Taif, Saudi Arabia)

It is no secret that mothers--and women in general--have virtually no rights in Saudi Arabia. It's a veritable father's rights paradise--a place where a father's "ownership" of his children is practically sacrosanct. And a mother's rights--as spelled out under Sharia law--are limited to mere physical custody of children under the age of 7. And not always even then.


This is the kind of treatment that children get as a result. The police do nothing to investigate or prosecute child support, because as men, they wouldn't dream of challenging another man's "right" to "discipline" (torture) his child. This mother had to approach the National Society for Human Rights to get custody back.


Unfortunately, under the influence of the religious right and fathers rights groups in the west, we are seeing more and more cases like this in Canada, the USA, Australia, and other places outside the Middle East.


http://arabnews.com/saudiarabia/article198419.ece


NSHR rescues boy
By SULEIMAN AL-DIYABI ARAB NEWS

Published: Nov 23, 2010 00:33 Updated: Nov 23, 2010 00:33

TAIF: A nine-year-old Palestinian boy was taken from his father’s custody after his mother informed the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) that he was being abused.

The child’s parents, both Palestinians, divorced some time ago. The custody of the boy was then given to the father who then moved from Taif to live in Madinah.

It was during a visit to Madinah that the mother noticed marks on her son who said his father was beating him up with electric wires and an electric iron. The mother complained to police who questioned the father. In his defense, the father said he was merely disciplining the child and the police failed to act further.

Dissatisfied by the police’s inaction, the mother complained to the NSHR branch in Taif about the matter. Adel Al-Thubaity, an official with the NSHR, took the matter to court, which decided to award the child to the mother because of the abuse.