கணவன் வேறுஜாதி என்பதால் விவாகரத்து செய்விக்கப்பட்ட பெண் தற்கொலை முயற்சி

கணவன் கீழ் ஜாதியை சேர்ந்தவர் என்பதால் மனைவியையும் குழந்தைகளையும் பிரித்து அவர்களுக்கு கட்டாய விவாகரத்து கொடுத்த சவுதி அரசாங்கத்தை பற்றியும், இந்த தம்பதியினர் அல்திமானியை பற்றியும் முன்னரே எழுதியிருந்தேன்.

இந்த பெண்மணி பாத்திமா அல்திமானி, குழந்தைகளையும் கணவனையும் பிரிந்து இருக்கும் சோகத்தில் தற்போது தற்கொலை புரிந்துகொள்ள முயற்சி செய்திருக்கிறார்

இப்படிப்பட்ட குரூரமான இஸ்லாமிய ஷாரியாவை விட்டு, அமைதிமார்க்கமான இந்துமதம் வர அரபுக்களை அழைப்போம்.

Forcefully Divorced Fatima Threatens Suicide
Ebtihal Mubarak, Arab News

JEDDAH, 22 December 2007 — Human rights activist Fawziya Al-Oyoni said that Fatima, the 34-year-old woman who was forcefully divorced from her husband by a judge in 2005 at the request of her half-brothers, called her in a state of panic threatening to commit suicide late Thursday night.

Fatima spent Eid in a women’s shelter in Dammam with her two-year-old son. Most of the staff at the shelter went home for the holidays.

“She told me ‘please come and take my child, I have to end my life tonight. I can’t take this anymore’,” said Al-Oyoni, recounting the phone conversation. She said Fatima asked her to pick up the boy, Suleiman, and deliver him to his father. “‘I’m tired,’ she said. ‘I’m just tired. Please come right away’.”

Al-Oyoni, who is based in the Eastern Province, said she fears that Fatima’s mental state is cracking under an ordeal that started when her father passed away. Objecting to what they considered her husband’s low tribal background, Fatima’s half-brothers asked a local court to divorce the couple even though they had been married for over two years and had children.

The judge agreed. The couple fled and were later arrested in Jeddah where they were seeking help from officials. Fatima and her children spent some time in a women’s prison and when she refused to go back to her family the state sent her to the women’s shelter.

“I was literally shaking when I received her call,” said Al-Oyoni yesterday in an interview with Arab News. “She’s had rough days before, but this time it was different; she sounded determined to kill herself. She was screaming.”

Al-Oyoni said she contacted an official at the governmental Human Rights Commission on Thursday night requesting that they provide Fatima with a psychiatrist. “They told me to try to calm her down and tell her that they’re working on the case,” she said.

Fatima’s 37-year-old husband said yesterday that he fears his wife (he still considers her his wife) is breaking down under the stress. “She was always the strong and very much stubborn in fighting for her rights,” he said. “She’s wearing out.”

Al-Oyoni has now sent a letter to a high official (Arab News is withholding this name due to the sensitivity of the case) explaining Fatima’s mental state and her current situation.

Al-Oyoni said she’s asking this official to present Fatima’s case to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah hoping he might intervene.

Hussein Al-Sharif, head of the National Society of Human Rights (NSHR) in the Western Province and a law professor at King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, told Arab News last week that since the Court of Cassation upheld the lower court’s verdict in January reversing the decision would require royal intervention.

A study by the NSHR was presented to the king in September that concluded the divorce ruling is invalid based on Islamic law.

Fatima was not answering her phone yesterday. Speaking to Arab News last week she said life in the women’s shelter is much like a prison.

She is limited in how much she is allowed to venture out and is monitored. “The social workers say they fear my half brothers would see me outside,” she said.

Adding to the stress, Fatima has said that she receives hateful SMS messages from her half-siblings. She provided Arab News with one that read: “We are highly connected with officials. You’re not getting anywhere by what you are doing you (expletive). You have no choice but to come back to us. Forget about your husband, the slave.”

Al-Oyoni said she was able to contact Fatima yesterday. “She sounded a bit better today, but I’m still very much concerned about her safety and that of her child,” said Al-Oyoni.