http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=91761&d=5&m=2&y=2007
Monday, 5, February, 2007 (17, Muharram, 1428)
Women Seek King's Intervention in Fatima Case
Ebtihal Mubarak, Arab News
JEDDAH, 5 February 2007 - Fearing for the future of the rights of Saudi
women that are slowly being taken away from them in the name of Shariah after
an appeals court upheld the forceful divorce of Fatima and Mansour, a group of
Saudi women from across the Kingdom have launched a petition to be presented to
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
The petition urges the king to allow Fatima's case to be sent back to
court and to disregard the divorce ruling so that the family can be reunited.
The petition also calls for guidelines to ensure rejection of divorce cases
that are taken to court by parties other than husband and wife.
The plight of Fatima, 34, has been highly publicized and attracted the
sympathy of the Saudi public since details of the case first appeared last
year. Fatima's half-brother contends that Mansour misled the family about his
tribal background to win the family's consent to marry his sister.
Shariah law (Islamic law) does not prohibit a woman from marrying a man
of a different tribal background and therefore according to Islamic law, which
is the law of the Kingdom, Fatima's marriage was perfectly legal.
Fatima's husband, Mansour Al-Timani, 37, has repeatedly denied that he
lied about his tribal background. Fatima, who has two children from her
marriage to Mansour, has been in prison in Dammam since October with her
youngest child Suleiman, aged 1.
Fatima has refused to return to her family since she was arrested in
Jeddah for living with Mansour, who she had legally married with her father's
consent three years ago. The older child, Noha, two-years-old, is in her
father's custody and occasionally visits Fatima in prison.
According to the petition, Fatima's case is not unique. The petition also
calls on King Abdullah to intervene in the case of Rania Abou Al-Enin, a
physician based in the Eastern Province, whose father filed a lawsuit to
divorce her from her husband Saud Al-Khaledi.
"When the divorce is carried out with the couple's approval then this is
just the way it happens all over the world. But when the divorce is forced on
the couple with an order from a high court then that is a massive disaster,"
said human rights activist Fawziya Al-Ouyoni, one of the women behind the
petition and a member of the women's committee at the Dammam Literary Club.
Al-Ouyoni said the petition invites women from all over the Kingdom to
sign it as the recent happenings threaten the safety of the Saudi family.
Fatima's husband Mansour said he does not accept the appeals court ruling
and that he still considers Fatima as his wife.
"This ruling is a non-Islamic one and, therefore, I refuse to acknowledge
it. If her family wants to marry her to another man while we both still
consider ourselves married then there is nothing I can do. But God will be our
judge," he said.
Mansour argued that he recently heard of a similar case that took place
in the city of Unaizah in the Qasim region, north of Riyadh. A year ago, a
woman's brothers and father filed a lawsuit calling for her divorce claiming
that the husband was tribally incompatible.
"The appeals court in Riyadh disapproved the divorce ruling from the
court in Unaizah. Why did they not take this case which came after that one as
a legal precedent?" he asked.
Abdul Rahman Al-Lahem, the couple's lawyer, said there was only one way
out. "I'm going to write a letter to King Abdullah urging him to look into the
case. Once he is convinced by the details, he may then transfer the case to the
Higher Court Council to look at it one more time," he said, adding that the
Higher Court Council has the right to revoke or uphold an appeals court
decision.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
List owner : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
